Do You Write Many Checks Anymore?

[xjillianpaige]

I'm shocked that a car dealership takes cheques. Never heard of such a thing. When I bought my first car back in like 1991 it was debit from your account even then.

It doesn't go to the dealership, it goes to the bank where I took out my loan.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

About a dozen per year.

I bought a car in June and gave the dealership a personal check for the full amount.

 

[North of Mouse]

Only a couple a year on things that cannot be paid any other way. I do not carry checks around with me.

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

Maybe one or two a year.

Until very recently I still had 2 boxes of checks from when I first opened my checking account back when I was 18 (I’m 36 now). They still had Washington Mutual on them even though Chase bought them out a long time ago.

I recently got married and my Husband’s military service history got us upgraded to premier checking and savings, which comes with free checks so we ordered one box. Will probably last us the rest of our lives.

 

[tvguy]

I'm shocked that a car dealership takes cheques. Never heard of such a thing. When I bought my first car back in like 1991 it was debit from your account even then.

You certainly can do an electronic transfer if the dealer is set up for that. Most won't accept debit or credit cards because of the fees, or will only take them up to a few thousand dollars. I get that, on a $30,000 car, the fees at 3% would be $900, and that either comes out of their profit, or they jack up the price to you. No thanks. I'll write a check and save the money.
How do you handle private party car sales? My last car purchase was private party 2 years ago. I wrote a personal check, met the seller at my bank, which he did not have an account with. He cashed it at my bank with me there, got the cash, signed over title on the spot.

 

[tvguy]

.

Out of curiosity - Walmart Canada doesn't accept personal cheques. Does Walmart in the US?.

Basically, they will take your money anyway you want to give it to them.

This is what the U.S. Website says on payments they accept.

• Credit cards, including American Express, Discover, MasterCard, and Visa
• ATM / Debit / Check Cards, including Walmart MoneyCard
• Walmart Credit Card and Walmart MasterCard
• Walmart Gift Cards and eGift Cards
• PayPal
• Pay with Cash (credit cards, cash, checks, Walmart gift cards, money order and EBT (must select cash option in debit reader). SNAP (Food) and WIC benefits cannot be used to pay for the order amount
• Chase Pay

 

[CdnCarrie]

You said you couldn’t believe a car dealership would take checks. I said, I’ve made all my down payments with checks. Down payments not car payments. A large sum of money at once vs a small sum of money monthly. Car payments don’t get made to the dealership they get made to the bank. I never said anything about using checks for car payments. You said you used your debit in 1991 at a car dealership. I took that to mean for a down payment as you mentioned you bought a car. You did not say otherwise until now.

Not sure why you feel the need to insult the way we do things at every turn as I have not done that with you. You seemed curious, I’ve tried to explain but you seem more interested in pointing out how backwards we are to you.

No I'm just curious.
I didn't say I use debit it 1991. I don't think it was available in 1991. It became common here around mid 90s and your daily limit probably would have not made putting a large deposit on anything possible. I probably gave a cheque likely a certified one for the down payment. I don't recall. But the payments for the car loan were automatically deducted out of my account after that. No paper flow after the initial transaction.

Someone above said something about cheques for car payments. I was referring to that. I'm curious about why banks in the US haven't moved to electronic payments over cheques for car payments.

Sorry. I just really have never heard of using cheques for car payments to a bank. I find it fascinating. Never thought that was a possibility anywhere.
Don't mean to sound insulting. Just expressing surprise. I did know from past threads that cheque usuage was higher in the USA than most other countries but still surprises me when I read it here how much you do use them.

Thank you to the person who answered me about Walmart. Like I say WM hasn't taken personal cheques here for years. You use to be able to sign over government cheques but that was it. So yes I find it neat, odd, cool, surprising that they take personal cheques in the USA. Just different.

 

[CdnCarrie]

You certainly can do an electronic transfer if the dealer is set up for that. Most won't accept debit or credit cards because of the fees, or will only take them up to a few thousand dollars. I get that, on a $30,000 car, the fees at 3% would be $900, and that either comes out of their profit, or they jack up the price to you. No thanks. I'll write a check and save the money.
How do you handle private party car sales? My last car purchase was private party 2 years ago. I wrote a personal check, met the seller at my bank, which he did not have an account with. He cashed it at my bank with me there, got the cash, signed over title on the spot.

Never bought a private party car. I don't collect cars or anything.
Last time I bought a car I put my old car down as a trade-in, gave them a certified cheque for a large deposit and set up automatic payments out of my bank account for the balance.

