Do you write checks anymore?

[Kristen]

I was thinking about the poor check companies, and how they must be feeling like hair-spray companies felt once the 80s were over. :giggle

I pretty much only write checks for our tithe to our church. I could elect to have a certain amount electronically debited from our account, but our income varies each month, so that would be difficult to do.

I also write the odd check here and there to members of my family...for instance, I write one to my sister-in-law every week because she pays for the milk when she picks it up, and then I reimburse her.

Other than that, I use my credit cards for everything. I have several cash-back rewards ones and I use whichever one gives me the most rewards for what I'm buying. I have one that gives 5% on gas, and one that gives 5% on groceries, and so on. I've gotten hundreds and hundreds of dollars of rewards this way that I'd never have gotten if I was paying by check still. :thumbsup

[Beka]

If i am sending more than $20 to school with Chase for any reason- I don't like her carrying large amounts of cash, nor do i want to have to suffer the loss if it does get taken! (she's had pens, a ruler- even her lunchbox LID stolen at school!!!- her friend had his shoes taken whilst playing football!)

Also when i pay my vacation deposit if we're travelling inside the UK, i prefer to send a cheque rather than all my card details by post. (we usually go camping if we stay in the UK and most campsites don't have the facilities to take on line payments)

[freebiemom]

I still write checks but for most anything I can pay for with a credit card, I do so. Like you, we have one that gives 5% back on groceries and gas and also 1% on everything else, so we make good use of it! :)

[Amber]

Yep, on occasion. I send them to the boys' school for lunch money if I don't have any cash. I also use them to pay the odd bill that I can't pay online for some reason or another.

[Kristen]

Somehow, I'm not surprised that you do that with the credit cards, freebiemom! LOL

btw, have you given us your name and I'm just forgetting it? Or do you like to be anonymous? :)

[Kristi]

Very rarely. I have to for things at the boys school. Sometimes, we will for other things but not often since in stores we can use our debit card and we pay all of our bills online. It is a rare occassion that the need to write a check comes up

[Kristi]

I thought of another time I use them, when we don't have cash when we have food delivered. :giggle

[Mary]

I write the very occasional check -- to send $ for Madalyn's school lunches (though I could now do that online if I would ever remember!), for pizza delivery (I feel better about doing that than giving someone my debit card # on the phone), and for random other reasons. Dh writes more checks than I do but that's because we only have one debit card for the account and I almost always have it so he keeps a book of checks with him.

We are just now getting to the end of our box of checks we got when we opened the account and that was like a year ago.

[Jo]

I write several a month. Not as many as a few years ago by any means but there are enough that I still go through a box of checks a year.

[Brooke]

We write a few a month: Xander's daycare is 2 month, Kyle's daycare is 2 a month, rent, a check to my sister for my phone bill, a check to my Dad for the couch and our electric bill.

All our "big company" bills (except electric) are automatic debit.

I'll write checks at Target or the grocery store also because I like to get rid of my checks. :giggle

We don't have credit cards, only debit. So I'll write checks when I can. It makes me feel more important. Don't ask.

[Danielle]

VERY rarely. Maybe once every couple of months for the kids' school or for a book order from Scholastic for the kids...

We pay all of our bills online and pay by debit card/credit card for everything. No stores accept checks here anymore.

[Lori]

I use checks for rent and for Thomas' tuition.

The checks we use have our address from three moves ago on them, because we got a big box of checks and haven't even come close to going through them all.

[Shana]

We pay for nearly everything via online banking, or by using our debit cards.

Checks are written for things like kids' lunches, Rachel's bus fare up to the mountains, I might write 3 per month.

[Renita]

Well, the girls' school does not take credit cards....only checks or cash!

So needless to say, I write at least 3 checks per month on the regular for school alone and that doesn't include any extra activities, etc. It works for me because I finally finished our checks that had our last address!

I also write checks if I am paying a bill that would only happen once a year or every 2 years or once a lifetime...like a hospital bill, plat survey bill, etc.

[Kristen]

Oh, I forgot! I pay our water bill with a check, because they charge a fee if you want to pay on their site. :shakehead I don't really understand that...it seems like it would SAVE them money if they didn't have to process so many paper checks.

[Jejune]

I pay my bills with checks. For some reason, one of the major utility companies doesn't accept our credit/debit card, and it's the only card we have, so I was pretty turned off to that.

[Jeri]

Very rarely. I wrote one today for Liam's pizza at school (they do a PSA "Pizza Monday" fund raiser). Even places that don't take credit cards (like for our rent payment) I pay online and my bank prints and sends a check. I hate having checks outstanding on my account because it messes with my accounting.

[MathSpeak]

I write them for dd's tuition, her dance school, my accountant, tithes and any other one-off expenses. I pay my bills through my online banking.

[Intuition]

We don't have credit cards, so I still write cheques. I write them for James's tuition, my student loan payments, Scholastic book orders, and when I need to pay someone back for something. Grocery stores don't accept them anymore -- most stores don't -- so I usually use debit. I don't like to keep cash on me since I take the city bus 4x a day, and would hate to lose anything above even 5 dollars. I don't feel very safe often on the bus.

[Faith]

I never write checks. We either use cash or our debit/check card to pay for everything. I can't even think of the last time I wrote a check. :giggle

[freebiemom]

Somehow, I'm not surprised that you do that with the credit cards, freebiemom! LOL

btw, have you given us your name and I'm just forgetting it? Or do you like to be anonymous? :)

Why are you not surprised? :dunno

My name is (drum roll) Lisa! :)

[Amy J]

I only pay bills with a check. Cell phone, babysitter, rent, etc. Everything else is with my debit card.

[Kristen]

Why are you not surprised? :dunno

My name is (drum roll) Lisa! :)

Well, given your user name, I'm kind of assuming that we are kindred spirits when it comes to how we manage our money. :giggle

And it's just lovely to know your name, now. :thumbsup

[freebiemom]

:cheers

[bloombaby]

WRite a few more checks a month than I'd like to....It's probably about 12 or so each month... Madison's day care and house hold bills are the biggest. Most aren't available to pay online through the company and I don't TRUST our bank and i'm working on transferring to a different one ...so that's added a few the past month

[Kate]

I don't think I need cheques for anything. I know I haven't written one in the last couple of years.

[Shasta]

We still pay our house payment and electric bill by check and use them for other things now and then as well.

[CrazyLady]

We pay the rent with a check and also Lily's book club orders/fundraisers etc for school. All the other bills I pay online and shopping is done with the debit card.

[tidee]

i use my debit card a lot. i guess i never realized how much till i wrote a check at my local grocery store and it had to be approved by the shift manager because it had been so long since they had a check from me. :giggle i go in there a lot!

i pay my out of town mortgage payment by check. they don't have online pay. and my power company will only offer online pay if i go paperless with them. i will someday, but right now i want to see the statement. some stores don't take credit cards. so i keep a checkbook in the truck just in case i need it. i pay almost everything by debit and credit cards.

i love paying online.

[gr8mommy]

usually only for school fundraisers, lunch tickets, and the like. They don't take credit cards, and I don't keep much cash on hand. Almost all of our bills are paid online or with a credit card.

[SabrinaJL]

I still use checks fairly often because I'm terrible about keeping track of purchases I make with my debit card.

[Desirae]

We write a few each month.