Ordering Checks

[mattl]

I'm having a hard time getting the checks I want.  I don't write many checks anymore, bought a box of 250 in '06 and just ran out.  I want the same design checks as I have been using for 10 years, but can't seem to get them.  They are available, but the supplier seems to not work with my Credit Union anymore.

 

I really like these checks, simple, yet good looking with a bit of silver on them.  Has anyone had luck getting checks for a supplier?  I called this company and they don't seem to want to deal with me.  Going to the CU tomorrow, and see what they have but I HATE cute checks and that is all they seem to offer - also I HATE plain checks too.   Tempted to change banking institutions just to get my checks. ( but that may be overkill...) 

Bah.

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[wayupnorth]

Checks are something I will only use when I have to, otherwise it is electronic banking with my CU. I use whatever is closest to free as nobody cares about a checks look until it cashes fine just like no clerk cares what card you use.

 

[rp2813]

What Tim Said

I just get whatever is the cheapest my CU offers.  It's even less important to me than it used to be, since I write very few checks anymore.

 

Be careful if you decide to order checks from one of those printing companies that often advertise in direct mail coupon packets.  My sister used to do that, but then had issues with checks being written against her account by others, and it was due to employee(s) at the printing company stealing all of her information.

 

I suppose that could happen with printers the financial institutions use, but it's probably far less likely.

 

[DADoES]

 
I've used this outfit:  Checks in the Mail.

 

[launderess]

Haven't purchased a box of checks in years.

Everyone is paid either via their own online website or sent payment from my bank's "bill pay" system.

For the odd thing that does require a paper check have a small supply of counter checks (given free by my branch), that will suffice. If it doesn't then tough cheese on whomever as am *NOT* spending the kind of money Deluxe and others want today for an order of printed checks.

 

[wayupnorth]

I agree with you Laundress, ALL bills should be able to be paid electronically. Several things in ME you cant like property taxes and like that and then you have to write a check go to the post office, get a stamp which really pi**es me off to pay the 49 cents. They get an old envelope from someone else sent back. Why cant everyone get into the 21st century. But I refuse to go paperless. You bill me, I am Not using my ink, paper and computer. Send it in my postal mailbox as I want a hard copy, just in case you screw up. Its happened to me before, I had the proof and it will never happen again.

 

[perc-o-prince]

I have the checks I ordered from one of the newspaper/ad paper places ("Artistic Checks") maybe 10 years ago. Ordered 4 boxes and still have at least a full box. Never had a problem with anyone bogarting my account, but as I said, it's been years since I've ordered.

If I had to do it again, I'd take what the bank offers free or what I could get cheaply otherwise. I'm not that concerned with what they look like! But I do so much by bill-pay through my bank that I'm not likely to need checks for the next few years at least!

Chuck

 

[mattl]

As I said it took me 10 years to go through 200 or so, and back then I wrote many more checks.  Now 95% of my stuff is electronic payment, but a few stupid things like my water bill are cash or check only.  Occasionally I write a check for a wedding or graduation gift, both coming up fast, or when I owe a friend money who is not local.

 

As to basic checks, I certainly could but there is a part of me that is being a bit OCD over it, we all have things like that.  At this point it may be the last batch of checks I ever order - I may write 5 or 6 checks a year going forward, so 200 will last indefinitely. The website that has the checks I like indicates I CAN order them from my CU, hope the CU agrees.

 

[whirlcool]

Bill Pay Warning!

OK, have a seat and listen to this tale of woe about my experience with Bill Pay and Chase Bank.

I have been using Bill Pay since 1994 without any incidents at all. Very happy with it, no more checks, no more postage, payments made very quickly. Until June of 2014.

We received our Chase mortgage statement showing that we were one month behind on our mortgage. We always pay on time. Always. I checked my checking account statement at Citibank online and it showed the payment of $1241 being deducted from our account and sent via EFT to Chase mortgage. I called Chase and they told me the payment never made it. I called Citibank and was told the payment DID make it and Chase has it. In the meantime we began receiving phone calls from Chase mortgage collectors wanting to know why we are one month behind on our mortgage.The next month they dinged our credit report for this.

