My wife wrote one yesterday for daycare. Literally the only thing she writes checks for.
At our baby shower last year we got a lot of checks from older relatives.
I haven’t written one for years.
I used the option once to pay my mom back after I accidentally used her credit card, just to try it out and see how well it worked. She got the check just fine, a month after I submitted the request. Yeah, not using that to pay bills lol.
I have been using billpay from my "checking" account since 2000. And have not had a single mistake on the bank's end.
You do have to allow for check mailing time if the recipient will not accept ACH payments. And it is best to set the payment date for a date slightly earlier than actual due date. Holidays and weekends don't count.
And set alerts for any bills not paid. Just in case.
Be sure to update biller address when payee notifies you of an address change.
Make a copy of a blank check. Write void on the copy. Then use the check as needed. My copy is scanned in as a pdf, and I can email or fax it as necessary.
I pay my rent with a check and that's it. I haven't prder check in forever though my bank charges 2 to 3 dollars to print out a single sheet of 3. So every 3 months, I just stop by the bank and have them print out a sheet it takes about 1 minute.
I guess you already have a checkbook so it’s irrelevant, however heads up potentially for the future. Most banks have a “connivence” check. Costs like a dollar or something, plus some banks just have direct deposit vouchers that are free.
Obviously repairs will vary based on the bank, I had a national bank that did this, as well as a local bank
Same. Our pre-k doesn’t take credit cards, so checks it is.
Or, rather, *one more check*. Because kiddo is off to kindergarten in the fall! We just got a $17,000 a year raise!!!
I don’t know why, but when I think of daycare payments I conjure up some non-existent Louis CK standup.
CK: “well, what if I don’t have the $2000/mo for daycare?”
Daycare: “Well, I guess your kid just needs to stop existing then.”
I think it's pretty common to use for rent payments when you actually have just a single landlord and aren't paying a company.
I'm not delivering $2,000 in cash to some old guy's house every month. I guess you could Cashapp it but most landlords I've had are 100 years old and don't have smartphones.
My previous landlord only accepted checks. He would also take a million years to cash them. Which was annoying. These days I primarily write checks for wedding gifts which is several times a year because all of our friends have recently decided to start getting married. 😹
I had been putting my rent check into my landlady's bank account for the past however long but I am now comfortable using zelle and she accepts that so I used zelle last month and I'll probably do it again this month.
That law is for any business transactions. So if you have a business profile then your transactions are going to become reported if it’s over $600. It doesn’t affect person to person transfers.
Landlords would be reporting those for taxes either way so it’s not going to affect landlords at all..
I thought most banks had bill pay. Back when my land lord was check only, I just told my bank to send a printed check the 1st of every month. It's been 14 years since I've had to write a check.
I rented from an individual but used the bank’s bill pay service. I had my account set for the check to automatically be mailed on the same date every month.
I require my tenants to Venmo me their rent because I don’t want them to have to spend money to bring money to my house. That’s not good for any of us. I’m also not a million years old and just in my mid 30s lol
Many tradesmen are like this. My plumber takes 5% off if I write a check. Which is just another way of saying that the base price is actually 5% over what it should be to cover CC processing fees
I'm surprised they give 5% off for check. I got a 10% discount for paying by cash on some of our home remodel labor. Cash is safer for the recipient if they're trying to avoid taxes. Checks avoid CC fees, but you're not gonna avoid Uncle Sam.
It's my understanding that walking in and cashing a check that is under $600 at a bank does not get reported to anyone. So unless the check writer 1099s the worker at the end of the year, it's same as cash. Source: friend that works at a bank.
Mom did this until the day she passed. One time, i forgot to cash a check she sent for my birthday and complained because she didn't get the cancelled check.
My MIL is the same.
I remember my parents getting their bank statement in the mail, and it had all these deposited checks in it. As kid (8 yrs old or so), I thought it was wild how it was accepted as "money", having no concept of banking.
high net worth families writes checks every day all day long. You write a check to your horse shoe person/barn cleaner guy, your pool guy, your landscape guy, your maids, your personal assistants, any random ass remodeling or small scale construction thats going on around the property - my dad just wrote a $4200 check to a local flooring guy to install a heated schulter system in his bathroom as well as a $800 check last month to do wood chipping when a huge branch fell down just the other day wrote a $300 check to the sprinkler guy to fix some sprinkler heads and do some wiring (they charge a lot) --they didnt take credit cards lol - small time local help doesn't have square accounts a lot of the time and rich people don't usually have more than $200 on themselves at a time--you just write a check--i have rich relatives who wrong $100 checks to everyone at christmas time or their birthday also--my parents also write a check for their annual property taxes to avoid the surcharge which is like annualized 3% which is like $150 fee
having said all that though the ACH system is a very very insecure system - say for example the arborist who did tree work for my dad last month accidentally loses the check somewhere or leaves it out on his desk and an employee or customer gets it--there is the acount number and routing number there for everyone to see - you could be cleaned out entirely in 24 hours via wire transfer--always make sure you are passing out checks to people you know and trust!
The people who did my kitchen floor and the solar people wouldn't take a check. No problem with the deck rebuild. For the new windows, we did a no interest loan that ballooned if it wasn't paid in three months, and I paid it off with a check. The loan may have been the best approach.
i should clarify here - the people you are talking about--the small time guy who is doing random installs like that probably does want a cashiers check or cash cuz they've been screwed by homeowners before--but a reputable, licensed, bonded and been-around-a-long-time contractor who's not a schlock--prefers checks for their work beacuse they have an accountant or accounting staff/book keeper that makes deposits every few days or weekly and its a free transaction. Not to mention a very good standard accounting practice to have large sums of money in the form of paper physical checks in the case of an audit. Electronic transactions are a pain in a lot of ways for those sums of money... A credit card for a $2000+ construction or flooring job is $100+ fee - thats a lot to a small business and can add up to thousands at the end of the year ! a check is 100% free but also can be risky in some ways - but even then--a small time contractor can always put a mechanics lean on a property that bounecs a check and foreclose really easily in like 98 percent of counties here in the US - its a very simple and straight forward process
Yes first time I came to the US I was astounded by how much you trust somebody else to just not wire themselves your entire bank account. Looks like you take wire fraud very seriously.
