Curious: those of you who no longer use paper checks...

[Jane in NC]

A recent reorder of paper checks brought this issue to mind.

 

I have some independent contractors doing work on my house.  They accept cash or check as payment.  Now I don't always know in advance how much cash I would need to have on hand--and frankly I am uncomfortable keeping large sums.

 

So if you don't write a check, how do you pay your plumber, electrician, etc.?

 

Does your town accept credit cards for your property taxes?

 

While I write fewer and fewer checks, it just seems that there are a few cases in which I don't have much choice.

[Joker]

Every one we've done business with takes credit cards. We recently had to have the glass on a patio door replaced. It was kind of an emergency with the glass being broken and I had to take the first person who could get there that day and even they took credit. 

[Tap]

I only write a few checks a year, but I do still have a check book for certain circumstances.  If I know ahead of time how much something is going to cost, I can have my bank issue a check for it, but that takes quite a bit of effort.  I have to drive there, stand in line, etc. 

 

When we had work done to the house, I asked the man for an estimate a few hours before he was done and just went and got him cash from the bank.

 

My bank will print me 10 blank checks or so if I request them (with my name, account number etc), so I assume most banks would do that.  For someone like me that writes one to two per month, that would be a good option. 

 

Almost everything I have paid for by check lately, had a cc, bill pay or cash option.  Even ordering books from a classroom Scholastic flyer, paying for school pictures, etc.  Our daycare accepts electronic bill pay, but not CC.  

 

My daughter just started working as a pet sitter, and we gave him the information he needed to just set her up on bill pay. 

[Jane in NC]

Every one we've done business with takes credit cards. We recently had to have the glass on a patio door replaced. It was kind of an emergency with the glass being broken and I had to take the first person who could get there that day and even they took credit. 

 

The flooring we purchased came from a storefront (small business) who hired a contractor to do our installation. They were happy to take my debit card. But my plumber and electrician work out of their homes and don't take credit cards. 

 

 

[Laura Corin]

Most local traders here will take transfers into their accounts: they give me their bank details and I call my bank and make the transfer.

 

I do keep a cheque book - about three times a year I write cheques, mostly to people like the local athletic association, which is run by volunteers.

 

I can pay my local taxes by monthly direct debit, or with a card at the local post office.  My income tax I pay online with a card.  Most utility bills are paid by monthly direct debit or bank transfer.

[Jane in NC]

Most local traders here will take transfers into their accounts: they give me their bank details and I call my bank and make the transfer.

 

I do keep a cheque book - about three times a year I write cheques, mostly to people like the local athletic association, which is run by volunteers.

 

I can pay my local taxes by monthly direct debit, or with a card at the local post office.  My income tax I pay online with a card.  Most utility bills are paid by monthly direct debit or bank transfer.

 

All of my utility bills are paid directly from my account, but my local taxes do not present that option.  I can't remember if my auto insurance (paid twice a year) has a debit option--I am in the habit of writing a check.

 

I can't help but wonder if writing checks is a passe habit.  I certainly no longer use them at the grocery, for example!

 

[regentrude]

Do everybody's piano teachers, language tutors, fitness instructors, riding teachers, or babysitters accept credit cards?

[Jane in NC]

Part of what inspired this question was being at the outdoor goods store the other day.  They had a sign posted:  "Sorry, we no longer take personal checks."

 

My local wine shop loves it when I write a check over using a charge.  They make more money on the paper check then on plastic.  But apparently checks must be a hassle for some small businesses.

[Amira]

You can, technically, create your own check on a regular piece of paper if you put on all the pertinent information, but that doesn't mean everyone will accept it.  If I didn't have a checkbook at all, there are always other ways to pay, but keeping the checkbook around makes a few transactions a year easier so it's worth it to me to have it on hand even though the address on it is always out of date.

[Laura Corin]

All of my utility bills are paid directly from my account, but my local taxes do not present that option.  I can't remember if my auto insurance (paid twice a year) has a debit option--I am in the habit of writing a check.

 

I can't help but wonder if writing checks is a passe habit.  I certainly no longer use them at the grocery, for example!

