Anyone against sending checks through the mail?

[meierlde]

If it WAS in the written material I missed it and that's my fault, but I wonder how many other people miss it and then don't have the funds because they'd planned on putting it on a credit card. I think that for big-ticket work it should just be factored into the pricing and people who can pay cash/check can negotiate a discount and decide which way to pay.



So.. they do take cards for more than $1K but they impose a fee? I just don't see the average car owner being able to come up with $3,000-$4,000 cash for a transmission rebuild. Even a new set of tires for a truck can easily run over $1,000.

I noticed my repair shop has some sort of after-pay they can offer. I haven't looked into details; fortunately when I picked my car up yesterday it was only for an oil change.

some shops do and other just say checks. Of course given the interest rate on credit cards it might be better to get a personal loan for that amount, (if you don't pay the card at the end of the month)

 

[athena53]

some shops do and other just say checks. Of course given the interest rate on credit cards it might be better to get a personal loan for that amount, (if you don't pay the card at the end of the month)

I have a friend who financed a high-ticket unexpected car repair with a 401(k) loan. Better than credit card interest, I guess.

And I just checked the paperwork on the window replacement. Absolutely nothing requiring me to pay the balance by cash or check. I bet they're trained to take credit cards only if there's no alternative. I will not be using them again.

 

[ModestNestEgg]

The only check that I write these days is to pay the property taxes. And the only reason I do that is that the county (through no fault of the courteous staff there) has somehow figured out how to be the only payee with a credit card convenience (junk) fee that is more than the cashback rewards that I would receive any credit card. But I don't mail it. I pay that one in person.

 

[Ian S]

The only check that I write these days is to pay the property taxes. And the only reason I do that is that the county (through no fault of the courteous staff there) has somehow figured out how to be the only payee with a credit card convenience (junk) fee that is more than the cashback rewards that I would receive any credit card. But I don't mail it. I pay that one in person.

Our county not only charges a credit/debit card "convenience fee" but they even charge $0.50 if you pay by electronic check. The only way you can avoid a "convenience" fee is if you pay by paper check. Which of course costs them considerably more than $0.50 to process.

 

[Koolau]

I did that in college to cash checks on campus. Didn't have a car, no way to get money easily. And the teachers posted test grades in the hall by SSN.

Yeah, SSN was right on our student ID!

 

[jazz4cash]

Lots of people do their "computer stuff" (like paying bills) from their phones. I am NOT one of those people. I intentionally have chosen not to use my phone for anything but phone and text. YMMV

When I get email notification on my phone that a bill is due, I usually schedule the payment immediately using my iphone. I mostly use BofA billpay app but for utilities I use their app and pay via Fidelity Visa. The fees charged by the utes is less than the 2% cashback. Sometimes I pay an extra month in advance to further decrease the fee.

 

[jazz4cash]

The only check that I write these days is to pay the property taxes. And the only reason I do that is that the county (through no fault of the courteous staff there) has somehow figured out how to be the only payee with a credit card convenience (junk) fee that is more than the cashback rewards that I would receive any credit card. But I don't mail it. I pay that one in person.

I used to do the same thing but then I realized I was paying more for gas and time driving to the county business office. Now I just pay the fee since it is only $1.49. How much is your fee?

 

[Sunset]

The required chemistry is not my specialty, but it should be easy for check printers to defeat most "washing" or other typical check altering. Yes, check fraudsters will eventually figure a way to defeat the new chemistry, but there are a lot of ways to keep ahead of the fraudsters. It only takes the will (and a pile of money) to do it.

Except I got my last bunch of checks about 15 years ago.. still working on using all of them.
So like most folks I'm still using old chemistry tech.

 

[Time2]

Yes. I am not interested in being charged a fee to pay my bills/ taxes.

That's not just a fee, that is a convenience fee!
At least that is how it is often phrased when I see, I don't pay it either.
I started on my city utilities (water/sewer/garbage) to get set up with electronic transfer from the bank 5 years ago, every time I call they say they are working on it. I can pay the bill online, but the bank has to send a physical check to the city.

 

[retire48in2018]

Our check usage is the church. I was on the board, when discussing online methods - and we did allow a couple of methods of cash apps.

However, as a matter of principle (please accept and leave it as that), church did not accept cc. There is a strong tradition to put money/check in plate that is then prayed over and then processed later in a great number of churches, including ours. We used bill pay anyway, but it was weird to never put anything physically into plate as it was passed.

As a treasury board member, less than 0.5% of checks were bill pay. It was something like 250-300 checks per bill pay check. Cash actual receipts was usually less than $20/week except except for 1 person when attending - they always put in cash.



FYI - using apps from financial institutions is supposed to most secure way (Clark Howard and others have links on their sites. Still do not use public wifi on phone when doing so….

 

[retire48in2018]

I forgot to say the various cash apps were less than a few hundred per year. Barely worth the effort to watch, maintain and communicate

 

[athena53]

Our check usage is the church. I was on the board, when discussing online methods - and we did allow a couple of methods of cash apps.

However, as a matter of principle (please accept and leave it as that), church did not accept cc. There is a strong tradition to put money/check in plate that is then prayed over and then processed later in a great number of churches, including ours. We used bill pay anyway, but it was weird to never put anything physically into plate as it was passed.