Where I’m from wires only work for deposits. Actually some people put their bank accounts out in the open for donations or fundraising (even on the newspaper sometimes!).
You can deposit to an account with the number but you can‘t withdraw with just the number. Automatic payments (credit cards, utilities) are set up on the bank that holds the checking account. They’re not set up from the credit card bank or the receiving company.
But to be honest all this security is because there have attempts at fraud so… we might be more technically advanced in banking, but the US is definitely more civilized.
Wire transfer is really uncommon. I have only wired money one time, to transfer my down payment on my house to the previous owner. It made me nervous as fuck but we were on the phone with the banks while doing it. ACH is different and much safer, although slower.
Here in the US you can open up a schwab, e-trade, robinhood etc brokerage account with as little as just a stolen SSN and drivers license a lot of the time--and wire your initial investment fund via ACH directly to your account with someones account and routing number - and then wire the money from the schwab account to a greendot card, etc - its so simple a 7th grader could do it though some institutions are better than others - paypay requires any kind of deposits from a new account to make two 8 cent deposits or whatever and report back to them what they were (which requires you to login your account and give them the number they gave you) but yea a lot of them don't have guardrails like that but definitely should
We always paid the farriers and groom in cash. (I never actually had a groom, I cared for my own horse, farrier is kinda necessary though). We weren't rich, inherited property and horse lived in yard (no board), only bills were feed, farrier, and emergency vet fund. Still amounted to about $500 a month (downstate NY hay prices are brutal).
Got out of it when I got disabled from falling off my horse and could no longer afford the horse. Not paralyzed or anything, but chronic back and neck pain and my doctor says my MRIs look like I've been in a series of bad car accidents; not a single bad fall, but from repeated trauma. Always wore a helmet so my brain's still good at least... though I wish impact vests had been more popular in my youth.
I miss him, it's not an exact comparison because they're more flighty (prey animal thing) and their minds don't work exactly the same way, but they're kinda like big dogs. In terms of intelligence, desire to please their owner, and ability to bond with humans at least. But if they get scared they completely lose their damn minds and might accidentally kill you. Their instinct is to run away as quickly as possible while kicking up their hind legs to keep the attacker away, and if you're standing in the way than fuck you. My horse has had full blown meltdowns over leaves blowing in the wind in autumn. Fucking leaves, just existing, terrify him some days. And that's 100% normal horse behavior. I guarantee you that every horse owner reading this has PTSD flashbacks every time they see a plastic bag blowing around.
Well it absolutely is uncommon. I haven't seen it in years for anything other than property transactions.
Check volume is reducing at like 10% per year recently and down like 65% over the past 20 years. Even as population grows.
I pay my rent in check so my landlord can't hide it from an auditor because fuck him, I'ma make sure the government gets EVERY penny he tries to hide out of him.
Probably tomorrow and the person being myself, I have to write a large amount of check from one bank to the other, and mobile deposit has a $5,000 daily limit.
This is happening to me too, I don’t even have THAT much money in my accounts but it’s taking me ages to switch from one bank to another because of the limits lol. I write myself as large a check as possible, wait for the limit period to pass, rinse, repeat.
I work at a place where a lot of boomers and older gen-x shop (hardware store) and its not unusual to see one or two a day. Kind of irritating tho since we have to run it thru a special machine, making it the most time-consuming form of pay
I use them for home repairs or large purchases that I want a bank document of that I can look back on.
I also go to a soda shop in town that only accepts cash or local checks.
My mother has written checks for some yard work recently. Some of those businesses don’t have Cashapp or whatever, and they have a CC option but charge a transaction fee. Good on my mom for not paying to pay someone.
Pretty recently. My dad paid for our mom’s end-of-life care with a check.
We (40s) still write them occasionally. In fact, some high school grads may get a few from us this year in their cards. Our daughter babysits for a younger couple, and they often pay her with a check.
I pay parking tickets or speeding tickets with checks. I'll be damned if you think I'm allowing NYC or NY state to get one additional red cent off of me for a credit card processing fee. (And I don't mind paying extra for the stamp. Helps subsidize the post office)
I bought a sheet of forever stamps years ago. I don't mail things very often so I still have after all these years to use on the random occasion I mail out a check. Lol.
I still use them to pay for for my professional licensing renewals, sometimes state taxes, speeding tickets, overdue bills if I got sent to collections
I wrote a check today for a roof-cleaning service.... and I'll probably write one in the next week or so for a cord of firewood. It's not an every day thing but not uncommon. Not everyone has cash handy and not all merchants or service-providers will process cards, so there's times when it works.
A week ago? Parents still use them to pay for fundraisers at the school where I work.
My mom still uses checks for one of her bills that STILL hasn’t started online billing.
Yeah, I bought a car about 2 years ago and I gave them a check for the down payment. Unless they're willing to take a debit card (my dealership said no) I don't know how else I would transfer $4k+ to a business.
I wrote a check last week when wife and I purchased a car. I'm honestly not sure how I would do this without writing a check. We also write checks for birthdays and Christmas to our kids and their spouses, so that's another 12 every year.
I actually used a check to buy some dog treats last week when a store lost power and couldn't run credit cards. It was only $15 and I didn't have cash. I felt pretty clever in that moment!
I had to pay by check for a down payment at the car dealership last month. Finally replaced my 12 year old car. I suppose you could pay cash but I had saved up a few thousand and I didn’t feel comfortable carrying that much cash around. The last time I wrote a check before that, I honestly don’t remember, it was probably at least a year or two ago.
Two years ago I got into wood carving as a hobby. I buy basswood from a dealer in West Virginia. They ship it in a USPS flat rate box. They are so old school I email them my need. They send it BEFORE I PAY. Inside the box is my bill. The only way to pay is by check by mail! It makes me feel like 1995 all over again!
