US still uses checks??

PSA that Ally bank provides free standard checks (not duplicates, but these days you can just snap a photo for records)

Possible other banks do too.

5 Likes

I need a new printer as well. So yes I can obtain a new printer and printer paper. I have no idea why I never thought about just buying check paper.

You might also ask at your bank even if they don’t advertise…if yo’ure paying for daycare monthly it might not be enough, but mine was happy to print me a couple pages of sample checks and I think I still have seven of the ten left.

2 Likes

I haven’t written a check myself since last summer when we got the driveway paved. But I go online and tell my bank to write one and send it in the snail mail every month because I like having running water in the house. I could also write and mail it myself, but the bank does it for free.

Oh, and again every quarter for our trash pickup service.

5 Likes

Moved stuff here because it was 24 posts on the meme thread

13 Likes

I have checks with Disney villains on them and I almost exclusively write them for wedding gifts :joy:

8 Likes

I still carry a checkbook, but I do everything I can to charge everything on our cash rewards credit card (which we pay off every month to avoid paying interest). I think the mortgage is the only bill we have that we can’t pay with a credit card. After getting a piano, I now have 2 regular Venmo vendors - both piano related (tuner, teacher). I’m on board with saving them the transaction fee. If they charge me the transaction fee, it cancels out the cash reward on the purchase, so I’d rather use Venmo or Zelle for the rare instance of small business transactions.

3 Likes

Lol I still write checks. Maybe once a month? Any tradespeople usually give us a 3-5% discount for paying by check.

It’s a very silly and insecure system but it’s what we’ve got.

4 Likes

I really wish we had a secure system of instant bank debits via our banking system like… almost every other country… versus weird third parties companies with very few protections. But also hate Zelle and Venmo are so much better than checks where my whole ass bank information is just out there in the raw

9 Likes

This made me giggle

3 Likes

I know! I used to think nothing of writing 20 checks a month and scattering them everywhere! All my info just out there, yes, and also - having such a casual relationship to my carbons/ledger that I rarely had a good idea of how much money in my account was radioactive. My present self is horrified at my young self’s financial tightrope walking.

1 Like

Landlords! I’ve had multiple landlords who only accepted checks. And I had to MAIL them sometimes too.
ETA this was in the past 10 years, not in the 1980s lol

3 Likes

I was very specific about my checkbook register but I used to pay for groceries??? With checks??? despite working in grocery and knowing how many low paid employees hands have access to that and it has my PHONE and ADDRESS plus my bank acct number

(I still have checks all the time for my business and yes I have gotten ACH fraud on my
Business account twice now and changing your business checking account number is a pain in the ass)

4 Likes

Yea I had a friend whose older private landlord wanted to find an electronic payment system for her but couldn’t find something that wouldn’t charge a payment fee and would work with a business account. She had to keep using her bank’s “auto send check” account

3 Likes

in Canada we have Interac e-transfer, but it has a 5k daily limit, and iirc 10k weekly. And for the renovation, they will take that, wires, or a check if one gives it 2 weeks to clear. We have two accounts that can send e-transfers, so double that limit.

I get the desire to have things not bounce, but I am also not thrilled about having to pay for so many wires. Also don’t want to give the credit card companies the 3% handling fee for something so big, so I understand the companies not wanting that either. I’m told Europe has a better system.

4 Likes

You can call for an override. Especially if you call a few days before to confirm and then complete it. Or you could 6 years ago with Tangerine. There’s a rise in fraud so maybe not?

2 Likes

We only have savings with Tangerine, not chequing, so no e-transfer there. We might end up opening more accounts?

1 Like

I knew banking companies account for most of our sharemarket but I didn’t realise the USA has been stagnant and getting even further behind?

Confused in Australian
I am 35. I have been doing bank debits pretty much since I got my own acces to my bank account? So. 20 years?!

Further confused in Australian
Like you’ve mentioned this before but OMG what is the banks in the USA doing?!?! Like I can hand out my bank details no problem because nobody can use that to get money off me?!

4 Likes

Right?! How do you give decent last-minute wedding gifts without checks? Stuff a wad of cash into the card? I do not have any convenient ATMs to do that with anyway.

I also recently paid a medical bill with a check because it came via paper mail with no pay online option. That was a weird one. I guess it’s also weird that I feel fine sending a check but less fine writing out my credit card info to send through the mail. That I will admit is probably an old-person thing (as in I learned it from my mother).

8 Likes

my mother used to give cash or cheques to her grandkids for Christmas.

Now she asks them quietly if they received her e-transfer (which of course means that none of them sent a thank-you email that morning)

7 Likes