Who Still Writes Checks?

[DandyDan]

I write a rent check each month and that's generally it. I have had medical bills where I can't locate where their web address is and I'll send a check then, and if I buy something from a relative, it's by check, but my rent check is my only regular check.

I will mention that as of some time in 2020, Casey's no longer accepts checks and I saw an old lady get pissed off at a clerk for this. I felt sorry for the clerk about this.

[NWI_Irish96]

I average about 5 checks a year. One is my membership dues in the letter carriers union. Even though I'm a non-postal Federal employee, they have a really good health plan that I participate in. The membership dues can't be paid online and must be mailed with a check. Other than that, our handyman that does odd jobs at our house still doesn't take Venmo or PayPal so I still pay him with checks.

I use cash even less frequently. Usually just in the vending machines at work on the rare occasions I have to go into the office.

[1995hoo]

Regarding businesses that don't take electronic payments, that doesn't necessarily prevent an individual customer from using the bank's online bill payment service. Our exterminator doesn't accept electronic payments, but I pay using the bill payment service and the bank actually cuts a check and sends it. I once sent my father money that way. I warned him he'd receive a check that looked different from my normal one because it would have a different design and wouldn't be in my handwriting. I guess he forgot because he claimed I hadn't paid him. I then found the check the bank sent him and he said he had thought it might be one of those scam checks where if you deposited it you'd be signing up for something you don't want or change your long-distance carrier or similar.

Incidentally, here's one most of you would regard as a blast from the past: My mom does not use an ATM (doesn't even know what her PIN is and says she doesn't know how to use one, although I'm sure she'd easily figure it out). If she needs cash, she writes a check to "Cash" and goes to the bank. That almost caused a problem last year when the pandemic closures were at their peak (the bank she uses closed their drive-up lanes in favor of drive-up ATMs based on customer usage patterns). I at least got her to use mobile deposit for when she received a check and she liked it.


(Edited to clarify the second paragraph)

[WillWeaverRVA]

The very last time I wrote a check was sometime in 2016. After that, the apartment complex I lived in at the time switched to an electronic payment system and I haven't written a check to anyone since.

[jeffandnicole]

My wife has a small business.  The number of checks she receives has drastically declined, but there are still some customers that will pay via check.  I can deposit these checks via the bank app, but they charge 50 cents per check.  So I just bring them to the bank when I make cash deposits.

For me to deposit checks into a personal account, it's free.

On the whole, I find it baffling and disturbing that paper checks still have both your routing number and account number on them. It makes it too easy to steal info. That happened to my wife in 2017: She wrote a large-amount personal check as a down payment on a car and two business days later someone cleaned out her bank account. She got the money back, thankfully, but setting up a new account, getting new checks, etc., was a big hassle. We're convinced it had to be someone at the car dealership who had access to the check she wrote, but we don't know for sure because we were not informed about how any law enforcement investigation, if any, turned out.

I've longed said this: If someone were to introduce the idea of a "check" today, they would be laughed out of the room based on how insecure the idea would be.  The same people that demanded receipts only show the last 4 digits of an account number also seem to be the people likely to hand a check over to a complete stranger with their name, address, bank name, bank account number and routing number on it.

Yes, I get that. And of course, most companies would be doing way more than three transactions per year - they might be doing ten times that per day. Even if there is a fee (I believe it depends on the bank), it would certainly be worth it for any medium-sized or larger company.

Far from certain–it really depends on the business and the industry the business is in. There are some businesses that require you to do business by fax machine, even now, because everyone in the industry just does stuff by fax so it doesn't seem as weird and out-of-date to them as it does everyone else.

There are some extremes here...some places rely on fax machines; others don't have them anymore.  For the middleman, which is where I can come into play sometimes, it can be a hassle.  And the pandemic didn't help matters where we're doing work from home, dealing with companies that still demand faxes (which is such a 1980's way of thinking that they're more secure than most other options out there).  A few coworkers had to set up their printers to fax.  I was able to work with those I have to deal with to use various forms of secured email. 

[1995hoo]

....

There are some extremes here...some places rely on fax machines; others don't have them anymore.  For the middleman, which is where I can come into play sometimes, it can be a hassle.  And the pandemic didn't help matters where we're doing work from home, dealing with companies that still demand faxes (which is such a 1980's way of thinking that they're more secure than most other options out there).  A few coworkers had to set up their printers to fax.  I was able to work with those I have to deal with to use various forms of secured email. 