So I went to Citibank and explained to them what is happening. They said that they have the ACH codes for my money transfer to Chase and Chase got the money so they are stepping out of the picture. They claimed if the money never made it to Chase it would have been sent back to my checking account at Citibank. And that didn't happen.

Finally 6 months down the road and now being threatened with foreclosure Chase sent us a document from Citibank ordering Chase to return the payment to them. No reason was given. So Chase sent the payment back to Citibank. Ciibank claims this never happened. Chase sent me a copy of the document, I took it to Citibank and they looked at it and said it was a fake!

So we got in touch with the State of Texas Board of Bank Examiners and took the case to them. They said they would investigate. They came back about a month later and said that Citibank sent the money to Chase, Chase has it and that's the end of the story. Chase said they sent the money back to Citibank.

In the meantime I learned that due to regulations of online banking any bank can reverse any bill pay or EFT without notice and are not required to give a reason for doing so! So any payment made in the preceding 7 years can be reversed just because a bank thinks they should do so!

After multiple visits in person to both Chase and Citibank I have found the problem is nobody there has seen this happen before. Nobody knows what to do about it. Nobody wants to stick out their neck far enough to attempt to correct it. And now banks no longer have bank officers in them. There is nobody of any authority in any bank these days.

I could hire a specialized CPA attorney to try to sort this out for a retainer of about $8,000. In the meantime I just pay our mortgage in person at our local Chase bank using a check. A check, once cashed, can never be reversed like and EFT can.
So we are stuck having to eat a $1241 mortgage payment. I think that banks should have to disclose this information to anyone opening an account with them that there is a possibility that it could happen to them.

 

[rp2813]

Matt, you may want to look into the bill paying options through your CU's on-line banking service.  With my CU, if I set up a payee that doesn't have the capability to accept electronic payments, they will automatically generate a paper check and send it out.   They even display a little check icon instead of a lightning bolt if the payee doesn't accept e-payments.  It takes longer for the paper check to arrive since it's going by snail mail, so you set up the payment date accordingly, but otherwise the process for the user is the same as an electronic transaction. 

 

If your CU offers something similar, you can use that option instead of writing a check for your water bill.  We pay our gardener this way.   We don't have an official account number with him -- he's not that sophisticated  -- so we just entered information in the payment system's "account number" field that he would recognize.  You could do likewise for anyone you'd otherwise send a hand-written check to.

 

[alr2903]

Automatic checking account drafting is the best thing ever for tedious monthly bills.  I have never had a problem.  A

 

[whirlcool]

But the problem with automatic payments from your checking account is that once you have paid off the debt, there is nothing that tells the bank this. The company doing the automatic deducting every month can continue to do so over and over again for months on end. Even if you tell the bank to stop them, they can't. You'll have to close your account and open a new one.

Banks need to have better disclosures about the products they offer. There are too many "gotcha's".

 

[xraytech]

I have been ordering my checks from VistaPrint for several years, I get a vintage map printed check with gold embossing.

I am in the minority as I write a good 200-300 checks a year. ALL of my bills are paid via check, all my weekly offerings at church, most of my grocery purchases are all paid via check, I write checks out to cash every pay day so I have cash in hand for the barber shop and other odds and ends.
I do use my credit card for online shopping and gas, however thinking of going back to cash for gas purchases due to the card skimming being so common at the pumps.

I DO NOT have a debit card, nor will I do online bill pay, and I have no desire to ever use either of them.

 

[washman]

+1 xraytech

I'm old school too. Mostly. I pay the mortgage via check. I do have EFT for my electric bill, gas bill, Straight talk, and Vonage. I write checks for everything else. Cable, water, trash, sewer service, etc.

Once upon a time I used to be like everyone else; use the debit card for everything, everywhere. Until I got whacked that is. Took 3 months but the bank put my money back but in the meantime, I had to subsist on my CC for nearly everything. Learned a valuable lesson there. Now I ONLY use my debit at my bank ATM to get cash and I take out what I think I need for a given week.

I use my Barclays AA Mastercard for online purchases and from time to time, pay my dinner bill when I eat out. Here in PA, you have to either prepay for petrol or use a card at the pump. I use the mastercard at the pump. Never use my debit card for that. Never.