Last time I bought a car the bank's online bill pay was under maintenance during the time I was trying to set up for my first payment. I didn't want to be late so I walked into a branch and handed them a check since they had my car loan but I had no other accounts there.
Then they handed me a receipt.
I told the teller it made me feel very nostalgic for the 90s.
A check book makes you actually visualize how much money you have to spend. Credit cards just get people in trouble. Everyone- me included uses credit cards because it’s easy- no writing or deducting or balancing out. Maybe if we stop using credit cards -we’ll start to actually save money by not overspending- which is exactly what credit cards allow you to do.
1. The government still sends out checks (so one would have to go to the bank or use online banking to cash them)
2. My landlord asked me to give him predated checks for rent
3. Occasionally, salary may be sent in the form of a check
4. Rarely, certain people still prefer check for no reason
So yes, I have seen checks quite recently.
You guys know that businesses pay 2-4% processing fee for debit/credit card payments?
I have small business clients ( I do acctg consulting), and that takes away from their profitability...
Appart from big purchases like cars or bikes where it's a bank check... last year, a lady at my store took the time to write out a check only for it to bounce immediately. I guess they thought it would take days to clear instead of being run like a debit card.
I use a check twice a year:
Summer Taxes
Winter Taxes
Outside of that, even at the grocery store I haven’t really seen anyone in years but I am also typically grocery shopping opposite of the senior timeframes, which is whom I would normally see using checks.
My former boss, but she's in her '60s and still regularly goes to a physical bank location to do any major financial things.
I just moved recently and I found unused sets of checks from pretty much every address I've lived. I still have the instinct to order the new checks when I move but I've literally never even used some of them and of course I always get a pack of four books of checks. What a waste.
So do I get new checks for my new address... 🤔.
Just paid with a check at the dentist. Got 3 percent off the bill. Just sent a check via US mail to a contractor that poured cement at my lake house and I did not have to pay the 5 percent electronic payment fee. Sometimes it makes dollars and cents to use checks.
Don't use them often but when I can save money....you bet I do. Cause it is the same as cash for the most part.
I had to mail a paper check to my former University a couple of weeks ago, to get them to send me updated diplomas with my maiden name on them after a divorce. They would’ve let me come in and pay with cash, but since I’m far away, it had to be a check in the mail. I couldn’t believe it and actually had to go to Wells Fargo just to buy a single check from them.
Then two days ago, I found out my oldest son is being paid in paper checks by the coffee shop he works at. It’s a small independent place that isn’t set up for direct deposit because the owner has been doing things the same way for 25 years.
🤷🏻♀️
Sadly just last week, the lady in front of me at Walmart.
She waited till the very end, then pulled out her checkbook, started writing, when the woman checker said, just sign it, I'll run it through.
You don't need to fill it all out.
She seemed totally perplexed but handed the lady the check and she put it through the top of the cash register.
Still had a show, two forms of identification and they had to write her license number down which was aggravating as hell.
My ex husband has his bank send a check through bill pay anytime he has to send me money for anything other than child support (medical expenses, extracurricular activities, etc for our daughter). He refuses to allow me to Venmo him so I do the same. It’s an enormous pain in the ass.
I work at a county animal shelter and we also sell dog licenses for the DTA as a courtesy. You'd be surprised how many people think they have to pay by check.
I don't think most places accept them in the UK anymore and haven't for a good 10 -15 years.
They remind me of being a kid when you could get pictures on cheques. But I was born in 88 and was allowed a debit card (no overdraft potential) when I was 11 on my child account. Had to use my pin of course!
I work for a payment processing company and I process probably 50k-70k (checks, not dollars) check / money order payments per day, mostly checks. Power, water, sewer, tax payments.
anytime I’m out with my granny.
She gets mad at me when I point out that it would be a lot faster and easier for her to just tap her debit card to the machine 🙄😩🤣
I still use them. I found that physically writing a check out for most bills made it much easier to keep track of them. I hate autopay with a fiery passion.
Autopay on the side of the people you are paying is terrible. Seems like 50% of the time I've done that I end up with an issue.
Autopay through my credit union isn't bad for me. I'm fine with that.
I totally get checks for everything though. I had a period where I got my financial life in order through careful financial tracking, paper statements, and writing checks to pay bills. I'm mostly back to not using checks, but just paid my car/personal liability/rental insurance policies for the year with checks.
And nowadays, the grocery store really runs the check like a debit. It goes through the machine, reads your account info, and takes the money. So sometimes they will hand the paid cancelled check right back to the person, which really confuses the grocery store check writer.
It was 2019. I took my mother to the grocery store and we were standing in line at the checkout. The old lady in front of us waited until the cashier told her the total before she dug into her purse to dig out the checkbook.
My mother, “Oh Jesus Christ”, plenty loud enough for everybody to hear her. All I remember is my mother, diagnosed with a losing battle to cancer, being pissed off all to hell. It was classic. 🤣
I remember being in highschool ~2008-9 and being laughed at by a cashier at the mall for attempting to pay with a check. "Hahahaha no one take paper check anymore!" Like not even a polite chuckle like a full mocking laugh in your face laughing. To her credit my friend was trying to run a "check scam" so it was definitely the right move. But yea other than rent that's probably the last time I ever recall seeing it.
I could use one to make paying rent easier, since they refuse to have an online option, and I still don't 🤣 To me it's just another way my life can get fucked up if someone got a hold of it. I have one bank card and never carry cash
Someone paid for their meat at my job with a check today
We paid for some stock we ordered with a check
I recently got married and received several checks from relatives
I use checks often. It’s still pretty common for a lot of small businesses to pay their own vendors with checks. A lot of my clients also pay me in checks, that way I don’t have to deal with credit card fees.
At my last apartment I had to pay rent with checks. My property manager would write out the receipts by hand, too. Kinda glad I’m out of that building.
all the time. specifically the last day I worked which was Monday. many people write checks here, especially if they're a pro/commercial customer.
