slo’s FRIDAY 9/12 poll - Checking Accounts

[leebee]

Technically we have 2 accounts, but really only use one. Our primary account is the one I use for all bills. My mortgage company wants a check, and we have a few utilities that charge fees for paying by card/automatic withdrawal, and I figure I already pay too much to the utility companies, there's no way I'm paying more! Both of our paychecks are deposited to the one account. I pay most of our bills electronically, but I use the checking account register to keep track of everything- so there'll will be maybe 10 transactions listed, but only 2 of those will be actual checks. I wrote checks for everything until a few months into the pandemic, when the mail was screwed up and payments would arrive late, we incurred fees, etc. That's when I swapped over to online payments for all our credit cards and any other bills that'll take online payments without a fee.

The second account was set up mainly as a pass-through account. For the year my husband was on sabbatical, he drew 1/2 of his usual pay from his university, and that went into our regular account. However he was also working as an idependent consultant, so when he was paid there were never any taxes deducted or anything. It was easier for me (guess who does the financial stuff in our family) to keep all those deposits separate, so it was easier to figure out the quarterly taxes; any deposit in that account was for consulting work. Sure, I'd end up transferring money to our regular account every month, but at least a record for all the "pay our own taxes" income was in one place.

OH... and there's the HELOC, but I don't know where the checks for that might even be. If we need the money, we transfer it to the checking account. It helps that we use only one bank, and they make online money management SO easy (and they don't charge any ATM fees, ever, no matter whose ATM you use!)

 

[MillauFr]

We have a joke in our house that the IRS, mortgage company or bank wouldn't recognize my husbands signature if he actually had to sign a check or document for real!

Signature doesn't really prove anything. I'm shocked that people put so much faith in it.

 

[easyas123]

Signature doesn't really prove anything. I'm shocked that people put so much faith in it.

You’ve got that right-

 

[tvguy]

Signature doesn't really prove anything. I'm shocked that people put so much faith in it.

Well apparently if the bank is questioning the checks, the signature is being looked at by someone or something like a computer that recognizes signatures.. Only issue I have run into is when the check is encoded by the bank incorrectly. The bank called and asked me to come in and cover a check that they bounced. It was for $100, and they paid the check for $1,100. They were very good, fixed their mistake, called the person they bounced the check to AND send a letter explaining the situation as well.

 

[MillauFr]

Well apparently if the bank is questioning the checks, the signature is being looked at by someone or something like a computer that recognizes signatures.. Only issue I have run into is when the check is encoded by the bank incorrectly. The bank called and asked me to come in and cover a check that they bounced. It was for $100, and they paid the check for $1,100. They were very good, fixed their mistake, called the person they bounced the check to AND send a letter explaining the situation as well.

When you scan a check you can just photoshop a perfect copy of the real signature and deposit. Not sure how any computer would pick up that it was photoshopped.

 

[tvguy]

When you scan a check you can just photoshop a perfect copy of the real signature and deposit. Not sure how any computer would pick up that it was photoshopped.

Me either, but clearly it hasn't been a problem.