Some US government agencies insist on either a mailed paper copy or a fax. I have a fax machine (currently disconnected), but it's an inkjet and the ink cartridge dried up some years ago and I don't want to waste my money on a new one. Last time I needed to send a fax, I went to the UPS Store. It was cheaper to pay them than it was to buy a new ink cartridge. I suppose I could have set up an e-fax service, but that was a hassle under the particular circumstances I had right then.

[webny99]

Depends on the bank. Some may charge per transaction. Mine may even, actually; the only reason I know they charge for access to the ACH portal is because I accidentally activated it once. I noticed the ACH fee, called them up and asked about it, and they re-disabled the portal for me and waived the fee.

As for the postage, the nice thing about that is that it's the customer paying it, not the seller. But as for the postage...

I think you mean ACH fees at the end there?
I have never heard of an ACH fee being charged per transaction. Wire, certainly, but not ACH. And of course, the fact that the customer has to pay postage is one of the reasons they may want to pay by ACH.

... increasingly, a lot of customers expect to be able to pay by ACH, so it's certainly an option you'd want to offer them, and at some point (either as it becomes the norm, or you get more requests for it, or both) it's likely to become more of a necessity than a possibility.

I think you're overvaluing how much a business-to-business customer really cares about the method of payment. Sure, if I sell someone $23 worth of playing cards, if I don't take a convenient method of payment like a credit card, they are going to turn to another company that does. If I sell a business $23,000 worth of playing cards, they are making enough of a commitment to my product that they are really not going to kill the whole sale because I want to be paid by check instead of ACH. ...
Throwing away all of the hours of legwork that went into reaching a deal just because of a stamp would be a pretty big waste of manpower.

It depends on the customer. Certainly, for a very large sale the payment method is likely to be little more than a blip on the radar. But many businesses are dealing with both large and small customers, which is one of the big reasons why I think it's good business practice to offer different options. Also, not offering options can affect perception of the company: Personally, I'd think you're either old-school, a very small company, or both. You'd rather not have your customers thinking that, because even if it doesn't change their decision this time, it might factor in next time.

As for the latter point, that's certainly not what I meant. The reasons they might want to pay by ACH are much more varied than just postage. Maybe they've had checks get lost in the mail - as you mentioned yourself. Maybe they're in an industry where almost everyone accepts it, so that's how they pay, and it's just expected.

I don't do business-to-business sales often, but I have never had anyone ask to pay by ACH. The largest sale I ever did, I asked for payment by check, they offered PayPal instead, I kind of complained because I didn't incorporate PayPal fees into the quote they agreed to, so they just sent extra to cover the fees.

This also depends on the industry and the customer. It sounds like you got a decent customer. Many customers might have just said "stuff it". The larger the company, the less feasible it is to do what you did. A large company would have to have a policy established, and I'd favor making things as convenient as possible for the customer (which tends to have the added benefit of making collections easier), and that means giving them options.

[GaryV]

I write a few checks.  Mainly for things that I'm only going to do once (or rarely repeat) so it's not worth the hassle of entering all the data for an online payment.  Or the occasional home repair, where the repairman doesn't have the capability of accepting a credit card.

Let's just say that I write few enough checks to not have to worry about writing the correct year when the calendar turns over to January.  Or even Feb or March - I don't remember if I wrote a check this year yet.

[OCGuy81]

The last check I used was voided when I updated my direct deposit info a few years back.

[kphoger]

Once a year, when it's time to renew my tags.  Well, last year we renewed by mail because the tag office was closed due to COVID.  But, otherwise, I just walk a few blocks up to the tag office and write a check.

My wife might write a check occasionally, I don't know.

We've also bought our last two vehicles by personal check.  That feels weird, I gotta say.

[Pink Jazz]

I still write checks to my family in Puerto Rico, since Zelle and Venmo are not available in Puerto Rico and my grandparents aren't very tech savvy anyway.  As for prepaid gift cards they carry activation fees on top of their face value.

[Scott5114]

Depends on the bank. Some may charge per transaction. Mine may even, actually; the only reason I know they charge for access to the ACH portal is because I accidentally activated it once. I noticed the ACH fee, called them up and asked about it, and they re-disabled the portal for me and waived the fee.