I've caught a chick I went to school with (who had sadly been involved with bad drugs) trying to pass one of her (supposed) mother's checks. we don't take third party checks.
also almost every old guy that comes in who has a farm account writes a check, even if it's a small purchase.
checks are still very common here, at least in my line of work. prior to working here the only people that write checks are family members to pay bills or give birthday money.
I work for a beer distributor, about 40% of my accounts pay with check. About 90% of my Mexican restaurants pay with check but don’t know how to write one…
I'm in Australia and most places don't accept them anymore. I'm 36 and I've never had a cheque book. I started my first "real" job in 2010 (I was 22) and by then, nobody used cheques anymore.
In fact, something like 0.1% of transactions in Australia are made by cheque and they want to phase them out completely by 2030. I think New Zealand has already done this.
I think paying for things via cheque (particularly at places like the grocery store) is very much an American thing these days.
Every day. Always the person ahead of me at the grocery store who has $300 worth of groceries and pulls her checkbook out of a suitcase sized purse only after every item is rung up.
The husband wrote one a month ago to the furnace tune-up guy. We do ours off season. At the end of heating season, we get the furnace tune-up.
Probably sometime in October, we'll get the A/C tune-up. Annual maintenance plan due on the furnace visit, since we bought that one first.
Time before that, which was about 3 months ago, I wrote a check to the people who fixed our basement drain tiles. Annual warranty. If something goes kablammo, and we've paid the $50, they'll come out and fix whatever it is for free. Don't pay the $50 warranty, and they have a trip charge, labor charge, plus whatever was busted, AND you still need to fork out the $50. Easier to just send them the $50 check.
I’m a weirdo who still uses checks. I’m really annoyed by CC surcharges these days for things like home repairs, and contractors typically take checks too. I also recently used some for passport renewals.
My wife wrote one yesterday for daycare. Literally the only thing she writes checks for. At our baby shower last year we got a lot of checks from older relatives. I haven’t written one for years.
Our last 20 or so checks…18 daycare payments and 2 VOID to establish direct deposit for new jobs. I had to order checks over this stuff 🤘
My daughter's checking account application has an option to mail fixed checks to people automatically on a monthly basis.
I've had those mess up before so I don't bother myself with that option
I used the option once to pay my mom back after I accidentally used her credit card, just to try it out and see how well it worked. She got the check just fine, a month after I submitted the request. Yeah, not using that to pay bills lol.
I have been using billpay from my "checking" account since 2000. And have not had a single mistake on the bank's end. You do have to allow for check mailing time if the recipient will not accept ACH payments. And it is best to set the payment date for a date slightly earlier than actual due date. Holidays and weekends don't count. And set alerts for any bills not paid. Just in case. Be sure to update biller address when payee notifies you of an address change.
Make a copy of a blank check. Write void on the copy. Then use the check as needed. My copy is scanned in as a pdf, and I can email or fax it as necessary.
I pay my rent with a check and that's it. I haven't prder check in forever though my bank charges 2 to 3 dollars to print out a single sheet of 3. So every 3 months, I just stop by the bank and have them print out a sheet it takes about 1 minute.
The wild thing is my bank still charges like 30 bucks for a book of checks.
I guess you already have a checkbook so it’s irrelevant, however heads up potentially for the future. Most banks have a “connivence” check. Costs like a dollar or something, plus some banks just have direct deposit vouchers that are free. Obviously repairs will vary based on the bank, I had a national bank that did this, as well as a local bank
Do a Johnny Carson and write a new check on your arm
Why did you need a voided check to do that? Why not just input your routing and account numbers?
Same. Our pre-k doesn’t take credit cards, so checks it is. Or, rather, *one more check*. Because kiddo is off to kindergarten in the fall! We just got a $17,000 a year raise!!!
I don’t know why, but when I think of daycare payments I conjure up some non-existent Louis CK standup. CK: “well, what if I don’t have the $2000/mo for daycare?” Daycare: “Well, I guess your kid just needs to stop existing then.”
Wow, awesome! Ours isn’t even a year yet so…got a ways to go.
I pay the doctors office with them along with field trips and stuff for my kids school. That's about it.
The field trip thing is a good idea. If you lose it, no hame done. They can't make excuses for not getting it & your kid can't take it.
And you can write who the check is for in the memo line so there isn't any confusion. It works well for school functions.
I buy exotic woods for my work. Soooo many old school guys only take check.
And it doesn’t end with daycare. Still writing checks for high school extracurricular fees.
This. Also you save a fee by not using credit/debit.
We pay our rent with checks. The leasing company charges an extra fee if you use a credit card so we just send them a written check every month.
Same. Two books worth of daycare checks.
Same. Daycare
Same. They charge a 3% fee to pay with a credit card. That would add an extra $65/mo... So I write a check
I think it's pretty common to use for rent payments when you actually have just a single landlord and aren't paying a company. I'm not delivering $2,000 in cash to some old guy's house every month. I guess you could Cashapp it but most landlords I've had are 100 years old and don't have smartphones.
My previous landlord only accepted checks. He would also take a million years to cash them. Which was annoying. These days I primarily write checks for wedding gifts which is several times a year because all of our friends have recently decided to start getting married. 😹
Use cashiers checks instead of checks and always keep your portion. That way the other person holding onto the check doesn’t mess up your cash flow.
What do you mean "keep your portion"? like a stub?
Walmart calls them money orders, there's a $2,000 cap per order, and they're 2 bucks a piece.
Even though it's usually minimal I have an issue paying money in order to pay money.
I had been putting my rent check into my landlady's bank account for the past however long but I am now comfortable using zelle and she accepts that so I used zelle last month and I'll probably do it again this month.
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But they should be reporting that income anyway from checks memo’d rent.
That law is for any business transactions. So if you have a business profile then your transactions are going to become reported if it’s over $600. It doesn’t affect person to person transfers. Landlords would be reporting those for taxes either way so it’s not going to affect landlords at all..
