Start to use checks again?

[Callie]

More and more stores have stopped accepting checks as well, due to check fraud. Using those, people have your bank account number, address, phone number, drivers license number, etc. They could set up direct deposits from your bank!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

If someone gets ahold of your check book (or debit card) they can clean out your account. If someone gets your credit card, you can see the charge and fight it without being out any money. Credit cards are still the safer way to go as long as you are vigilant with monitoring them.

This is why we use our credit card for everything. (Well, that and the SWA points!) Seriously though, we had a doctor's office make an error with dh paying a copay with our debit card. It ended up double billing us. It took several phone calls to straighten it out, faxing copies of receipts & bank statements, etc. This isn't easy when working FT with no personal calls allowed and most dr offices are closed over our lunch break. Half the times I could call, the person I needed to speak to wasn't in. The whole thing took months.

It wasn't fraud but I realized that by allowing someone to reach into our checking account, we now have to fight to get our money back. OTOH, with a credit card I would have been able to fight the charge and wouldn't have to pay it in the meantime. Ever since then, our debit card is only used as an ATM card to get cash from the bank.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

To me, it is very strange how many people (my parents included) think that because they don't shop online their information is not online.

My parents are retired. If they worked, perhaps at their place of employment they would see the internet being used. Being home, they use the internet to shop but won't use online banking. I tell them their bank's computers use the internet to conduct business but I don't know they if they believe me.
I work in a hospital and all of our record-keeping/reports/billing/storing xray images, etc is all internet based. We'd be SOL without the internet.

There's probably a zillion other ways our information is online without our knowledge. It's just part of how business is done these days.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

My area has a good number of stations that charge a higher price for credit gas purchases. Usually around 10 cents more a gallon. But there are many stations that still charge the same for cash or credit, and for some reason they also seem to have among the lowest overall gas prices.

Same here. If I can save a good bit by going to another station that's cash only, I'll go to the bank and get cash for the gas. This doesn't happen very often though. Our one Lukoil has same price for credit and is only maybe .02 more than the cheapest cash-only station. For the 20 cent savings, I'd burn more than 20 cents in gas going to the bank first.

 

[Swimalie]

Ever since then, our debit card is only used as an ATM card to get cash from the bank.

Most banks don't like it and will look at you like you are odd but you can request an ATM-only card. We have one that does not act as a debit card as well.

 

[starwart]

A friend got a contaminated gas from a station which ruined his engine. Luckily he paid by credit card so he was able to prove when and where he got the bad gas. He won the case. Now if he paid by cash it would have been harder to prove where and when he got that bad gas.

 

[starwart]

Paying by check will reveal your bank's routing number + your account number = increased chance of fraud.

 

[tvguy]

Massachusetts. I never said I didn't believe you. I was just agreeing with someone who said it's not done everywhere.

Sort like Oregon. People go there and can't believe pumping your own gas is illegal. I'll have to look more carefully, but even Chevron, which used to always have 1 full service island, has now gone all self serve. Only way to get someone to pump gas here is if you are disabled, and then, the law requiring them to pump it for you doesn't apply if there is only one employee on duty.

 

[tvguy]

Paying by check will reveal your bank's routing number + your account number = increased chance of fraud.

But the bank will restore your funds while they investigate. I have to laugh, I wrote 4 checks yesterday, about as many as I normally write in a month, all to businesses that don't take credit cards or debit cards (but they will bill you in the mail )

 

[StephMK]

I will continue to use debit/credit cards. Checks also have personal info and as another poster pointed out, leads directly to the account too. DH works in fraud and they handle cases of checks that have been "washed" and new information has been entered on it.

The few times I have used a check, it immediately gets run through a machine that puts all the info online into their system anyway. I think identify theft is going to always be an issue. We just have to take precautions when possible and make it as hard as possible for thieves to find it. I believe that the Target situation just shows that it's going to continue to happen -they are not the first or last big breach of electronic security.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

But the bank will restore your funds while they investigate. I have to laugh, I wrote 4 checks yesterday, about as many as I normally write in a month, all to businesses that don't take credit cards or debit cards (but they will bill you in the mail )

Not right away though. In the meantime you wait for your money back. Before our Med cruise last summer we stayed 2 nights in Barcelona. ATM/debit cards are new to my parents and they got their first cards for this trip to be able to easily get Euros.
When my dad saw the sign saying "change" he took it as a way to break a large Euro bill. Really he should have just bought a bottle of water, gum, etc. and could easily break a 50, just like we would here. My mother tried to tell him but he's stubborn & wouldn't listen. (Dh & I were not there at the time.) Instead he tried to get the ATM to exchange a large bill for a small one and it ended up eating his card, probably as a fraud-protection step.

