Old ladies paying with personal checks...

[scotpens]

I keep track of my bank balance and pay a lot of my bills online, but I find that paper checks still have their uses. A couple of my doctors don't yet have their offices set up to take online payment or debit cards. And because paper checks usually take two or three days to clear, I can use them to advance myself cash when I'm a bit short.

Checks are solid, dependable, and while writing them, I do so enjoy gazing at the interesting designs I spend so much time choosing when ordering new stock!!!

Mine have pictures of Betty Boop.

Oh, and never order your checks from the bank. Banks have at least a 200% markup on check orders. I get mine direct from the check printing company.

I am 56 years old and I have never written a cheque in my entire life.

My sister used to send me a cheque for her share of the annual fees at Ancestry or to pay for me to order books online for her (she just won't buy things online herself). I hate having to go into the bank to deposit ii, so after I nagged her she agreed to put the money into my account by direct deposit.

When I need to deposit a check, I use an ATM. I assume you have ATMs in Tasmania?

 

[Drone]

Debit cards are a shell game

Explain?

I felt moved to come out swinging in my response so I was a bit inexact in that characterization. My beef is with hidden fees that are often associated with them and the easily experienced false sense of security that their use projects. Candidly though, anyone can find themselves acting foolishly regardless of the primary payment instrument that they employ, without using the requisite care, caution, and prudence.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Debit cards are a shell game

Explain?

I felt moved to come out swinging in my response so I was a bit inexact in that characterization. My beef is with hidden fees that are often associated with them

Well, then that's the bank's problem, not the card itself. Any decent bank will let you use a debit card (and its associated checking accounts) for free. Banks that charge fees for these sort of things - as well as annual fees for credit cards - are not worth your time.

@MissChicken: Do you have an iOS device? Many banks have apps that will let you deposit checks with those. Just use the app to take a picture of the check with the device's camera. It'll deposit automatically.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I keep track of my bank balance and pay a lot of my bills online, but I find that paper checks still have their uses. A couple of my doctors don't yet have their offices set up to take online payment or debit cards. And because paper checks usually take two or three days to clear, I can use them to advance myself cash when I'm a bit short.

Checks are solid, dependable, and while writing them, I do so enjoy gazing at the interesting designs I spend so much time choosing when ordering new stock!!!

Mine have pictures of Betty Boop.

Oh, and never order your checks from the bank. Banks have at least a 200% markup on check orders. I get mine direct from the check printing company.

I am 56 years old and I have never written a cheque in my entire life.

My sister used to send me a cheque for her share of the annual fees at Ancestry or to pay for me to order books online for her (she just won't buy things online herself). I hate having to go into the bank to deposit it, so after I nagged her she agreed to put the money into my account by direct deposit.

When I need to deposit a check, I use an ATM. I assume you have ATMs in Tasmania?

My nearest ATM is outside my bank and I find it is often quicker to go into the bank than to wait in the ATM line.

 

[Miss Chicken]

@MissChicken: Do you have an iOS device? Many banks have apps that will let you deposit checks with those. Just use the app to take a picture of the check with the device's camera. It'll deposit automatically.

I have just been checking to see if this service is offered by Australian banks. It seems it isn't mainly because cheque use is so low, at least in urban Australia, that it has never been introduced.

 

[Australis]

I don't think I've written a cheque since the 70s.

@relayer1: internet banking is as safe as anything else (eg, walking round with a wad of cash and getting mugged). At regular intervals (usually monthly), the bank issues a statement of your transactions, and if you observe something has gone astray, you can bring it to their attention. It's not like your cash can completely vanish. Hidden fees? Yes, problematical, but our consumer watchdogs are trying to clamp down on them.

 

[scotpens]

My nearest ATM is outside my bank and I find it is often quicker to go into the bank than to wait in the ATM line.

Here it's the opposite: it's almost always quicker to use an ATM (most banks have several machines outside so there's only a short line, if any) than to go inside the bank and wait in line for a teller. Besides, I have a checking account plan that charges a fee for teller service.

 

[Miss Chicken]

My nearest ATM is outside my bank and I find it is often quicker to go into the bank than to wait in the ATM line.

