Does anyone here use checks to pay for things?

Sometimes I do.
It’s because I like to bounce them into the miniature net they have on the side of the cash register. ;)

Yep…all the time! IMO checks are still the best way to provide proof of payment. When the state lost my application for title of my car this year I was able to show them the cashed check so I didn’t have to pay for a lost title fee to boot. Aside from that I am loving cash more and more each day realizing how much data mining goes on tracking my credit card transactions and those nifty store membership cards we use. Big brother can eat my receipts!

I guess I’m just old, that’s why I still use checks for some things. And, like @Cruiser I find myself paying for certain things with cash, just to screw with the data mining.

I didn’t know paying with cash could be bad, can someone explain that? I assumed the only reason people still used checks were because they were old fashioned or didn’t have money at that time and would the next day.

Mostly, older people still use checks. It was their way of life, years ago before debit cards. My mother never made the switch. I still had to write her monthly checks, before she passed. I probably could never explain a debit or credit card to her and how it works. She was always a check lady.

It’s just the differences in the generations.

Next, debit cards will be obsolete and we will just use our thumb print to make a purchase.

My landlord only takes checks.

I use cheques to pay rent.

For those that use checks (or cheques) to pay rent, do you write the checks by hand or pay through online banking, which sends the check for you?

I write them by hand. My university also requires cheques for other payments having to do with my residence, like if I needed to have a key replaced or something like that. I’m really not sure why. I pay tuition online, but any residence stuff has to be paid by cheque.

Wish I had cool ways to spell stuff, like “cheque” :(

@tom_g Yeah, sometimes I spell criticize with an s to feel non-american lol. I also write checks cheques to pay rent, but recently, I’ve had them just take it out of my account.

Yes, like some of the oldsters above, I still write cheques/checks; and will do so as long as the make them.

Weddings and Bar Mitzvahs.

No. In fact I was cleaning the house a few days back and found my checkbook that I hadn’t seen since about 2001.

I’m strictly a cash person…avoiding the authorities and all that ;)

@FutureMemory – How do you pay your bills? Online banking or do you send money orders?

Money orders or I pay cash in person.

A lot of the bills I pay are in the name of someone that’s been dead for 25 years (former resident of this house). It’s weird to fill in the “From” section with someone that’s not even alive anymore.

I use checks. I don’t like to use credit cards when I can avoid it, because I tend to lose track of how much I spend, plus unless you pay the whole balance off each month, you have to pay interest. Checks are, for me, a visual way of keeping track of how much I spend. I can look in the check book and see who I wrote checks to, and when. I use them to pay rent and to pay the guy who mows my lawn and the lady who cleans my house. I use them in stores like Walmart because I don’t always want to spend all the cash in my wallet. When I get my car fixed, if it’s more than like $50 I use checks, again, to keep the cash in
my wallet and to avoid using credit cards.

I also use checks to pay by phone, where you give your checking account number and they deduct it from your account.

I give birthday gifts and Christmas presents in check form, to keep cash in my wallet. Also, as someone mentioned above, when you pay by check you have a receipt. There’s no need for a receipt because the check is your receipt. For example, if you pay a co-pay at the doctor’s in cash, you need a receipt. If you pay by check, the check is your receipt. If I want to be a pain in the ass, I use cash, because then the receptionist has to get up, get me change, make out a receipt, and I can tell it’s a hassle for them.

Yes I am one of those “older” people (age 45) who does not use debit cards. I have never used a debit card.

There are times when I use our debit card and times when I use checks. Checks are handy for many reasons stated above. My children will often tell me the morning of or night before that they have a fee that is due for something at school. I usually don’t have the correct bills needed for this, so I write a check. I also use checks for our rent payment.

I always fill in what I can on my check before I enter a store so I don’t hold up the line. All I need to do is write in the amount once everything is rang up. I know how irritating it can be when others are waiting for that slow poke who doesn’t pull out their checkbook until everything is rang up, then they start filling everything out. I try to be courteous.

I also like to order designer checks. Right now I have checks with a farm theme. I’m a dork.

Ok, to summarize what I’ve learned (and to add a few follow-ups):

First, many of you have legitimate concerns about privacy and data mining. Cash can help make a transaction more anonymous.

Some have used checks for years and just continue to do so because it’s easier for you to track how much you spend, etc.

Some followup questions:

1. Debit cards seem extremely risky, yet I hear that people are still using them. If a company makes an accidental charge to your card, while the transaction is being reviewed and reversed (which can take a long time), the money is already gone from your account. You could bounce checks, etc.

2. Doesn’t anyone use any of the “rewards” credit cards? I put everything on my credit card. Since I do a ton of my shopping through Amazon, I just pay with points. I earn more than $50/mo in Amazon dollars. I’ve “purchased” more than $810 in stuff from Amazon in the past 12 months – all of it just the “points” I earned on my card.

3. Credit cards allow you to pay off the balance every month, so there is no fee. You’re also able to see every little purchase you’ve made and run the data through other apps to get trending info on your spending habits. Is the checkbook just the analog version of this, or is there some other advantage to paper?

4. For people who pay rent to people who will only take checks – does your bank have online banking? I have BOA, and when I pay my bills, they are paid through here. If BOA does not have a direct electronic line through the payee, a check is printed by BOA and sent on my behalf.

@tom_g: For me, I am cautious about putting my credit card numbers online for any reason, when I can avoid it so I would not use the apps you spoke of to see my spending habits.

Credit cards do allow you to pay off your balance every month, yes. However, it’s easy (for me at least) to look at the credit card bill and decide at the time to pay only a portion of it, and sometimes I forget to pay it at all (which is why I now have the minimum payment for one coming out of my bank account automatically, my choice, so the payment is never late). I do usually use credit cards for big purchases, like a piece of furniture, simply because it’s awkward to have hundreds of dollars in my wallet.

@tom_g Credit cards are a small part of the reason why my husband and I are in bankruptcy at the moment. We don’t own a credit card now, and we really don’t plan to get one anytime soon. We prefer to pay for what we want with the cash we have on hand or in the bank, not with money we may have in the future.

@jonsblond – Completely agree. But I don’t ever use credit cards for credit. I never pay a single penny on financing charges. Like I said, I earn ~$800/yr by using my credit card.
Sorry about the bankruptcy.

I do. Not to pay for purchases in stores any more, but to pay bills and also purchase things by mail; the latter not so often these days, but it does still happen occasionally. I still make most local purchases with cash.

I never use debit cards for anything, but after cash it’s my husband’s preferred method of payment.

I also don’t authorize any automatic debits, not any, not ever, and I will hold out on this just as along as I possibly can. I’ve lived through times when things were so tight that I needed every nickel of juggling leeway I could muster, and automatic preferential deductions from my account would have sunk me. I still worry about going back there, so I hang onto all the control I can.