Do you still mail checks & are you aware of the recent check fraud happening?

I still cut a check each month to pay rent. That is about it; all other bills are on some sort of auto pay or electronic pay method.

I asked my landlord about setting things up so I could Venmo or Zelle my rent; she got freaked out about setting up her banking info.

I never write checks, haven’t for years. I hate tgat for our seniors though

I have heard about people stealing checks out of the mail, personal checks that you write to others or vice versa. I’ve seen video of people stealing checks out of the mailboxes that are on the street (drop boxes). The news report that I saw said if you are going to mail anything, put it in the post office, not the mail box, even if the mail box is outside the PO.

I write very few checks – only to organizations I’m attending for events like picnics or holiday parties, or to the guy who mows my lawn. I don’t do Zelle or Venmo – I have my bills set up so the money either comes directly out of my checking account or the bill is invoiced to my credit card and then I pay the card directly from my checking account.

I have my credit cards set up so I get an alert if something is charged to the card without the actual card being present, so anytime my Netflix account or something like that is charged to the card, I get an email letting me know. That way, if the card number is ever used by someone, I would know right away.

A friend of the family had 8k stolen out of her checking account. Someone in my family who is a CPA/CFP said it’s actually quite easy to do, as long as you have the routing number and the checking account number.

I write one check each month to the neighbor whose extra parking stall I rent. Otherwise, I write no checks. I pray everything electronically. Some bills are on automatic payments, and I pay the rest electronically from my bank account.

I take bills to the post office, rather than in my mailbox.
I’ll have to step up my game.

I take advantage of auto pay through my bank. If they screw up, they don’t charge me to correct the problem. I also make any purchases via my credit card & the bank auto pays the full balance on the credit card every month. I’ve had a PO box for the last 30+ years & I’m the ONLY one who has the key. Sadly, DeJoy is going to stop that. My local postmaster recently warned me that the small box that I was paying $70/yr last year that went up to $129 this year will be going up to $159 next year. I mainly get junk mail now as most incoming is electronically deposited as is the outgoing. It’s really NOT worth $159 for the little bit of “real mail” that I’m now receiving!!! My street mailbox is one of those that hides the incoming mail that was popular years back. The carrier delivers & it drops out of site if anyone tries to steal it. I have a key to get into the hidden area & once again I’m the ONLY one who has the key!!! I’m a very paranoid person when it comes to my money. Somebody might eventually get me, but they are going to have to WORK to get it!!!

I have almost NO outgoing mail. I send ecards for birthdays & holidays including an egift card. When I do “have to” mail something, I drive it to the PO & check my mail at the same time.

Rarely write checks.

I haven’t written a cheque in the last five years and i haven’t heard of these problems. Fraudsters are everywhere these days, be suspicious of anything out of the ordinary.

What are “checks”?

I do write four checks every month and sometimes more. I generally put them in my mailbox and raise the flag about an hour prior to my postman’s expected arrival. I used to think nothing about putting a check in the box and raising the flag when I know the mail will not be picked up for a few days. I’m more careful now, but still prefer to write checks for monthly recurring bills other than those for phones and internet…..you always get a good discount if you pay online. I pay everything online when I’m out of town.

Yes. Check fraud has been a problem since checks were invented.

Funny timing on this question. I just ordered some more checks (I was about to run out) two weeks ago and was wondering when they will arrive. I write maybe 3–4 per month for various reasons.

Anyway, I don’t worry much about checks being stolen. Debit and credit card fraud is much more of a danger, in my opinion.

@ragingloli, first image that came up.

I write checks to our gardener. When I pay for my kids’ college tuition using my bank’s bill pay, the bank issues a paper check to the respective college. Seems to work well enough.

@elbanditoroso You are correct that credit card fraud is much more prevalent. We had a question related to it recently (link)

In that thread, I linked to the Apple website explaining that is actually safer to use your phone to pay than an actual card. I do so everywhere I can.

It’s been about 5 years since I’ve written a check at all. I pay my rent with a checking account, but even that is done electronically. Once a year when my beading club asks for dues, I panic, thinking how am I going to pay that?? It goes to the treasurer and she doesn’t take debit cards! Then I remember that there’s such a thing as cash and pay that way. o_O

^^ Cash is a great way to pay. Unfortunately, some places have stopped taking cash!!! Normally, when something makes it to my sleepy little town, it has been a fad elsewhere for at least 3 years. Back before T-Mobile bought out Sprint, Sprint was charging a fee to accept a cash payment. They claimed that it was too dangerous to send an employee to the bank with a cash deposit, so they had to pay Brinks to pick up their cash daily. I often wonder if that didn’t facilitate their downfall. I also had a plumber out & when I went to pay him, I realized that I had NO checks left & my reorder had not arrived yet. I started counting out my cash & he said that he couldn’t take cash. I ended up having to call the office & pay with a credit card. Many of our fast food drive thrus don’t accept cash. They claim that the banks won’t give them change. They only accept debit or credit cards. When going somewhere new, my first Q is what payment methods are acceptable here???

My favorite Korean restaurant looked at me funny when I tried to pay with cash. Took them an extra minute to collect enough small bills for change. I suspect most of their customers pay by card. It’s so much easier to add tip to the bill that way. And no need for change.

@LadyMarissa I’d forgotten that about Sprint! I now have Cricket and for quite a few years they’ve been like that also, although I don’t know if their reasoning is the same.

This has been a problem in my area for over a year. I know of at least 3 customers who have had an issue with checks being stolen from U.S. Mail blue boxes. I have one business customer who took his mail into the post office building as he always does and still had checks stolen, It’s a pain for these people to have to start with a new account.