They called back to their bank in the US right away and was told not to worry; if the card was eaten the bank will take care of safely destroying the card. Wrong!
By the time they got home, over $600 was spent on their card before their bank suspected something and shut it down.
It took a few visits to the bank and a few weeks later they got their $ restored to their checking out.
I felt bad because I felt it was sort of his own actions that led to the card being eaten but who would think that the bank employees are just as bad as the pickpockets on the street? Dh & I had no issues with our cards.

My long-winded point is that it still takes a while to get your money back. If you wouldn't miss $600 then my story wouldn't phase you. I would really miss that $600. For me I'd rather battle the $600 off my credit card bill than to know it has already been taken from my checking account.

Everyone has to do what they feel comfortable with.

 

[MillauFr]

Right that is a big difference. With debit cards they can drain your account immediately. With a credit card they are stealing the bank's money. Either way you will almost certainly not have to pay for the fraud it is just easier with a credit card.

 

[tvguy]

Not right away though. In the meantime you wait for your money back. Before our Med cruise last summer we stayed 2 nights in Barcelona. ATM/debit cards are new to my parents and they got their first cards for this trip to be able to easily get Euros.
When my dad saw the sign saying "change" he took it as a way to break a large Euro bill. Really he should have just bought a bottle of water, gum, etc. and could easily break a 50, just like we would here. My mother tried to tell him but he's stubborn & wouldn't listen. (Dh & I were not there at the time.) Instead he tried to get the ATM to exchange a large bill for a small one and it ended up eating his card, probably as a fraud-protection step.

They called back to their bank in the US right away and was told not to worry; if the card was eaten the bank will take care of safely destroying the card. Wrong!
By the time they got home, over $600 was spent on their card before their bank suspected something and shut it down.
It took a few visits to the bank and a few weeks later they got their $ restored to their checking out.
I felt bad because I felt it was sort of his own actions that led to the card being eaten but who would think that the bank employees are just as bad as the pickpockets on the street? Dh & I had no issues with our cards.

My long-winded point is that it still takes a while to get your money back. If you wouldn't miss $600 then my story wouldn't phase you. I would really miss that $600. For me I'd rather battle the $600 off my credit card bill than to know it has already been taken from my checking account.

Everyone has to do what they feel comfortable with.

Must depend on the bank. I found the charge and called and they took it off immediately pending an investigation. I got off the phone and checked my account online, and the money was back that quick. About 6 weeks later I got an email saying their investigation was over, and they would be mailing me their final decision. A few days later, I got the letter, they confirmed the charge was fraudulent, and the case was being closed.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Must depend on the bank. I found the charge and called and they took it off immediately pending an investigation. I got off the phone and checked my account online, and the money was back that quick. About 6 weeks later I got an email saying their investigation was over, and they would be mailing me their final decision. A few days later, I got the letter, they confirmed the charge was fraudulent, and the case was being closed.

Wow, that's fast. This was not the case for my parents at all.

 

[Minnie-Mickey]

In Mass there is often two prices. Not always but often. What gets me mad is some don't post it til after you swipe your card. I always forget at one station put in the min and go across the street. It is stupid I know but it ticks me off that it is not posted. There are a few stations in a row so now I skip the stations in the area because I forget which charges more.

 

[Disney Springs]

But the bank will restore your funds while they investigate. I have to laugh, I wrote 4 checks yesterday, about as many as I normally write in a month, all to businesses that don't take credit cards or debit cards (but they will bill you in the mail )

Yep. DH and I have been with 2 different banks in the past 13 years, and both of them credited our accounts immediately, as they investigated.

I would NOT set up accounts with a bank that did not offer that kind of protection.

As for the OP asking about checks…..nope. I won't go back to writing checks. We only write one check every month, and that's because our landlord doesn't do direct deposit.

 

[carrie1626]

I still write checks:

for cash on payday
dr. bills
groceries

otherwise it's CC for all those reward pts.

With all the CC/DC problems exposed with TARGET and now others, it might have to go back to checks.

Would it really be that bad?