 

 

Shops don't accept them here any more - perhaps for the last four years.  We don't have any kind of universally-accepted picture ID, and the banks have stopped issuing the cheque guarantee cards that we used to use.

[regentrude]

Part of what inspired this question was being at the outdoor goods store the other day.  They had a sign posted:  "Sorry, we no longer take personal checks."

 

My local wine shop loves it when I write a check over using a charge.  They make more money on the paper check then on plastic.  But apparently checks must be a hassle for some small businesses.

 

I assume that's because of people whose bad checks bounce. They ruin it for the rest of us.

[Joker]

Do everybody's piano teachers, language tutors, fitness instructors or babysitters accept credit cards?

 

Our music teachers have all been through a larger business and have taken credit/debit. Our gym is automatically drafted from our bank account. We don't use babysitters anymore but we always paid cash. We've never used tutors.

[carriede]

We can pay with CC for most utilities... for a fee. I'd rather pay the extra postage and buy checkbooks from my bank than pay $6 a month in fees.

 

It probably evens out in the end, and I understand why the fees are there, but I still don't like it.

 

ETA: Just did the math. Definitely cheaper to pay with check by mail. I win.

[mathnerd]

My son's music teachers, math specialist and chess coach take checks and no other form of payment. For everything else, we use online bill pay or paypal. 

 

ETA: the art teacher accepts paypal, but the other tutors don't want to lose commission or extra money by setting up modern conveniences like electronic payments..

[Pawz4me]

We pay almost everything electronically or with a credit card but we do still have an old fashioned checkbook. Just today I wrote one to pay the pet sitter. I'd say we write one or two checks a month on average. Our county does accept credit or debit cards for property taxes, but they add on a hefty fee. So we write checks for that.

[Guest]

I can go to the bank and have them print me three checks (either free or $2). That's good enough for the piano teacher. My pest guy just recently started taking cards which is nice. Everywhere else I pay cash. Unless I have to call the plumber or something. I do have to write a check for the irrigation co-op once a year.

[abacus2]

I pay my music teachers with electronic bill pay from my bank. My bank will send a paper check in the mail to anyone as long as I have their address.

[Jane in NC]

I pay my music teachers with electronic bill pay from my bank. My bank will send a paper check in the mail to anyone as long as I have their address.

 

Thank you for the reminder!  My credit union has this service but I have not investigated it.

 

[foxbridgeacademy]

On the rare occasion that I can't pay with cash or card I will get a money order.  I haven't used paper checks since 2008.

[AmandaVT]

I need checks fairly regularly, although my preference is to do all my banking electronically. 

 

Our rec center doesn't take credit cards, so tennis lessons are check only

any plumber/carpenter/electrician/etc that comes to the house

Property taxes can be paid with a credit card, but if you go that route, you get charged an extra fee, so I pay by check

My Dr's office of all places- doesn't take credit cards, so I need cash or a check for my copays

[KathyBC]

Still using cheques, but e-transfers are pretty easy.

[SparklyUnicorn]

Everyone takes cards pretty much.  The roofer wanted cash or a check.  Once we had the amount we went and got a bank check.  I can also have my bank send checks if they can't do an automatic transfer.  I use that if someone is willing to wait for it to be mailed to them.

I do have a few checks left, but I use maybe 1 or 2 a year. 

 

 

[Guest]

I use electronic banking. They write the checks and send them along.

[Renthead Mommy]

I don't do the bills, but I still write a decent number of checks.  I still need it for birthday cards, graduation cards, wedding gifts.  I just wrote on the other day for a pie fundraiser (everyone buying had given me cash, so I just wrote one check to cover all orders including mine.  But we needed them often for field trips that needed to be paid ahead of time.  Plus book and curric sales.   I haven't really ever written a check for a real store purchase (we were always credit carders), and we've been paying most bills via online checking for 20 years, but I can't imagine not having that checkbook for options.  

[justasque]

... My bank will send a paper check in the mail to anyone as long as I have their address.

