slo’s MONDAY 1/30 poll - Writing Checks

[MillauFr]

I haven’t written a check in many, many years. My checks still have the address from two homes ago on them.

There’s such an issue with check-washing in my area that I wouldn’t even consider it a safe method of payment. It seems like every other day there’s a new post on Nextdoor from someone who’s been a victim, and the general responses are no longer that of sympathy but of frustration. As in, “Why is anyone still putting checks in the mail?! You must know better by now. What did you expect would happen?”

https://www.axios.com/2022/11/16/check-washing-mailbox-fishing

And even worse people still write checks in stores where all fraudsters need is a picture of their check to then print their own checks with victim's account number.

 

[tvguy]

I'll write a check today at the Dentist. They do take credit and debit cards, but if I pay cash or check they give a 15% discount.

 

[CdnCarrie]

I'll write a check today at the Dentist. They do take credit and debit cards, but if I pay cash or check they give a 15% discount.

I just checked my dentist’s website and they only take credit and debit.
My insurance pays 80% of my dental at the time if treatment so I only pay small amount usually with credit card.

Can’t think of any private businesses that I use that still accept cheques.

 

[fla4fun]

I pay my lawn guy monthly with a check, and if I have any work done on the house that usually gets paid by check. My regular monthly bills I either pay by phone or online.

 

[marthachick]

I write a check to church when we get paid so at least bi-weekly. And it’s rare that I write one for anything else. I pay bills online or they’re drafted.

 

[tvguy]

I just checked my dentist’s website and they only take credit and debit.
My insurance pays 80% of my dental at the time if treatment so I only pay small amount usually with credit card.

Can’t think of any private businesses that I use that still accept cheques.

Not even the grocery store?

 

[Smugpugmug]

Not even the grocery store?

One of the grocery stores I go to stopped accepting checks last year and they got a lot of criticism for it. I'm not sure if they reversed that change as I never pay with a check.

 

[kdonnel]

I checked my bank and I wrote 10 checks in 2022.

4 were related to renewing passports.

In 2021 I wrote 1 check.

I only write a check if that is the only form of payment accepted. Otherwise it all goes on a credit card for the points/rewards.

 

[design_mom]

I write checks occasionally, but not very often. It's mainly for one-off bills that don't have an easy way to pay online (all of our recurring bills are set up to pay online), or for gifts, etc. Between DH and me, I think we only write a few checks a year though.

 

[kymom99]

One per month to church. Others for occasional things like paying the plumbing bill.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Not even the grocery store?

Walmart and Safeway haven’t accepted cheques here for years. Like a good decade.
We have a very different banking system than in the USA.

If the money is in your account to write a cheque why not just debit it.
I realize where you are there are extra charges to do so. That’s not very common here.

 

[DisneyHardin]

Not even the grocery store?

I was without my debit card for a week while they were sending me a new one and I was going to write a check at Kroger and they wouldn't take it.

 

[1420Elexismc]

I personally write out a check once a month for our rent. At work, I cut checks daily to our vendors.

 

[mrodgers]

I was down to rent as we didn't have a way of paying online. Bought up by a faceless corporation 4 states away. 40% increase in rent, but I can pay online now. If fact, that's the only way to pay, online unless you do the money order thing.

So, no more checks for me.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Here in Chicago we have an amazingly successful 'fast casual' restaurant, Portillo's. Started here in Chicago, now has over 70 locations, mostly here in Chicago and surrounding states, but now also where there are a large number of Chicago people visiting or living, CA, AZ, TX, and FL.

https://www.portillos.com/locations/

https://www.chicagotribune.com/subu...0230112-sofslwtzpzfkrgij4klrftp5su-story.html

(may be a pay wall on the newspaper)

About 70% of their business is drive through. They just went cashless a week or so ago for all drive through orders, credit or debit only. If you want to pay cash, you have to go inside. In the newspaper article about the change, they said the average Portillo's store took in $5 million in drive through business in November, $2 million inside. They said cash is too slow and too dangerous for robbery (they have the driveway loaded with order takers).

 

[CdnCarrie]

Apple Pay is big here now. My kids use it.
My kids will never experience writing a cheque.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Apple Pay is big here now. My kids use it.
My kids will never experience writing a cheque.

I use Google Wallet, (same as the Apple one) generally wherever I can for in person purchases.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Both my husband and I write checks, although he does the bulk of them.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

Back before I had a representative payee on my account I still never wrote checks. I think of them as archaic and easy to manipulate. I can remember the last time I wrote two checks on the same day-it was 2006, and I was transferring money from my Mom's life insurance payout account into mine and my sister's personal accounts.

 

[tvguy]

My kids will never experience writing a cheque.

My daughter said that, until she went to buy a car and the car dealer wouldn't take a debit card for down payment. Had to be check or cash. She had to run to the Credit Union to get a Cashiers Check.
And she doesn't write many checks, but since she bought her house 3 years ago, she has discovered some of the services she needs are cash or check only. Landscaper and fencing contractor, and the company that put in her security cameras, for example.