Wednesday, April 09, 2014

Your Turn

While writing a check yesterday I realized just how few checks I actually write these days. I remember seeing my grandparents checkbook back in the day and they were on check #10000 or some ridiculous number. How many checks do you write each month?

60 comments:

Sugar said...

I only write checks my butt can't cash.

sandybrook said...

2 to the property manager for their bills and pretty much nothing else so I guess that's 24 per year give or take 1 or 2 emergencies.

FearN said...

Who actually numbers their checks in order? I just started out on 5000 for shits and giggles.

CoBe said...

None. Everything is paid online.

Cleodacat said...

2, gotta pay my weekly poop scooper with having 5 Russian Wolfhounds and the Snow Plough guy especially after the foot dropped last Monday.

Unknown said...

I'm completely online. I have the bank write the checks for me.

GatorGirl said...

High larious... I've written quite a few of those my own self

turningvioletviolet said...
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Violet said...

My chequebook still sees the light of day quite often - paying the milkman, children's activities blah, blah etc etc. Cheques are being phased out though aren't they?

Unknown said...

Only the. Gardener and the annoying water company.

Murphy said...

I write between 5 and 7 a month and apparently that is a lot.

Anonymous said...

Only one. Everything else I pay online through my bank.

Harry Knuckles said...

Violet, how is it that you have a milkman? I remember you talking about this before but I've forgotten what you said. Are you in the states or the U.K.?

Leekalicious said...

I'm also down to zero cheques. My bank recently issued international debit cards that can be used so I got rid of all except one credit card. Bank acct. interest rates at 2% and credit cards at 8% to start? I think not. I started using Interac online thru my bank. I'm fine with taking them though.

timebob said...

I haven't written a check in at least 10 years everything done online and set up as recurring payments.

I try to live a paperless enviornment as much as possible and I hate paper.

Snapdragon said...

At least 1 per month, sometimes two. I'm still on the original order of boxed checks from when I switched from a Bank(oA) to a credit union, 5 years ago this upcoming Nov. Only now do I have to re-order.

witwritergirl said...

Haven't written a check in at least 7 or 8 years. All online or if I'm standing in front of you I'll hand over cash.

Gayeld said...

One a month, for a reduced price transit pass at work. They don't take cash or credit cards. Gotta be a check. And one every six months for the water club.

Nolesgirl said...

Check for dog groomer, church sometimes, liquor store, animal rescue donations, and Pizza Hut (once a month). Our town is so small that Pizza Hut doesn't deliver AND they don't accept debit cards...
Everything else online or cash baybay

Danica said...
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Violet said...

@Harry, I have a milkman because, well, he's just around, with his little electric milk float at 4.30 am. And now I feel too guilty not to have him, because it's a franchise and it's his business and if people like me go to the major supermarkets then what hope does the little man have (little man being generic,not specific to Rod the milkman)? First world problems. Btw, UK.

Danica said...

Only once a month to the gardeners unless I have the cash on me

Lurker Girl said...

1 check for the local utility company (they want to charge ME to pay them on line..I think not) and the occasional check for a school need for the child. I have not bought checks in like 4 years.

Kelly said...

One for rent, water bill (they don't have website) and occasionally for kids school lunch when outta cash and fieldtrips, stuff like that

Leekalicious said...

I put an end to using cheques when the bank charged me $45.00 for an NSF. They could easily have transferred the 83 cents they needed from my savings account.

Unknown said...

@ Sugar: Good one!

Now! said...

No checks in Scandinavia. They just don't exist, and haven't for at least 20 years. Everyone sends money back and forth via mobile phone. The only time cash is used is when you're dealing with someone working off the books.

DavidHowesCREBroker said...

One! For my office rent.
Everything else is transfer to accounts.
I wish I was depositing more checks, though!

Mama Abroad said...

No checks here in Germany either!

Erin Kella said...

Just one for the rent. Which my landlord makes me deposit into his bank account, otherwise I'd never really have to go to the bank either.

Jason Blue Eyes said...

I'm with you Timebob. Paper sucks.

Harry Knuckles said...

Interesting. Thanks for that Violet.

lucy said...

I write 3-4 a year. Usually for sports pools or having a friend buy something for me while on vacation. It's always a production because I have to tear the house apart to find the checkbook. Then find an envelope. And a stamp.

High Heels said...

Checks sound so surreal to me. I've written maybe 1 or 2 when I moved To UK, but never any in my country. We pay everything by card or online. Back in the day I would pay my bills on these paying machines with debit card, which we still have a few around.

Count Jerkula said...

No personal checks. Anything important enough that I need a receipt for, I don't want to bounce, so I get money orders or bank checks. Then I take a cell phone pic and save the receipt.

Fiona said...

I write one or two a month.

Trying to go paperless as well, but I've got a backlog of work-related paper that I don't want to throw out.

