Are cheques even used for anything except for fraud anymore?
Open call: Anyone out there paying or receiving payment with cheque in the last ten years?
Open call: Anyone out there paying or receiving payment with cheque in the last ten years?
Based on the cheques spelling I guess you're not in the US.
Checks are very common here, I write them every month. In theory I could pay my water bill by credit card but their payment portal is so randomly broken that I save a ton of headache by writing a check and dropping it off at their payment box. My office lease only takes checks. Various other rentals mainly only take checks or they charge a fee so I save money by giving them a check. Anything government-related is either a check or a big additional fee, so again I write them a check to avoid giving away extra money for no reason.
Checks are actually super convenient and more trustworthy than most alternatives. When paying, sending a check costs me a stamp which is far less than the credit card fees most places charge, or sometimes I can drop it off for free.
When receiving one, in most places it can be deposited by just taking a photo, doesn't get easier than that. Most importantly, I don't get to be another victim of the "$PAYMENT_PROCESSOR froze my account and stole my money", whether it be paypal or any of the other ones.
This same company strongly encourages us to use their “payment portal” to pay our HOA dues. They, of course, charge an extra few percent on every transaction. That’s annoying, but given their inability to properly operate email, I can’t imagine how insecure their payment processing is. Even if they’re using some third party system, they probably have it configured incorrectly. So yeah, it’s a check in the mail every month.
If only there was a way for people to transfer money from their bank to someone else's bank... They could call it "bank transfer", and it would solve all these problems!
Yes, it is ACH, which is what a check is. One doesn't need to physically have the piece of paper to make it happen (which is why you can deposit a check with just a photo). Either way it's just ACH.
But by doing that you're imposing the risk to the seller that they may lose their money when paypal/zelle/venmo/etc freeze their account and steal their money (see frequent recurring threads right here on HN of this happening over and over).
I realize as a payer it's not your problem but something to think about.
All of my regular bills in the UK (mortgage, energy, water, internet, insurance, debt, probably some others I'm forgetting) are deducted automatically from my bank account every month. I don't have to think about it all - and there's zero possibility of nuking my credit score by accidentally missing a payment.
Having to remember to write a check for each bill every month sounds like an enormous (and enormously unnecessary) inconvenience. Is there really not a better option in the world's richest country in 2022?
My payments are still done electronically but I have to go into my bank's BillPay service and direct the amounts and payment dates for each bill. It's a bit more work but it also means far fewer surprises or errors to clean up. I already reconcile my accounts on a weekly basis, so it's only an extra minute or two to set up the payments for the coming week.
Sometimes, vendors may support doing a recurring ACH transfer out of your account for the total of the month. In terms of mechanism, this is exactly the same as a check which is also just an ACH transfer out of your account. Not all vendors support this.
There is increased risk, however. By giving them blanket authorization to deduct whatever they want out of your bank account you now have the risk that they might get it wrong and deduct too much.
If you have enough money in the account to absorb the difference it'll eventually get sorted out. But what if you don't? Your balance may go to zero and all those other recurring payments get rejected and you'll get hit with tons of late payment fees and you'll be stuck with those. So you might nuke your credit score with all those late payments that weren't even your fault.
My absolute preferred approach is to do auto-pay to a credit card. That way I'm insulated from risk (at least in the US, credit card laws strongly favor the consumer; perhaps the only laws in the US that favor the consumer so well). Any mistakes in the system are not my problem and can't impact my balance.
But for vendors who can't bill to a credit card or charge too many fees to do so, the safest approach is still a check.
I've received money from the Canadian government using cheques in that time frame too, but admittedly you could just special case the government.
I've received prize money from a university run contest during that time frame using cheques (barely in the time frame, small sum of money), and I know others who have received prize from privately run chess tournaments using cheques (I think the latter just because it's a cool souvenir).
A year or two ago when we had a tree service come out to trim some things. Before that, when we had a fence redone. Both of those were smaller local companies.
In the UK and here in Australia, when I set up a utility account I get a message saying "why not set up a direct debit?", which means that a transfer goes straight from my account to theirs at the alotted time each month, for the amount of the bill.
You get your usual bill usually a week or two before the debit goes out so you can make sure it's OK well before the transfer, and the debit process is guaranteed to return the money to you in case of a dispute. You can go into your online banking app and cancel any/all direct debit authorisations whenever you like.
[0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2016/01/06/63-of-...
The UK direct-debit guarantee includes the provision that you must get a full and immediate refund on error, to prevent this sort of thing, and while I'm sure it doesn't always work as smoothly as you'd want, they are very commonly used and not a great source of complaints.
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/businesses/complaints...
That said, fuckups do still happen! https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/dec/07/kent-family...
This is what I usually do: (1) check my bank 1 week before the end of each month, (2) eyeball the amounts for all e-invoices, (3) approve everything with a single click.
But looking at the last 2 years - hardly written any cheques (checks).
But I do receive checks. From mortgage refinancing company, from escrow, from FSA/HSA (probably could get it electronic, but I have failed twice to get this set up, and now I do not even bother), and recently some ROTH conversions since the company refused to do bank transfers any more so they make me receive and deposit checks.
A cheque cheque (not sure what the right name for it is), not a cashiers cheque?
(US American spelling)
They are slow. That's the point.
They are essentially a two factor method of instruction to your bank. Legally (in Britain at least) one can use any reasonable method to give instructions to ones bank. Banks that want to "phase them out" because they are "too expensive and slow" are derelict in their function and should be hauled over the coals by trade and industry legislators.
If you want the "check" experience, you can also fill out that information in a form and hand it to a bank teller.
We barely have bank outlets let alone tellers here though. That's the downside. Trying to deposit cash or check is quite painful.
In fact, counting both my personal accounts and the org account I'm treasurer for, I've probably sent or received two dozen checks just in the last month.
I get checks as refunds or payouts from companies a few times a year, and it's weird every time. I gather that they legally have to pay it out and can't just credit your account, but I'd rather they do the credit. It'd be safer for everyone, and if I cancel my account they could just cut a check then.
- The US Treasury sends refund checks and also sent the stimulus checks to me.
- I paid my rent by check when living in Manhattan 9-10 years ago.
When you ain't doing it frequently enough, it's frustrating. (edit: it's more friction given I live outside the states and the bank I have now requires phone-based 2FA to login to the internet bank, but at least it is infrequent enough to not worry too much)
You may as well start spelling it the US way, because we'll still be using them ;)
2. I've written them to myself to transfer money between accounts when electronic transfer restrictions are too painful, etc.
May be I'm confused but it seems a case of either or :)
Can cheques in USA be cashed out? I mean, can a contractor take a check to any bank and exchange it for cash or do they have to be paid into an account (and money accessed 3-5 days later)?
I only ask because usually contractors want to avoid cards/back transfer did they don't have to declare the income and can do tax fraud.
Back in the 80s in UK you could "cash a cheque" meaning take it to a bank and get cash. Chequebooks then were printed as "crossed cheques" which couldn't be cashed [easily?]. Then by the 90s one wasn't guaranteed to get the money unless a "guarantee card" had its details copied onto the cheque -- for which an imprinting machine was used (still a valid technique about 10 years ago).
Edit in case a simple answer is viewed as stifling discourse: I probably write around 20 checks per year. Mostly to local vendors/laborers or for youth fundraising activities. I receive checks for fundraising activities that I host. Venmo is basically the same, and getting more common.