Here it's the opposite: it's almost always quicker to use an ATM (most banks have several machines outside so there's only a short line, if any) than to go inside the bank and wait in line for a teller. Besides, I have a checking account plan that charges a fee for teller service.

My bank only has one ATM and they usually have at least two tellers inside, occasionally three. I have a pensioner account so I don't have to pay any fees.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Explain?

I felt moved to come out swinging in my response so I was a bit inexact in that characterization. My beef is with hidden fees that are often associated with them

Well, then that's the bank's problem, not the card itself. Any decent bank will let you use a debit card (and its associated checking accounts) for free. Banks that charge fees for these sort of things - as well as annual fees for credit cards - are not worth your time.

Indeed. I never get charged anything to use my debit card. I wouldn't keep it otherwise.

 

[Avon]

i've never had a book of cheques with my bank account and no one seems to accept them here for anything.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

I don't think I've written a cheque since the 70s.

Same here. Haven't seen one in decades. Everyone uses direct bank transfer / direct debit. With snail mail being so unreliable, it'd be Russian Roulette, financially speaking, to send cheques to your bank. (Here in the country banks are rare and public transport sucks, so most people use EC-cards* to shop and online banking for everything else. Credit cards are almost never used for shopping, only if you buy a new car or furniture for thousands of Euros.



*Gotta explain that, I think, as afaik not all countries have something like that:
an EC-card is a card attached to your giro account and when you pay with it, the sum gets taken off your account by direct debit. Very handy, quick, comfortable and quite safe.

 

[Pingfah]

I occasionally pay people like solicitors by dropping a cheque in, I'd never pay by cheque in a shop though.

I don't think anybody in the UK would allow you to anymore anyway. We all have chip & pin now, I've not seen anybody pay by cheque in 10 years or more.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I wish we had chip/PIN credit cards in the US. Unfortunately the best we can manage is chip and signature, which isn't anywhere near as secure.

 

[RandyS]

^ Maybe not always, but in this case it definitely IS a good thing.

Checks are a relic, nothing more.

Paying electronically has it's drawbacks. Computers can fail. Records could be lost forever that way. Paying for something by check helps us get around that. I see no reason not to have some sort of back-up.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Checks can be forged, altered, damaged, stolen or lost. If they're mailed, THAT can be lost.

Yes, computers can fail, but that's why companies' computer systems have redundant backups, firewalls, etc. And electronic payments cannot, by definition, be lost. That's why e-payments are more secure - and what's more, simply more efficient - than any check.

 

[J.T.B.]

As someone who has had to cancel two debit cards this year thanks to Target and The Home Depot, paper checks aren't sounding so bad right now.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ I'm sure cancelling cards is a hassle, but any decent bank will make it as small of one as possible.

And any places you used that debit card at, could have snuck off with your check and done who knows what. Your account number is on it, of course.

Besides, if this bothers you so much, just use a credit card. Anything comes up, dispute the charge. Good luck trying that with forged or altered (or simply bank-fucked-up - I had that happen once) checks.

 

[J.T.B.]

^ I'm sure cancelling cards is a hassle, but any decent bank will make it as small of one as possible.

And any places you used that debit card at, could have snuck off with your check and done who knows what. Your account number is on it, of course.

Besides, if this bothers you so much, just use a credit card. Anything comes up, dispute the charge. Good luck trying that with forged or altered (or simply bank-fucked-up - I had that happen once) checks.

Yes, it was meant a bit tongue-in-cheek, but if a retailer takes debit cards, the transaction should be secure, period. The consumer shouldn't have to deliberate upon which way is less or more safe to use. If US banks and retailers want to encourage debit card use they should get with the times, spend some money and implement Chip+Pin/EMV standards.

I've had the same account for 22 years and never had a single issue with paper checks.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

I still use checks, but not for the grocery store.

 

[RoJoHen]

If US banks and retailers want to encourage debit card use they should get with the times, spend some money and implement Chip+Pin/EMV standards.

Unfortunately this is probably something that will have to be legally mandated in order to take hold. I certainly know my employer wouldn't spend money to upgrade to this system unless he absolutely had to.