| LIFE This Tweet got me thinking. So, I'm curious. When's the last time you reordered checks? The last time you actually wrote one?

[TerryP]

It took me a second to remember where my checkbook was and after looking I still can't really tell you when I put in the order. I see by the ledger it was somewhere right before February of '14.

The last check I wrote? Tuesday, March 8th, 2016 for two dollars. Yeah, two freakin' dollars--no cash that day and a kid from a local school was selling those ridiculously high priced candy bars for a fundraiser. It had been over two months since the last time I'd written a check then.

 

[planomateo]

I've been a bill pay user for a long time...but I do find the need periodically to write checks. With two kids in high school, we still find the need to write checks for various school related items.

Don't recall the last time we ordered checks, but it's been a while.

 

[Bamabww]

Our rural water system doesn't have the option for bill pay or auto draft so I have to write them a check each month. Looking through our check book it looks like I write 3 or 4 a month. Last ordered checks in 2014.

 

[TerryP]

Our rural water system doesn't have the option for bill pay or auto draft so I have to write them a check each month.

The country adjacent to Charleston, Berkley, is the same way. But, they've got a drive-thru window(s) where two or more are working all the time. That makes no sense to me.

 

[bama alum]

I write about 5 - 6 per month.

 

[rocknthefreeworld]

It appears I wrote one check in 2017, 2 in 2016, and one each in 2015 and 2014. In 2013 I wrote about 34. Prior to that year I probably wrote about 5 a month. Last time I ordered was 2013. Sadly the move to online is going to cost me my job. I work for a company that takes incoming payments via check. Due to decreases in volume we are going to probably close all of our sites except one or two over the next few years. One closed in 2017 and I expect a couple more in 2018. Due to company policy, if the site I am closest to closes then I lose my job even though my work has no relation to the site itself. Rules are you have to go into an office every day.

 

[sk33tr]

it's been a while for me. i last ordered checks probably back in 2008, maybe as late as 2010. but i haven't written any in quite a while. every bill i pay is done online. hell, i probably don't even go to the bank all that often. i do remember going a couple months ago to deposit some coins i'd saved and rolled. but before that to do some actual banking at one? no idea.

and now, if i want to use my debit card i hardly even pull it out. i just tap my phone and go. our 2 snack/drink machines at work have that option so i use it more often than not. and if i could ever get my actual credit cards to work with the app on the phone, i highly doubt i'd ever carry them anymore, lol.

so now it's getting closer to not even needing the actual card, let alone a check.

 

[It Takes Eleven]

We get 150 checks free a year and we've stayed under that amount the last two years. You just reminded me to ask for this year's allotment. With the youngest out of high school, our number of checks written dropped.

In my other account I'm using for construction expenses, I've written 40 or so over the last two months for the home construction. Other than a concrete finisher living outside the banking system who required cash, I'm pretty much all checks in that account.

Check and debit card transactions crossed in 2017 at about 30 billion each. In 2000, there were about 42 billion checks written. In 2015, that number had declined to about 17 billion, while non-prepaid debit card transactions hit 60 billion. Your mileage may vary, but the study showed that check processing declines slowed, and attributed to a core group of transactions that remain popular, such as business transactions. Ease of processing since Check 21 (which allows for electronic conversion of checks) also may have slowed the decline.


RTR,

Tim

 

[rocknthefreeworld]

Ease of processing since Check 21 (which allows for electronic conversion of checks) also may have slowed the decline.

Not only does it make it easier to process checks but it actually charges banks extra for not converting to electronic. Any deposit the Fed takes in of a physical check costs a ton more than electronic checks. Even if the person you give the check to doesn't convert it their bank will do so.

SOURCE: Wrote a lot of software to convert checks and validate integrity of Check21 deposits. Also involved in remote (ie phone) deposit for multiple banks.

 

[Bamabww]

Sadly the move to online is going to cost me my job.

Yeah, unfortunately that's the result of everything going paperless. My brother worked at the paper mill (Champion / International Paper) in Courtland, Alabama. He said they stressed in each plant meeting for the employees to not agree to paperless billing and to request a paper sack at the grocery stores. That plant closed about 5 or 6 years ago putting approximately 1500 people out of a good paying job.

 

[rick4bama]

Just me maybe one or two a month. Now my wife three to four. You know most of the places you go and write one to them. The place will run it thought and hand your cancel check back to you.

 

[rocknthefreeworld]

You know most of the places you go and write one to them. The place will run it thought and hand your cancel check back to you.

That is the check 21 conversion mentioned earlier. Same reason your check clears same day now sometimes instead of 5 days later. Some places upload all checks once a day. Places like Wal-Mart upload them all throughout the day. Every time they get so many or haven't sent any in a little bit they send them to the bank.