 

My bank does this and it's super-easy.  I can even do it using the app from my phone.  It's way quicker than writing one out, assuming the person is willing to wait for it to come in the mail.  I do always give a heads-up that they should look out for it, so they don't assume it's junk mail and chuck it.

[Laura Corin]

I don't do the bills, but I still write a decent number of checks.  I still need it for birthday cards, graduation cards, wedding gifts.  I just wrote on the other day for a pie fundraiser (everyone buying had given me cash, so I just wrote one check to cover all orders including mine.  But we needed them often for field trips that needed to be paid ahead of time.  Plus book and curric sales.   I haven't really ever written a check for a real store purchase (we were always credit carders), and we've been paying most bills via online checking for 20 years, but I can't imagine not having that checkbook for options.  

 

I don't give cheques as gifts - I give gift cards instead, which I buy with a credit card.  For the pie situation, I'd take the cash and then call up to transfer the money straight to the vendor.  For book sales, I'd use cash.

[Renthead Mommy]

I don't give cheques as gifts - I give gift cards instead, which I buy with a credit card.  For the pie situation, I'd take the cash and then call up to transfer the money straight to the vendor.  For book sales, I'd use cash.

 

 

Well I wouldn't have a clue what gift card to get most of these kids/people! LOL!  I don't like Visa cards, I've heard of way too many problems with them and they charge so much extra.  Plus a few hundred in points won't make that much of a difference in cc point trade in.  

 

The vendor is the school.  They collect the  cash and checks and then turn one big check over to the orchard.  

 

I don't carry much cash.  I never really have. I have always put everything on my credit card. When we moved south that was an issue, but only because at that point, Chic fil a didn't take credit cards.  Most of my friends don't carry cash either.  Everything is on credit cards then we pay it all off every month.  

 

As for transfering money straight to a vendor, I can write a check so much faster than figuring out how to go about doing that.  What little cash I have on me I keep.  Hence writing one check for all the pies and keeping the cash.  I try not to charge things under $5, but sometime you just gotta have a coffee! 

 

So while I would never give up my credit cards, I can't imagine not having a check to write for something.  

[LucyStoner]

Do everybody's piano teachers, language tutors, fitness instructors, riding teachers, or babysitters accept credit cards?

Piano and violin teacher: I give her cash most of the time. A stack of twenties 1-2x a month for weekly lessons.

 

Tutors: cash or online payment.

 

Fitness instructor (boot camp instructor): register online and make payment via PayPal.

 

Babysitters: Cash, PayPal or similar in the past, now it just doesn't come up.

 

I accept PayPal and square payments from some clients.

 

Despite all that, we still have a checkbook.

[Pam in CT]

Do everybody's piano teachers, language tutors, fitness instructors, riding teachers, or babysitters accept credit cards?

 

Yeah, these kinds of people are mostly where my checks go.  Also smallish one-off things, like the library book sale, kids' school teacher appreciation fund, field trip fees etc (where they would take a card, but since they know me would prefer not to have to pay the %).

[rebcoola]

I have a check book it just hasn't run out in years, but our bank does an e-check to anyone all our bills are paid that way.  They also do an automatic transfer to anyone using just their email, phone or bank account number.  Even our friends that do in home sales LuLu Roe, Usborne etc take cards here using their smart phones.

[Wabi Sabi]

Do everybody's piano teachers, language tutors, fitness instructors, riding teachers, or babysitters accept credit cards?

Right. We hadn't written checks for several years, but now that the kids are getting older and in more activities I've found that I write more checks than ever: dance class, our grandmotherly piano teacher who teaches from her home, nature classes, when I have to mail money to the organizer of a field trip because you're not going to see her at park day, the writing class, the foreign language tutor, etc. These are all individuals, not companies. For me, writing a check is faster than going out of the way to find an ATM that won't give me exact cash. I've also had a couple of the instructors tell me that they actually prefer checks for record keeping purposes. We just ordered our first box of new checks in many years and now end up writing several a week. 

[SparklyUnicorn]

Do everybody's piano teachers, language tutors, fitness instructors, riding teachers, or babysitters accept credit cards?