As a treasury board member, less than 0.5% of checks were bill pay. It was something like 250-300 checks per bill pay check. Cash actual receipts was usually less than $20/week except except for 1 person when attending - they always put in cash.

Interesting example. It took me a long time to drop the habit of putting a check in the weekly collection but now I just move my total annual contribution over from my brokerage at the beginning of the year. During COVID, our Diocese made it easy to donate through a link I put on our church web site; the Diocese absorbed any fees. I'm surprised by how many people donate that way.

 

[scrabbler1]

I did that in college to cash checks on campus. Didn't have a car, no way to get money easily. And the teachers posted test grades in the hall by SSN.

When I was in college in the 1980s, our student ID was our SSN, printed on our student ID card. And when out professors posted our final exam grades on a paper taped to the wall, the exam grades were listed by ID/SSN.

 

[Koolau]

When I get email notification on my phone that a bill is due, I usually schedule the payment immediately using my iphone. I mostly use BofA billpay app but for utilities I use their app and pay via Fidelity Visa. The fees charged by the utes is less than the 2% cashback. Sometimes I pay an extra month in advance to further decrease the fee.

I did something recently that I've never done before. My medical group (hospital and probably 1/3 of the doctors on the Island) uses an on-line system MyChart) for contacting the doctor, viewing test results, reviewing past medical visits and procedures, etc.

They also have a system to pay bills. We've had a lot of bills lately (we get a notice via email.) But we haven't been getting the bills by mail. We've called and called, asking them to send us a bill. Eventually, because we hadn't payed (because we hadn't got a bill) they threatened us with a collection agency. So we called again, and finally got the bills going again. But now that we're on the mainland, the bills have stopped again, but what we owe keeps going up.

Well, I finally pushed the "button" on "MyChart" that allows me to pay by CC. Very smooth. Balance due went to "0" instantly. Now, let's hope nothing gets hacked. Slowly losing my "scales" as I transition from a dinosaur to a Neanderthal I guess.

 

[athena53]

When I was in college in the 1980s, our student ID was our SSN, printed on our student ID card. And when out professors posted our final exam grades on a paper taped to the wall, the exam grades were listed by ID/SSN.

Oh, my university was far more cautious. After people complained about the privacy/security violations they started posting exam grades with the SSNs REVERSED.

 

[Koolau]

Oh, my university was far more cautious. After people complained about the privacy/security violations they started posting exam grades with the SSNs REVERSED.

Yeah, you just can't make up stuff like this! You wonder how much the person in the administration was paid to come up with this security "solution."

 

[splitwdw]

Seems overly dramatic. Here is specific quote from the link.

“The theft issues have prompted the USPS to advise that Americans avoid depositing mail in blue collection boxes or leaving it in their own mailboxes for a carrier to pick up. Instead, the agency is now recommending that patrons come inside their local post office to securely send mail.”

How is it that so few people read the article. Jazz4cash, MichaelB & Jollystomper plus a couple of others actually commented on what USPS said and has been saying, don't leave an outgoing check in your home mailbox or USPS mailbox on the street and to mail checks from inside the USPS lobby.

 

[Graybeard]

Anything I mail is mailed inside the PO. I have a PO box, I pickup my mail twice a week so going in to mail something is not an inconvenience. I have all recurring bills set to bill my cc or pull directly from my checking account. I write a couple of checks a month, some things can not be paid via a cc or I don't want my cc info in their files.

 

[brett]

I write less than one cheque a year.

Mailed a cheque to our son last month. Had to hunt around for the cheque book.

I make a habit of writing 'for deposit only to the account of ....' on the back of the cheque if I mail it.

 

[fh2000]

I write less than one cheque a year.

Mailed a cheque to our son last month. Had to hunt around for the cheque book.

I make a habit of writing 'for deposit only to the account of ....' on the back of the cheque if I mail it.

I use zelle to send money to my kids. You can try this to your son. Many banks participating. It is fast and free. I don't know how they make money though.

https://www.zellepay.com/get-started

 

[thod]

I am down to writing 1 check a month now. (for the city water bill.) However, I do not mail it. Instead, I drop it in a dropbox for residents near the city hall. No stamp needed.

Everything else is automated.

I have enough checks that I will never run out of them. I just want to keep doing it for at least one, just to make sure I can remember how.

 

[kcowan]

You can leave a lot of that personal information off the printed checks.

My brother the Luddite wrote checks every month. One month, he went through the bills and completed all the printing of payee, date and amount. Then he got distracted and finally mailed them without signing! All the checks were honored. After that, he was paranoid about keeping his checks in a safe place!

After he passed, I handled them all from 2500 miles away through online banking.

 

[gauss]

My brother the Luddite wrote checks every month. One month, he went through the bills and completed all the printing of payee, date and amount. Then he got distracted and finally mailed them without signing! All the checks were honored. After that, he was paranoid about keeping his checks in a safe place!

After he passed, I handled them all from 2500 miles away through online banking.

But everyone he has ever issued a check to has a copy of his routing/account number which is the primary barrier to fraud IMHO.

-gauss

 

[slowsaver]

Just read that the U.S. Postal Service has a new warning to not send checks through the mail as more of them are getting stolen (cbsnews.com).

Read a similar article in AARP magazine:

https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2023/stop-check-washers.html

 

[Reese]

Vote for Bill Pay..... Have not written a check in decades.