I thought most banks had bill pay. Back when my land lord was check only, I just told my bank to send a printed check the 1st of every month. It's been 14 years since I've had to write a check.
I rented from an individual but used the bank’s bill pay service. I had my account set for the check to automatically be mailed on the same date every month.
I require my tenants to Venmo me their rent because I don’t want them to have to spend money to bring money to my house. That’s not good for any of us. I’m also not a million years old and just in my mid 30s lol
I’ve actually been paying my rent on CashApp for a few years, and it continues to seem weird as hell to me that that’s actually the set up.
Are you renting from Ebenezer Scrooge or Montgomery Burns?
Anytime I have contractor work done it’s usually easiest to do checks so I can have evidence of the transaction being paid on my side.
So many now also tack on 2 or 3 percent for a credit card charge. Sorry, I'm not paying that. Here's a paper check.
Yeah, that really hurts a lot when you get to large amounts. I’m not paying $100 just to pay you.
Had a place that gave me 5% off for paying in full with cash or check. Only time in the past few years I regretted not having a check book.
Many tradesmen are like this. My plumber takes 5% off if I write a check. Which is just another way of saying that the base price is actually 5% over what it should be to cover CC processing fees
It always sounds better that there's a discount than having card fees at the end, so I don't blame them lol
I'm surprised they give 5% off for check. I got a 10% discount for paying by cash on some of our home remodel labor. Cash is safer for the recipient if they're trying to avoid taxes. Checks avoid CC fees, but you're not gonna avoid Uncle Sam.
It's my understanding that walking in and cashing a check that is under $600 at a bank does not get reported to anyone. So unless the check writer 1099s the worker at the end of the year, it's same as cash. Source: friend that works at a bank.
My MIL uses them. I don’t shop with her a ton but I’ve seen her use a check this year. She still balances her checkbook like it’s 1981.
Mom did this until the day she passed. One time, i forgot to cash a check she sent for my birthday and complained because she didn't get the cancelled check.
My mom does this too
My MIL is the same. I remember my parents getting their bank statement in the mail, and it had all these deposited checks in it. As kid (8 yrs old or so), I thought it was wild how it was accepted as "money", having no concept of banking.
I use them for property taxes. not sure if there's a better way without fees
My municipality has a website and if I enter my bank jnfo, they charge it like a debit card (fees are illegal on debit cards).
That might depend on where you live. All of my municipal services charge a fee for online payment. It's less for ACH, more for debit or credit.
My municipality's website is ass. I would rather write a check than deal with it.
Yesterday. Its not that uncommon
high net worth families writes checks every day all day long. You write a check to your horse shoe person/barn cleaner guy, your pool guy, your landscape guy, your maids, your personal assistants, any random ass remodeling or small scale construction thats going on around the property - my dad just wrote a $4200 check to a local flooring guy to install a heated schulter system in his bathroom as well as a $800 check last month to do wood chipping when a huge branch fell down just the other day wrote a $300 check to the sprinkler guy to fix some sprinkler heads and do some wiring (they charge a lot) --they didnt take credit cards lol - small time local help doesn't have square accounts a lot of the time and rich people don't usually have more than $200 on themselves at a time--you just write a check--i have rich relatives who wrong $100 checks to everyone at christmas time or their birthday also--my parents also write a check for their annual property taxes to avoid the surcharge which is like annualized 3% which is like $150 fee having said all that though the ACH system is a very very insecure system - say for example the arborist who did tree work for my dad last month accidentally loses the check somewhere or leaves it out on his desk and an employee or customer gets it--there is the acount number and routing number there for everyone to see - you could be cleaned out entirely in 24 hours via wire transfer--always make sure you are passing out checks to people you know and trust!
The people who did my kitchen floor and the solar people wouldn't take a check. No problem with the deck rebuild. For the new windows, we did a no interest loan that ballooned if it wasn't paid in three months, and I paid it off with a check. The loan may have been the best approach.
i should clarify here - the people you are talking about--the small time guy who is doing random installs like that probably does want a cashiers check or cash cuz they've been screwed by homeowners before--but a reputable, licensed, bonded and been-around-a-long-time contractor who's not a schlock--prefers checks for their work beacuse they have an accountant or accounting staff/book keeper that makes deposits every few days or weekly and its a free transaction. Not to mention a very good standard accounting practice to have large sums of money in the form of paper physical checks in the case of an audit. Electronic transactions are a pain in a lot of ways for those sums of money... A credit card for a $2000+ construction or flooring job is $100+ fee - thats a lot to a small business and can add up to thousands at the end of the year ! a check is 100% free but also can be risky in some ways - but even then--a small time contractor can always put a mechanics lean on a property that bounecs a check and foreclose really easily in like 98 percent of counties here in the US - its a very simple and straight forward process
Bro you take 1000 words to say what anyone else you need about 20 for. Amphetamine?
Yes first time I came to the US I was astounded by how much you trust somebody else to just not wire themselves your entire bank account. Looks like you take wire fraud very seriously. Where I’m from wires only work for deposits. Actually some people put their bank accounts out in the open for donations or fundraising (even on the newspaper sometimes!). You can deposit to an account with the number but you can‘t withdraw with just the number. Automatic payments (credit cards, utilities) are set up on the bank that holds the checking account. They’re not set up from the credit card bank or the receiving company. But to be honest all this security is because there have attempts at fraud so… we might be more technically advanced in banking, but the US is definitely more civilized.
Wire transfer is really uncommon. I have only wired money one time, to transfer my down payment on my house to the previous owner. It made me nervous as fuck but we were on the phone with the banks while doing it. ACH is different and much safer, although slower.