I get the least expensive checks via my bank check partner, I don't recall who they use off the top of my head.

I even wrote a check to pay for the Speed Queen! That was exciting for sure!

 

[DADoES]

 
Regards to online/ACH/electronic payments, I don't set-up or initiate auto-payments from my account on the recipient side (such that the receiver of the payment pulls it from me) because that puts them in control and I have to contact them and be slave to their office procedures (or lack thereof) to make changes, correct glitches, or cancel.

I always initiate the payment from my checking account and push it to the recipient, even for recurring payments that are the same amount every month.  Thus, I am in control of issuing the payments.

My mortgage was sold to three different carriers over the course of it.  Never had a problem because none of them were in control of pulling the payment.  Only glitch that occurred was a few times with the last carrier when I added extra and they took it as an advance of the next payment instead of additional principle on the current payment ... which a couple e-mails to them got that straightened out.

And yes, billpay services will print and mail a check to recipients that can't receive an ACH/electronic transfer ... such as my sister, or the neighbor who bills yearly for 1/12 of the security light at front of the street. There's a per-payment entry field for Memo or Note or whatever it's called to enter appropriate identification of the payment to the recipient, such as an invoice or customer ID number.

There are the recipients that want a paper payment advice or coupon included for their processing but those cases are increasingly rare.

 

[polkanut]

+2 Xraytech

My wife actually likes sitting down and writing out checks.  We've been getting our checks from Artistic for the last number of years, and have been very pleased with the variety of styles they offer.  The only bill we currently have on autopay is our homeowners/auto insurance.  We no longer have a mortgage, but when we did, the credit union we got it from also handled the automatic withdrawals from the account we have there.

 

My wife always orders the "Blessings" checks Artistic offers.  https://www.artisticchecks.com/shop...&SubcategoryName=CKSTD-AC(Base)&CategoryCode=

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[ea56]

I bought my last box of checks in Aug 2005

and I'm still using the second book of checks from that box. I almost never write checks anymore, in fact when I do need to write a check I have to stop and think about what I'm doing, and this used to be second nature when I wrote about 30 to 35 checks a month. I pay all my bill online using the recipients website, or I use my CU'c bill pay. I have never had a problem. For purchases at the store I use my debit card, but use it as a credit. This way I don't have to enter a pin, reducing the chance of someone getting my card info and draining my acct. and I also get cash back bonus points. For online purchases I like Paypal, its safe and secure and fast. I just recently went to paperless for almost all my statements, something I said I'd never do, but so far so good. I'd like to think that I manage my finances well. I've had a checking acct. since 1969 and I've balanced to the penny every month during these past 47 years. I personally really like the convenience of online payments. In the old days I was always worried that the payments would be lost in the mail or misplaced in a mailroom. Consequently, I never was satisfied until the payment was recorded as received. When we still were paying on the mortgage we had auto pymts. set up w/ Countrywide and also had an extra amt. pd. every mo. to go specifically to the principal and there was never any problem with the pymts. being posted correctly. Now that the mortgage is pd off we pay the prop tax online too. And I really like not having to get stamps all the time. I would not like going back to the old way of writing checks for everything.
Eddie[this post was last edited: 4/2/2016-12:27]

 

[appnut]

I have a few insurance policies do automatic drafting.  Mortgage, electricity & Discover Card, I have set up whereby I go online and state when I want the amounts paid on what day.  The rest I pay via my Discover Card and then pay that bill off monthly.  The only checks I seem to write are for the man who mows my yard and when I get my hair cut.  Once my mortgage is paid off, I can pay property tax and insurance online via credit card. 

 

[yogitunes]

I never did understand why people got personalized or 'cute' checks.....seems like a waste of money....

for one thing, your sending money/checks to people you don't like.....The Electric Company, Cable Company, Credit Cards....or the occasional gift for someone you don't care for but are obligated to include a gift....

I would like to find checks with a dead bloated skunk that's been baking in the sun on the front......

and if I can get them along the lines of a 'scratch 'n sniff' setup, all the better!....

but if I did want to pay for them, I would go with Garfield!