 

My violin instructor took cards.

[SparklyUnicorn]

I usually pay tutors, etc. in cash.  Checks are a pain on all ends.  I just get cash back when I do my food shopping. 

 

 

[TravelingChris]

I pay my house cleaner with checks.  I pay appliance workers with checks too usually.  I also use checks for some government offices that charge a fee for debit or credit cards.  I use my bank;s electronic bill paying service to write checks to more people like the pest control company and physicians.

[momma2three]

Do everybody's piano teachers, language tutors, fitness instructors, riding teachers, or babysitters accept credit cards?

 

Yes, whenever I hear people say that they never use checks anymore, I always wonder about this!  I write a few checks a week.  Not to stores (which usually don't take them), but to individuals that I want to pay.  I had to write a check for a lawyer today, will be writing a check for scouts this weekend, and one for swim lessons next week.

 

And as a Girl Scout leader, I deal almost entirely with checks.  Parents write me checks, I deposit them, I pay for things on my credit card and write myself a check out of the troop account... nice, clear, simple paper trail in case anyone ever has suspicions I'm skimming off the top or something. 

 

I guess what I don't really understand is that credit cards make everything more expensive.  They charge fees, which the service providers pass on to you.

[marbel]

<snip>

 

I guess what I don't really understand is that credit cards make everything more expensive.  They charge fees, which the service providers pass on to you.

 

Credit card companies do charge fees, and I'm sure that's reflected in prices overall, but most merchants don't add to the cost of an individual purchase when someone uses a card to pay.  I've seen some gas stations that have a lower price for cash purchases. And when I had some work done on my car, the body shop I went to said I could pay with a cc, but they would add 1.5% to the bill to cover their fee, so I wrote a check.   I can't think of any other instance where I would have paid more by using a cc.  So generally I pay the same as someone else paying cash anyway.  It would do me no good to stop using my card (which has no fees and gives me points on my purchases). 

 

[Kareni]

We still use checks to pay for groceries, utilities, phone, water, property taxes, and credit card bills.  I also use them to purchase gift certificates at various stores.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

Oh, and my husband's tutoring clients pay him with checks or cash (more of the former than the latter).

 

Regards,

Kareni

[abba12]

In Australia cheques are all but unheard of. Shops don't accept them anymore I don't think, bills I guess have the option but I don't know anyone who does it. Tradesmen and such wont accept checks because they bounce. I have never written a cheque and have no idea how to, or what to do with it. I've received them once or twice, one from a community group run by older people, and Medicare has only just phased out sending refunds in cheque, though other government payments have been deposited directly into my account for as long as I've been receiving them. The few cheques I got were a total pain because getting into the bank to cash them never happened, they ended up sitting in the car for months. I heard some ATMs will cash cheques but I have no idea how or which ones.

 

Most things accept debit card, or electronic transfer (direct deposit). It's just standard here. Even my dad running a one-man business cleaning carpet had an eftpos machine for credit/debit cards, and he refused checks. 

 

I pay people like music teachers and house cleaner etc in cash. I pay tradesmen with a direct deposit. Many tradesmen now have portable eftpos/debit card machines. The rent and other regular bills are automatically debited out of our account, we don't have to do anything except provide details and sign that we agree for X amount to be debited out weekly/monthly/whatever. Someone mentioned girl scouts, they have eftpos/credit card facilities here or accept cash. We even pay our tithe with electronic transfer to the church bank account. Gifts are always cash in a greeting card, or a gift card I guess, but cash is more common. 

 

I didn't realize Americans routinely still used cheques until recently, and it kind of blows my mind. That is such an old fashioned and obsolete idea here. The whole concept is very strange to me. 

[SeaConquest]

I pay our babysitter via PayPal. I pay our housekeeper via Wells Fargo Sure Pay straight to her account. All bills and taxes are paid online. We have a small business and my husband just swipes the card on his phone or gets paid via PayPal.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

I write about 7 checks a month for piano teacher, a monthly donation to a charity, quarterly to waste removal service, gifts for graduations/weddings/etc, hangar rental and airplane services.  Certain small businesses and individuals (like me) don't have the means to process electronic payments.  