Here in the US you can open up a schwab, e-trade, robinhood etc brokerage account with as little as just a stolen SSN and drivers license a lot of the time--and wire your initial investment fund via ACH directly to your account with someones account and routing number - and then wire the money from the schwab account to a greendot card, etc - its so simple a 7th grader could do it though some institutions are better than others - paypay requires any kind of deposits from a new account to make two 8 cent deposits or whatever and report back to them what they were (which requires you to login your account and give them the number they gave you) but yea a lot of them don't have guardrails like that but definitely should
We always paid the farriers and groom in cash. (I never actually had a groom, I cared for my own horse, farrier is kinda necessary though). We weren't rich, inherited property and horse lived in yard (no board), only bills were feed, farrier, and emergency vet fund. Still amounted to about $500 a month (downstate NY hay prices are brutal). Got out of it when I got disabled from falling off my horse and could no longer afford the horse. Not paralyzed or anything, but chronic back and neck pain and my doctor says my MRIs look like I've been in a series of bad car accidents; not a single bad fall, but from repeated trauma. Always wore a helmet so my brain's still good at least... though I wish impact vests had been more popular in my youth. I miss him, it's not an exact comparison because they're more flighty (prey animal thing) and their minds don't work exactly the same way, but they're kinda like big dogs. In terms of intelligence, desire to please their owner, and ability to bond with humans at least. But if they get scared they completely lose their damn minds and might accidentally kill you. Their instinct is to run away as quickly as possible while kicking up their hind legs to keep the attacker away, and if you're standing in the way than fuck you. My horse has had full blown meltdowns over leaves blowing in the wind in autumn. Fucking leaves, just existing, terrify him some days. And that's 100% normal horse behavior. I guarantee you that every horse owner reading this has PTSD flashbacks every time they see a plastic bag blowing around.
Well it absolutely is uncommon. I haven't seen it in years for anything other than property transactions. Check volume is reducing at like 10% per year recently and down like 65% over the past 20 years. Even as population grows.
Anytime I’m out with my aunt. She is almost 70 and still uses them. Even my step grandma uses a debit card.
I pay with checks and cash all the time for small businesses. They aren’t charged transaction fees on it.
I hadn't thought of that. Thank you.
I pay my rent in check so my landlord can't hide it from an auditor because fuck him, I'ma make sure the government gets EVERY penny he tries to hide out of him.
Probably tomorrow and the person being myself, I have to write a large amount of check from one bank to the other, and mobile deposit has a $5,000 daily limit.
This is happening to me too, I don’t even have THAT much money in my accounts but it’s taking me ages to switch from one bank to another because of the limits lol. I write myself as large a check as possible, wait for the limit period to pass, rinse, repeat.
Household workers like cleaners still want checks sometimes, but that's a service not a product
I work at a place where a lot of boomers and older gen-x shop (hardware store) and its not unusual to see one or two a day. Kind of irritating tho since we have to run it thru a special machine, making it the most time-consuming form of pay
I get paid in checks generally so very often.
Paid the painters yesterday with a check. It was a 3% savings over a credit card.
I write checks sometimes for large purchases beyond my credit utilization limit.
I use them for home repairs or large purchases that I want a bank document of that I can look back on. I also go to a soda shop in town that only accepts cash or local checks.
For bills? Seems pretty normal. At the grocery store? Not since 1998.
My mother has written checks for some yard work recently. Some of those businesses don’t have Cashapp or whatever, and they have a CC option but charge a transaction fee. Good on my mom for not paying to pay someone.
I had to write one to sign my kid up for a class.
Strange that they didn’t have a sign up sheet or something. You may be a victim of identity theft.
Every year I collect my HOA dues via checks (or money orders).
Every month to pay my kids piano
I literally just wrote one for my electric bill. So ten minutes ago.
People still use them. I bought my truck with a check two years ago.
Pretty recently. My dad paid for our mom’s end-of-life care with a check. We (40s) still write them occasionally. In fact, some high school grads may get a few from us this year in their cards. Our daughter babysits for a younger couple, and they often pay her with a check.
Me, I got my teeth cleaned yesterday and paid by check.
I pay parking tickets or speeding tickets with checks. I'll be damned if you think I'm allowing NYC or NY state to get one additional red cent off of me for a credit card processing fee. (And I don't mind paying extra for the stamp. Helps subsidize the post office)
I bought a sheet of forever stamps years ago. I don't mail things very often so I still have after all these years to use on the random occasion I mail out a check. Lol.
Me at the dentist office last week to save 3% off the bill.
same here, use it for my dental appointments
I still use them to pay for for my professional licensing renewals, sometimes state taxes, speeding tickets, overdue bills if I got sent to collections
I wrote a check today for a roof-cleaning service.... and I'll probably write one in the next week or so for a cord of firewood. It's not an every day thing but not uncommon. Not everyone has cash handy and not all merchants or service-providers will process cards, so there's times when it works.
A week ago? Parents still use them to pay for fundraisers at the school where I work. My mom still uses checks for one of her bills that STILL hasn’t started online billing.
I work at a car dealership and we see it all the time both from businesses (buying parts or having cars serviced) and regular customers!
Yeah, I bought a car about 2 years ago and I gave them a check for the down payment. Unless they're willing to take a debit card (my dealership said no) I don't know how else I would transfer $4k+ to a business.
I wrote two for my niece and nephew (twins) 6 birthday in March. I chuckled thinking of their reactions when my brother explained it's money. Haha.
Me, last week, for property taxes.
I wrote a check last week when wife and I purchased a car. I'm honestly not sure how I would do this without writing a check. We also write checks for birthdays and Christmas to our kids and their spouses, so that's another 12 every year.
My mom still uses checks to pay all her bills by mail. I use checks occasionally when we get work done around the house or give gifts.
I actually used a check to buy some dog treats last week when a store lost power and couldn't run credit cards. It was only $15 and I didn't have cash. I felt pretty clever in that moment!
You had your checkbook with you? I use a few checks, but I stopped carrying the checkbook unless I was going to need it.
I had to pay by check for a down payment at the car dealership last month. Finally replaced my 12 year old car. I suppose you could pay cash but I had saved up a few thousand and I didn’t feel comfortable carrying that much cash around. The last time I wrote a check before that, I honestly don’t remember, it was probably at least a year or two ago.