When my husband's car was written off by insurance we did something similar. Took the insurance money, got a certified cheque and paid the dealership. Certified cheques are free with our bank account.

If the car dealership took debit it the large payment would be too much for my daily debit limit which I think is $1000. Doubt car dealerships take credit cards for purchasing cars. Maybe. Next asked.

 

[tvguy]

Never bought a private party car. I don't collect cars or anything.
Last time I bought a car I put my old car down as a trade-in, gave them a certified cheque for a large deposit and set up automatic payments out of my bank account for the balance.

When my husband's car was written off by insurance we did something similar. Took the insurance money, got a certified cheque and paid the dealership. Certified cheques are free with our bank account.

If the car dealership took debit it the large payment would be too much for my daily debit limit which I think is $1000. Doubt car dealerships take credit cards for purchasing cars. Maybe. Next asked.

I shot one of my cousin's a note. He moved from Ottawa to Prince Edward Island about 5 months ago. He hadn't used checks for years in Ottawa, but since moving to Prince Edward Island he had to order some. A lot of small businesses still take them there, or cash, but no debit or credit.

 

[CdnCarrie]

I shot one of my cousin's a note. He moved from Ottawa to Prince Edward Island about 5 months ago. He hadn't used checks for years in Ottawa, but since moving to Prince Edward Island he had to order some. A lot of small businesses still take them there, or cash, but no debit or credit.

That makes sense that cheques are more in use in small communities. how does he like living in PEI? I love it out there.

 

[tvguy]

That makes sense that cheques are more in use in small communities. how does he like living in PEI? I love it out there.

So far, so good. He posts lots of pretty pictures on FB. He also posted a photo of a store with milk "on sale" for $7.27 for 4 liters. FAINT! So prices are nuts there. That would be about $2.49 here.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I only write then to my kids school.

DS senior trip payments, money for PTA, when the kids want to order a school shirt, book order money.

I feel better sending a check because my kids tend to lose things and i don’t need them to lose cash.

I’ve had the same checkbook for 3 years.

 

[CdnCarrie]

So far, so good. He posts lots of pretty pictures on FB. He also posted a photo of a store with milk "on sale" for $7.27 for 4 liters. FAINT! So prices are nuts there. That would be about $2.49 here.

About $4.99 here. PEI has a ton of cows so not sure why milk is so expensive!

 

[tvguy]

CHECK UPDATE:

I went with my daughter today as she bought her first car on her own.
She is 27 and we went to Hertz Car Sales.
She has a checking account but has never had checks for it, just the debit card. She pays all her bills with that or her credit card
No good for her down payment.
They would take a PERSONAL check, a Cashiers Check, or cash only.

So off to the bank we ran to get a check.

I realize I am an old fogy but even I was surprised that they would not take an electronic payment.

 

[lifesavacation]

Yep, several places add an up charge to use a debit card so I send a check. Anything that’s repetitive like HOA fees, I have a check sent by the bank.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Used to write one check per month. The vendor switched over to electronic pay start of this year.
Hallelujah and welcome to the 21st century.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

None, since DH was dropped from Medicare (January).

I had to pay the supplement via check (no online option). Once every 4 months, so maybe 3-4 checks a year.

I sent a check in to DS's school at the beginning of the year to pay for art supplies.

So, 4-5 checks total last year.

plus one that was voided out when DH had to change his direct deposit, because the payment systems crashed in the payroll department at work. (well, crash is a bad word; they were hit with a crypto locker virus because some brand new secretary didn't think she needed to attend the HR/IT training class when she was hired)

So...5-6 checks out of the checkbook in 2017.

I have like 130 Disney checks sitting in the closet, lol.

 

[PaulaSB12]

Yes. Some of my utility companies charge a service fee to pay online, and it costs more than the price of a stamp, so I'll just write a check. I also write checks for payments I send into the boys' school so that I have receipts.

Thats odd my utility companies charge less for paying by direct debit I don't even have a cheque book

 

[Marchand63]

For me, basically none. I used to do mortgage only because it was Bank of America which is the worst bank in the world for keeping records. So paper trail thank you. Mortgage paid actually thanks to being able to prove their 10k error.

DZh a couple , he likes doing checks.

Now just for MIL, she insists on paper checks.

 

[Tigger in a kilt]

I don’t have a cheque book, and most stores here no longer accept cheques. You have to specifically order a chequebook if you want one, but the only person I know who still uses one is my 89 year old grandmother. I’m surprised that people accept them, but I guess someone does.