“Do you still write many checks?”
— Question posted on Reddit’s “Ask an Old Person”
Whenever I comment on a question like this on Reddit, Facebook, or Twitter, I feel like The Algorithm is just going to pigeon-hole my response. Unless, of course, I say something remotely controversial. Why scream into the void elsewhere when I can be ignored on my own site?
No. Last year, I wrote seven. Everything else was an ACH (Automated Clearing House, aka “bank to bank”) transfer or I put it on my credit card, then paid off the credit card via ACH.
Checks written generally fall into a few buckets:
- Workers that come to the house (plumber, roof repair) or charities. It saves them the credit card fee and is convenient to just hand them a check when they’re done.
- There are fees for ACH in excess of the cost of a stamp and envelope. My homeowner’s association inexplicably charges $2.50 for ACH, 3% for credit card, and nothing if I mail it to their processor in Las Vegas (where someone has to open the envelope and note that it’s for my account).
- ACH is unavailable, there is a fee for credit card usage. My property tax ($$$$) finally started accepting ACH, just in time for the second payment later this year.
- Only form accepted. AOPA’s Outgoing QSL program only takes checks for money orders.
As someone with terrible handwriting, I do not miss check-writing, especially the having to write out the amount; “one million united states dollars and no/100.”
I don’t mind receiving checks since depositing them is simply scanning them into my bank’s mobile app. The bank does put a temporary hold – usually three days – on large deposits.
The last time I needed more checks, I was given the option of printing two pages in the bank office for no charge, which would last me over a year.