As for the postage, the nice thing about that is that it's the customer paying it, not the seller. But as for the postage...

I think you mean ACH fees at the end there?
I have never heard of an ACH fee being charged per transaction. Wire, certainly, but not ACH. And of course, the fact that the customer has to pay postage is one of the reasons they may want to pay by ACH.

Like I said, I don't know what additional fees there are, since I've never done ACH origination at my bank. I went to look at their fee schedule just now and it says "We are currently updating this page. For more information about commercial checking accounts, please contact..." so I couldn't tell you for sure.

Also, I don't think you necessarily have to have access to that portal to receive ACH transactions. I transfer money to the business account from my personal account sometimes. I believe that transfer is ACH, but I'm originating it from my personal bank, which doesn't charge a fee for doing so.

... increasingly, a lot of customers expect to be able to pay by ACH, so it's certainly an option you'd want to offer them, and at some point (either as it becomes the norm, or you get more requests for it, or both) it's likely to become more of a necessity than a possibility.

I think you're overvaluing how much a business-to-business customer really cares about the method of payment. Sure, if I sell someone $23 worth of playing cards, if I don't take a convenient method of payment like a credit card, they are going to turn to another company that does. If I sell a business $23,000 worth of playing cards, they are making enough of a commitment to my product that they are really not going to kill the whole sale because I want to be paid by check instead of ACH. ...
Throwing away all of the hours of legwork that went into reaching a deal just because of a stamp would be a pretty big waste of manpower.

It depends on the customer. Certainly, for a very large sale the payment method is likely to be little more than a blip on the radar. But many businesses are dealing with both large and small customers, which is one of the big reasons why I think it's good business practice to offer different options.

Well, keep in mind that the economics are different for large and small customers. For small customers, I charge full retail price and they can pay by credit card, because the full retail price has $1 worth of padding in it that covers the credit card fee. (So the customer is paying the credit card fee, they just don't know it. If there were no such thing as credit card fees, the price would be a dollar less.)

For large customers, the per-unit price is less, since most of the time they're going to be re-selling them, or they're buying them for institutional use and thus need a large number of units. That price does not cover the credit card fee, so it's critical that they pay by check. The credit card fee for a $23,000 transaction would be $928.30, about a fourth of my profit, so that's a kind of substantial amount to lose just to make things easier on some Accounts Payable guy who isn't even making the purchasing decisions.

I don't do business-to-business sales often, but I have never had anyone ask to pay by ACH. The largest sale I ever did, I asked for payment by check, they offered PayPal instead, I kind of complained because I didn't incorporate PayPal fees into the quote they agreed to, so they just sent extra to cover the fees.

This also depends on the industry and the customer. It sounds like you got a decent customer. Many customers might have just said "stuff it". The larger the company, the less feasible it is to do what you did. A large company would have to have a policy established, and I'd favor making things as convenient as possible for the customer (which tends to have the added benefit of making collections easier), and that means giving them options.

I do have a policy established–pay by check. I made an exception to that policy for this customer, who, at the time they suddenly told me they wanted to pay with PayPal, had already received the product a couple of weeks prior, so it's not like they could just make the decision to take their business elsewhere at that point. If they'd said "stuff it", well, then lawyers probably would have gotten involved.

[webny99]

Also, I don't think you necessarily have to have access to that portal to receive ACH transactions. I transfer money to the business account from my personal account sometimes. I believe that transfer is ACH, but I'm originating it from my personal bank, which doesn't charge a fee for doing so.

Well, that's what I'm getting at: if there's no fee to receive the ACH transaction, it's no difference to you, so there's no reason not to accept payment that way. If you've got the recipient's banking info saved in the banking system, it's almost certainly ACH. The banking system(s) I'm familiar with call ACH receptions "electronic deposits" in the item description.

For large customers, the per-unit price is less, since most of the time they're going to be re-selling them, or they're buying them for institutional use and thus need a large number of units. That price does not cover the credit card fee, so it's critical that they pay by check. The credit card fee for a $23,000 transaction would be $928.30, about a fourth of my profit, so that's a kind of substantial amount to lose just to make things easier on some Accounts Payable guy who isn't even making the purchasing decisions.

When I said "options" in this context, I meant check or ACH, not necessarily credit card. Totally understood why you wouldn't accept credit cards for a purchase that large (although some companies do, and some do, but only up to a certain transaction size).

