Resolved: To never write another check
I will never write another check again.
Any company or service provider who needs to be paid anything regularly can be set up for automatic billing through my bank or through their billing system. My bank will write the check for me, if need be — whether it’s for my gardener or the daycare my kids go to or what-have-you.
Anyone else who needs money can take cash or paypal or a bank transfer.
Checks had a good run (2100 years or so, if this article is to be believed), but I will no longer be a part of perpetuating this dead end of financial technology.
Why? My handwriting sucks. I hate having to wait for them to clear. I hate having to manually classify them in financial programs. I don’t want to have to carry around a checkbook. And who wants to pay other people?
I will still accept them. Begrudgingly. For now.
January 2nd, 2010 at 7:12 pm
Wish I had USAA. They’re the first to allow you to scan/photograph a check (via iPhone even!) rather than dropping it off somewhere. Hope the others get with it until we can universally move on from paper.
January 2nd, 2010 at 4:22 pm
I don’t write checks anymore. The only bill I pay in person is my water bill, because they don’t have online bill pay.
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January 2nd, 2010 at 4:29 pm
I don’t write many, but I resented each one last year. This year, no more, I say. No more. #timetotakeastand
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January 2nd, 2010 at 4:37 pm
The only time I’ve ever had to handle a cheque in my 17 years has been when I made a mistake on my tax return form and it couldn’t be direct deposited into my bank. And I can’t remember a time recently when my parents have ever had to write or receive a cheque. Besides, a cheque is about $7
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January 2nd, 2010 at 4:42 pm
I thought I was all cool using my on-line bill pay, only to realize that about 60% of the time, they’re just mailing the other party a check anyways.
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January 2nd, 2010 at 4:45 pm
SAM, as long as I don’t have to write it, I don’t mind what they do on the backend. They’ll switch over to electronic transfers soon enough. Bryce, $7? Ouch.
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January 2nd, 2010 at 4:54 pm
Well $7 is for a bank cheque, I believe it’s possible to get a personal cheque book for free but why bother. Really, the only people who use cheques here are businesses and government, and even they are moving to electronic payments. In fact, it was only a few years ago you could only get your tax refund by cheque for example.
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January 2nd, 2010 at 5:05 pm
We still pay rent by check.
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January 2nd, 2010 at 5:09 pm
I still pay my rent by check, but that’s it. The only thing that concerns me about going entirely to electronic transfers is that I have absolutely no faith in the financial institutions to refrain from further abusing EFT fees when we’re all totally dependent on them.
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January 2nd, 2010 at 5:21 pm
i still pay a couple of insurance bills by check cos there’s no other option with the companies in question.
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