Anybody have a high-speed scanner that they love? Care to make a recommendation?

Also, I have a lot of personal photographs from before the days of digital cameras, would love to scan those and go digital. So I need a high quality high speed scanner...

Topper Madison said...

I actually like writing checks. Seriously. I put on some relaxing music and sit down with a cup of tea, a calculator, a book of stamps, a page of return labels, and a fountain pen. It turns a monotonous chore into a pleasant experience and sort of eases the pain of the whole draining-of-my-bank-account thing.

Seachica said...

2-3. Mostly for tournament entries (I have tried to get them to take online entries but the paypal feed eat into the tournament payouts too much). I used to pay rent by check, but now that I bought, I deal with a savvy mortgage company. Checks are still necessary in the us for person to person payments. Joe Schmo isn't set up to take online payments.

Reese said...

The only checks I write are to the IRS.

Alita said...

A couple years ago someone tried to pay my work via cheque. Everyone just looked at each other confused. In the end they called the financial controller who dais fine, well take it and bank it - come back in a week when is cleared.

Nobody uses cheques here.

geminigirl789 said...

Most places in the UK stopped even taking cheques back in 2010. These days you just get a person's bank account number and sort code and do an online transfer. Always amazes me that the US is so far behind-especially with chip and pin for credit cards!

kelli grrrl said...

I hadn't written a check in years, then kiddo started school & I probably write 10 a year. Had considered getting rid of them, but now glad I didn't. It's also a nice way to keep track of charitable contributions when you're getting tax stuff together.

kelli grrrl said...

I hadn't written a check in years, then kiddo started school & I probably write 10 a year. Had considered getting rid of them, but now glad I didn't. It's also a nice way to keep track of charitable contributions when you're getting tax stuff together.

MnGddess said...

Checks? My mom pays her bills by MONEY ORDER..

NaughtyNurse said...

I write two per week. One for child care and one for lessons for my daughter. In the summer months we pay our lawn guys with checks, too.

OKay said...

I write a monthly rent cheque, and then school fees x 2 kids plus school pics x 2 kids plus a couple assorted for church functions etc....so maybe 20 a year?

Janet296 said...

Who writes checks anymore? I may write 1 every year or two.

RowdyRodimus said...

Literally the last check I wrote was back in 2003 and it was on the acct. of the restaurant I managed and only because the home office failed to pay for our food delivery the week before, so I had to find a check (harder than you'd think when you never have to use them, the other manager who had been there longer than me didn't even know we had them), do a fast countdown of registers, rush to the bank to deposit the money, get back to the store, check the inventory then manually figure the prices and taxes and write the check, all in 20 minutes so we could get food to people.

Lo Key says stop with the censorship already! said...

Cleodacat, 5 Borzoi?!?
*jealous*
Such beautiful dogs!

PugsterMom said...

I'm thinking she's living in a country that spells the word "cheques" and not "checks" but I wonder where that would be... ?

PugsterMom said...

Oops just saw this... UK it is!

Scallywag said...

I write one for my car and send it in with the voucher - just so I can send in more when I want.

Other then that, an occasional charitable donation, though those are mostly online. And buying popcorn/giftwrap/whatever for some kids' fundraiser.

Everything else is auto-pay. There was a woman recently in Michigan who was found dead after a 6 years but all her bills were on autopay and no one noticed. A neighbor thought she moved away and mowed the lawn. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/12/new-developments-in-the-case-of-the-mysterious-mummified-woman-supposedly-dead-and-unfound-for-six-years/

PugsterMom said...

One a month to my hair stylist. A few for business (real estate).

audrey said...

I give my landlord post dated checks once a year. I pay my income tax, and anything I order at a home party, like candles or Pampered Chef with a check.

Erik said...

None.

Dexamyl said...

I write them for the utilities that charge for online payments--water, electric, gas--unless I'm late, always a possibility.

But I have a friend who uses checks everywhere. The grocery store, Macy's, wherever. If she wants something from Amazon, she writes me a check and I order it with my CC. She distrusts credit/debit cards and hates using her own cards.

Unknown said...

I write tons of checks! For the cleaning lady, cheer stuff for my daughter, school field trips, etc... I have to carry it everywhere because I never know when I'm going to have to buy a necessity for a kid. But, I never write checks at stores. I rarely use cash.

badguesser said...

I was born in a small town. When my father died, I found the check he wrote to pay the doctor for delivering me. He had saved it 35 years.

ashanean said...

Hello.
I am so a lurker. I use one check basically for rent An online check for Electric. Tey charge you to use a credit card and re don't accept Visa. sometimes I use money orders from the Post Office. All other bills are online. I have an aunt who does not use credit cards or debit cards. Only cash and checks.

Sprink said...

@Seachica--what type of tournament?

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