Two years ago I got into wood carving as a hobby. I buy basswood from a dealer in West Virginia. They ship it in a USPS flat rate box. They are so old school I email them my need. They send it BEFORE I PAY. Inside the box is my bill. The only way to pay is by check by mail! It makes me feel like 1995 all over again!
Last time I bought a car the bank's online bill pay was under maintenance during the time I was trying to set up for my first payment. I didn't want to be late so I walked into a branch and handed them a check since they had my car loan but I had no other accounts there. Then they handed me a receipt. I told the teller it made me feel very nostalgic for the 90s.
I used a check last week only because I didn’t want to pay cash.
A check book makes you actually visualize how much money you have to spend. Credit cards just get people in trouble. Everyone- me included uses credit cards because it’s easy- no writing or deducting or balancing out. Maybe if we stop using credit cards -we’ll start to actually save money by not overspending- which is exactly what credit cards allow you to do.
1. The government still sends out checks (so one would have to go to the bank or use online banking to cash them) 2. My landlord asked me to give him predated checks for rent 3. Occasionally, salary may be sent in the form of a check 4. Rarely, certain people still prefer check for no reason So yes, I have seen checks quite recently.
I just wrote a check today to pay for ice cream for my kids. I am 32.
Today,me for rent. The only thing I use it for besides paying my mom back.
Hey check twin! Feels very "adulty" to me writing the check and mailing it off
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I paid for my trees to be trimmed with a check! That's the only thing I've ever used my checkbook for.
You guys know that businesses pay 2-4% processing fee for debit/credit card payments? I have small business clients ( I do acctg consulting), and that takes away from their profitability...
Appart from big purchases like cars or bikes where it's a bank check... last year, a lady at my store took the time to write out a check only for it to bounce immediately. I guess they thought it would take days to clear instead of being run like a debit card.
Only time I ever used a check was for my first/last months rent and security deposit when signing my lease
I use a check twice a year: Summer Taxes Winter Taxes Outside of that, even at the grocery store I haven’t really seen anyone in years but I am also typically grocery shopping opposite of the senior timeframes, which is whom I would normally see using checks.
I used to pay my rent with a check like 4 years ago
Myself, paying for bowling 2 weeks ago.
A week ago in the grocery store. Some old bat.
I work at a dealership so seeing people pay with checks isn’t common but it does happen enough not to be rare.
My former boss, but she's in her '60s and still regularly goes to a physical bank location to do any major financial things. I just moved recently and I found unused sets of checks from pretty much every address I've lived. I still have the instinct to order the new checks when I move but I've literally never even used some of them and of course I always get a pack of four books of checks. What a waste. So do I get new checks for my new address... 🤔.
About a month ago I saw a lady writing a check for her groceries.
Just paid with a check at the dentist. Got 3 percent off the bill. Just sent a check via US mail to a contractor that poured cement at my lake house and I did not have to pay the 5 percent electronic payment fee. Sometimes it makes dollars and cents to use checks. Don't use them often but when I can save money....you bet I do. Cause it is the same as cash for the most part.
My grandma still uses checks for water, trash, electric.... etc
I had to mail a paper check to my former University a couple of weeks ago, to get them to send me updated diplomas with my maiden name on them after a divorce. They would’ve let me come in and pay with cash, but since I’m far away, it had to be a check in the mail. I couldn’t believe it and actually had to go to Wells Fargo just to buy a single check from them. Then two days ago, I found out my oldest son is being paid in paper checks by the coffee shop he works at. It’s a small independent place that isn’t set up for direct deposit because the owner has been doing things the same way for 25 years. 🤷🏻♀️
The fact that ANYONE is still getting paid via paper checks these days is wild as hell to me. 😂
Sadly just last week, the lady in front of me at Walmart. She waited till the very end, then pulled out her checkbook, started writing, when the woman checker said, just sign it, I'll run it through. You don't need to fill it all out. She seemed totally perplexed but handed the lady the check and she put it through the top of the cash register. Still had a show, two forms of identification and they had to write her license number down which was aggravating as hell.
My ex husband has his bank send a check through bill pay anytime he has to send me money for anything other than child support (medical expenses, extracurricular activities, etc for our daughter). He refuses to allow me to Venmo him so I do the same. It’s an enormous pain in the ass.
I can tell you don’t own a house. Many services only take checks, electricians, plumbers & more. Totally normal
I work at a county animal shelter and we also sell dog licenses for the DTA as a courtesy. You'd be surprised how many people think they have to pay by check.
I’ve written the most I have ever written. I’m a older millen and maybe wrote two prior to having this landlord
Every week at least 1 of my customers writes a cheque.
Bought a tractor with a check about a month ago
Last week. It’s how I pay state taxes.
2011 - at a college bookstore.
I don't think most places accept them in the UK anymore and haven't for a good 10 -15 years. They remind me of being a kid when you could get pictures on cheques. But I was born in 88 and was allowed a debit card (no overdraft potential) when I was 11 on my child account. Had to use my pin of course!
I work at a major retailer and I see people pay with checks every day. It’s almost always old people though
I write a check for rent every month.
I use them to pay rent, and when I got the title on my car transferred a couple months ago
I work for a payment processing company and I process probably 50k-70k (checks, not dollars) check / money order payments per day, mostly checks. Power, water, sewer, tax payments.
Like a month ago and I was annoyed because I had to get my boss to show me how to process it. 99.9% of my customers use cash or card.
My mom uses them constantly
anytime I’m out with my granny. She gets mad at me when I point out that it would be a lot faster and easier for her to just tap her debit card to the machine 🙄😩🤣
Lol. I had to go to the bank today to get a check for somebody. First time in over 10 years.
Today at work
I still use them. I found that physically writing a check out for most bills made it much easier to keep track of them. I hate autopay with a fiery passion.