I do have a policy established–pay by check. I made an exception to that policy for this customer, who, at the time they suddenly told me they wanted to pay with PayPal, had already received the product a couple of weeks prior, so it's not like they could just make the decision to take their business elsewhere at that point. If they'd said "stuff it", well, then lawyers probably would have gotten involved.

By "stuff it", I didn't mean take their business elsewhere, but rather, make you eat the fees. Which I imagine you would have done if that's what it came to, similar to how a company that doesn't normally accept credit cards might make an exception if someone with a past-due account said that's the only way they could pay.

[ozarkman417]

As a teenager without a bank account, I have never written a check.

[hbelkins]

There are a handful of things for which I still write checks, including some regular recurring payments. For my water bill, an electronic payment is available online, but there's an additional fee. Another payment I have only offers online payments if you set up automatic deductions, and I don't want to do that because there might be a month when I want to delay that payment by a few days or even skip it for that month.

And I also write a check to my mechanic when I need to pay him for vehicle work, since he doesn't take credit cards. And I have written checks at other stores if I didn't have my debit card with me.

If anything, the number of checks I write has actually increased over the past year.

[Scott5114]

There are a handful of things for which I still write checks, including some regular recurring payments. For my water bill, an electronic payment is available online, but there's an additional fee.

Mine does that too, but it's less than 55¢, so I grumble and pay it since that means technically come out ahead, since I don't use a stamp.

[hbelkins]

There are a handful of things for which I still write checks, including some regular recurring payments. For my water bill, an electronic payment is available online, but there's an additional fee.

Mine does that too, but it's less than 55¢, so I grumble and pay it since that means technically come out ahead, since I don't use a stamp.

The local fee is somewhere around $3, and they have a drop box for payments outside City Hall, which I use because City Hall is within sight of the post office. The only time I have used the online service was last month, when roads were in terrible shape because of snow and no one was going to go to town in that weather just to drop off the water bill. I typically wait until the day it's due to pay it.

[Scott5114]

$3?! Gross! I'd definitely be bothering my city council rep about that if it was that high. But then again, it sounds like you're probably out of city limits, so you probably don't have a city council rep...

I don't know if you can drop off payments at city hall or not. The mailing address for Norman city bill payments is a P.O. box in Oklahoma City for some reason...

[US71]

I pay my rent with a check, plus some doctor bills.

[jeffandnicole]

$3?! Gross! I'd definitely be bothering my city council rep about that if it was that high. But then again, it sounds like you're probably out of city limits, so you probably don't have a city council rep...

In my town, it's $1.05 for a payment out of a bank account; 2.95% of the total if using a credit card.  Water/Sewer, minimum per quarter, is $180.95, so the minimum charge for using a credit card would be $5.34.

In another town I have to pay the water/sewer bill, it's a $1.95 for an ACH payment from your bank account, no limit on the payment; $4.95 flat charge for a Credit Card, with a $500 limit.

While you appear that these charges are high, you're a business owner and should know exactly what you're charged, so why do you think the fee suddenly seems unreasonable?  Someone needs to pay, and these are basic charges to cover the fees charged to the town.

[1995hoo]

I pay my rent with a check, plus some doctor bills.

Come to think of it, I paid for a cleaning at the dentist this past Monday by writing a check. Insurance will reimburse part of it, but I have to pay upfront because my dentist is out of network.

[Scott5114]

While you appear that these charges are high, you're a business owner and should know exactly what you're charged, so why do you think the fee suddenly seems unreasonable?  Someone needs to pay, and these are basic charges to cover the fees charged to the town.

A public utility isn't–or shouldn't be–a for-profit entity.

[kphoger]

I pay my rent with a check, plus some doctor bills.

Forgot about rent.  Yep, that's another monthly check we write.

[Avalanchez71]

I stopped writing checks after they kept coming back around 2019. I ran out and just never reordered.

[jeffandnicole]

While you appear that these charges are high, you're a business owner and should know exactly what you're charged, so why do you think the fee suddenly seems unreasonable?  Someone needs to pay, and these are basic charges to cover the fees charged to the town.

A public utility isn't–or shouldn't be–a for-profit entity.

In both towns, they are township entities.

Some other towns do use for-profit entities, but not in these towns.