[nd293]

Usually I get their bank details and transfer payment into their account, or I phone their office with my credit card details. Occasionally one has a portable card machine with them.

 

ETA: Like abba12 I'm in Australia and I agree that electronic payments are the norm here. A while ago I purchased something from a flea market and the seller was able to use some sort of PayPal app on her phone to take a credit card payment from me.

[Sarah CB]

Do everybody's piano teachers, language tutors, fitness instructors, riding teachers, or babysitters accept credit cards?

 

I send our music teachers an e-transfer.  I don't know if that's an option in the US, but I just go into my online banking and enter their email address and the amount I want to send to them.  

[Sarah CB]

Does the US allow for emailing money?

 

After posting, I was thinking about all the times I emailed money this year.  It's such a simple process - go into my online banking, enter an email address and the amount I want to send to the person, hit submit.  On the receiver's end, they get an email saying they've been sent money and then they're given a link to sign-in to their own online banking then they deposit the money into their account.  Seriously easy.

 

Group gifts for the kids' teachers were done this way.  One parent organized the gift, everyone else emailed money to that person.  I pay for most of our music lessons that way.  I sent my nephew some money for his birthday that way (emailed it to my sister).  

[Laura Corin]

I told Husband (American) about people using cheques and also not having chip and pin cards, and he put his head in his hands, saying 'A country that contains Silicon Valley....'.

[shawthorne44]

I have checks but I don't carry checks.  For situations where I am paying the person directly or almost directly, I prefer to pay cash.  I figure it costs the same to me, and they seem to really appreciate it.  Paying in cash buys me good will without actually costing anything.  Sometimes I will do a mix.  For example, the people we hired to install the major part to the furnace when it was moved into the attic.  I had cash for a little over the expected amount, but there were extra charges.  So, I gave them all the cash I had and wrote a check for the rest.  

 

But there are situations in which they charge extra for using a card, the amount is really large, and paying cash would raise eyebrows.  Property taxes for example.  

[Holly]

We still use checks for the rare occasion.  I use them for tithing, but I'm tempted to switch to cash because they like to deposit them all at the end of the month.  We also use checks for piano lessons.  Those are the only regular payments we make with them.  

 

DH sometimes gets cash from the ATM to pay for things when they don't take a card (and he doesn't have a checkbook)...although they like to tack on a dollar or two, so that could get expensive if you did it very often.

[momma2three]

Does the US allow for emailing money?

 

After posting, I was thinking about all the times I emailed money this year.  It's such a simple process - go into my online banking, enter an email address and the amount I want to send to the person, hit submit.  On the receiver's end, they get an email saying they've been sent money and then they're given a link to sign-in to their own online banking then they deposit the money into their account.  Seriously easy.

 

Group gifts for the kids' teachers were done this way.  One parent organized the gift, everyone else emailed money to that person.  I pay for most of our music lessons that way.  I sent my nephew some money for his birthday that way (emailed it to my sister).  

 

No, I don't think we have that.  At least, I haven't heard of it.  There's PayPal, but that's a bit different, and I only ever really hear of people using PayPal for online transactions through ebay or small stores.

[Laura Corin]

No, I don't think we have that.  At least, I haven't heard of it.  There's PayPal, but that's a bit different, and I only ever really hear of people using PayPal for online transactions through ebay or small stores.

 

Can you just call your bank (telephone banking operator) and ask for them to make a one-off transfer to someone's account?  Or you can do it online.  That's what we (UK) mostly do to pay trades people.  It doesn't cost anything.

[shawthorne44]

Can you just call your bank (telephone banking operator) and ask for them to make a one-off transfer to someone's account?  Or you can do it online.  That's what we (UK) mostly do to pay trades people.  It doesn't cost anything.

 

That doesn't work in the U.S.  

 

Years ago I was able to make transfers into my parent's account.  When I bought the house I'd borrowed money and every paycheck I'd pay whatever I could.  Now I can't even do that.  That is even within the same bank where most of the employees know both my father and I.