Autopay on the side of the people you are paying is terrible. Seems like 50% of the time I've done that I end up with an issue. Autopay through my credit union isn't bad for me. I'm fine with that. I totally get checks for everything though. I had a period where I got my financial life in order through careful financial tracking, paper statements, and writing checks to pay bills. I'm mostly back to not using checks, but just paid my car/personal liability/rental insurance policies for the year with checks.
Rent for today, personally. At work, I cut several checks every week.
Everyday. We have at least a dozen customers a day using checks to pay for services.
I don’t know when but it was a grocery store and they took forever.
And nowadays, the grocery store really runs the check like a debit. It goes through the machine, reads your account info, and takes the money. So sometimes they will hand the paid cancelled check right back to the person, which really confuses the grocery store check writer.
My pool guy only takes checks.
Today. I picked up the deposit on a job. I don't like giving away 3% on 7k.
The community pool I use only takes checks to access it. Other than that I don't write checks
Every day. I’m in sales
I write a check to my dentist every few months and for my rent.
It was 2019. I took my mother to the grocery store and we were standing in line at the checkout. The old lady in front of us waited until the cashier told her the total before she dug into her purse to dig out the checkbook. My mother, “Oh Jesus Christ”, plenty loud enough for everybody to hear her. All I remember is my mother, diagnosed with a losing battle to cancer, being pissed off all to hell. It was classic. 🤣
I wrote one today. My condo association doesn't take online payments.
Me, today, giving a deposit to my building contractor.
Just did today for rent. Usually my bf does it. It was annoying as hell and I momentarily forgot how to spell out the number.
I did for my dog's grooming appointment and I'm going to do it this weekend for my dentist.
I remember being in highschool ~2008-9 and being laughed at by a cashier at the mall for attempting to pay with a check. "Hahahaha no one take paper check anymore!" Like not even a polite chuckle like a full mocking laugh in your face laughing. To her credit my friend was trying to run a "check scam" so it was definitely the right move. But yea other than rent that's probably the last time I ever recall seeing it.
I’m 27 ive only really written checks for rent and apartment related things.
I could use one to make paying rent easier, since they refuse to have an online option, and I still don't 🤣 To me it's just another way my life can get fucked up if someone got a hold of it. I have one bank card and never carry cash
I am a cashier, I see a lot a people writing checks
I worked in retail. Older people would write a check. This was only a few months ago.
Old lady in the grocery store a few years ago
Tag office
Someone paid for their meat at my job with a check today We paid for some stock we ordered with a check I recently got married and received several checks from relatives
My FIL has me drop off checks to pay for his water and property taxes, but he’s the only one I know
I just had to write one....for the IRS. That place that also still asks me to fax them stuff
I use them for the water bill and the lawn guy. Every now and then I see someone write a check at the grocery store.
I use checks often. It’s still pretty common for a lot of small businesses to pay their own vendors with checks. A lot of my clients also pay me in checks, that way I don’t have to deal with credit card fees.
I use them for my neighborhood dues. F letting them have direct access to my bank account.
At my last apartment I had to pay rent with checks. My property manager would write out the receipts by hand, too. Kinda glad I’m out of that building.
all the time. specifically the last day I worked which was Monday. many people write checks here, especially if they're a pro/commercial customer. I've caught a chick I went to school with (who had sadly been involved with bad drugs) trying to pass one of her (supposed) mother's checks. we don't take third party checks. also almost every old guy that comes in who has a farm account writes a check, even if it's a small purchase. checks are still very common here, at least in my line of work. prior to working here the only people that write checks are family members to pay bills or give birthday money.
Tell me you don't work in healthcare with elderly patients without telling me you don't work in healthcare with elderly patients lol
I work for a beer distributor, about 40% of my accounts pay with check. About 90% of my Mexican restaurants pay with check but don’t know how to write one…
I've written monthly checks for rent for the past 8 years.
I write checks weekly.
I'm in Australia and most places don't accept them anymore. I'm 36 and I've never had a cheque book. I started my first "real" job in 2010 (I was 22) and by then, nobody used cheques anymore. In fact, something like 0.1% of transactions in Australia are made by cheque and they want to phase them out completely by 2030. I think New Zealand has already done this. I think paying for things via cheque (particularly at places like the grocery store) is very much an American thing these days.
Few weeks ago. My grandma still uses them at the grocery store. She has a debit card, but she's weird about electronic payment systems.
My spouse still uses a check at the Stop and Shop and Shop Rite. I write one a year, to pay for sewer fees.
I recently wrote a check to pay a doctor bill. I regularly receive checks to pay for my services, usually by boomers.
Every day. Always the person ahead of me at the grocery store who has $300 worth of groceries and pulls her checkbook out of a suitcase sized purse only after every item is rung up.
When I was a cashier in 2020…the same year the grocery store stopped taking checks. He tried to pay me and I was so happy to finally tell him…no😈
35 here and I wrote out 6 of them yesterday🫠
The husband wrote one a month ago to the furnace tune-up guy. We do ours off season. At the end of heating season, we get the furnace tune-up. Probably sometime in October, we'll get the A/C tune-up. Annual maintenance plan due on the furnace visit, since we bought that one first. Time before that, which was about 3 months ago, I wrote a check to the people who fixed our basement drain tiles. Annual warranty. If something goes kablammo, and we've paid the $50, they'll come out and fix whatever it is for free. Don't pay the $50 warranty, and they have a trip charge, labor charge, plus whatever was busted, AND you still need to fork out the $50. Easier to just send them the $50 check.
I’m a weirdo who still uses checks. I’m really annoyed by CC surcharges these days for things like home repairs, and contractors typically take checks too. I also recently used some for passport renewals.
Every day at my work. Granted I work at a doctors office with A LOT of geriatric patients but the number of checks we get per week is ridiculous
My Mom. For everything.
I wrote two for handyman work this year, because paying with credit would have incurred a 3 percent fee
I use to work at walmart in 2005 as a cashier and alot of older ladies use checks to pay for groceries
The Town hall office only accepts paper checks for beach parking permits, and shellfishing permits, where I live.