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> I've always hated the idea of checks, I rather the money be gone right away then keeping track of it... Since checks still show on your balance even if not ca
by techsupporter 7y ago
> I've always hated the idea of checks, I rather the money be gone right away then keeping track of it... Since checks still show on your balance even if not cashed yet. Then checks have your entire account number people could misuse. I have never wrote a check in my life though, but I know my family does for bills but I know more and more places have online bill pay... They trust mailing their entire account info than doing it online.
Your reasoning isn't flawed but one big reason why I still write some checks is this: they're accepted as payment for free by the receiver where most electronic methods are charged. For example, my apartment's management company charges me $12.95 for a one-off direct debit payment, $6.95/payment for an automatic recurring debit payment, $32.50 for a payment made by debit card, or a whopping $109.55 for a payment made by credit card.
(This means that the free--or at least "included in my rent"--payment option is for me to write a physical check and put it in the night drop box the day before rent is due and then their employees have to deal with the check, as opposed to the computers handling it all. Since the night drop is right there on my way out the door, the convenience factor is still high for me.)
I don't like checks but I flatly refuse to pay money to pay a bill. If I owe you money, you will figure out how to accept it in a way that doesn't cost me more. What I owe is already figured into the balance; charging me more to hand you money is obnoxious. My apartment company isn't the only company like this so I still hand out about 20 checks per year. Fortunately, my credit union gives me one box of checks for free every year and I only use less than one book of them per year so there's no added cost there, too.
- iwasakabukiman 7y agoHow much is your rent, if you don’t mind my asking? Those fees sound exorbitant. I used to do ACH transfers since those were free at the last place I rented. The management company only charged a $3 debit/credit card fee...
- techsupporter 7y agoMy rent is $2,385/month but they are flat fees charged by the electronic payments processor. (I've confirmed with a friend who lives in the same set of apartments but who has rent that is half of mine that the fees she sees online are identical down to the penny.)
- rokhayakebe 7y agoFor rent/mortgage checks, it would take 10 minutes to write 12 post-dated checks, put them each in a (pre-stamped) envelope and file them in a locked drawer. Comes that time each month, walk to Drawer, pick up envelope and drop at Location.
- techsupporter 7y agoYep, you've correctly deduced what I do. At lease renewal, I write out twelve more checks and drop them in a convenient location. When my phone reminder chirps, I take the next envelope to the drop box, usually along with the recycling to the hopper in the adjacent room.
- ghaff 7y agoAll that assumes you don’t travel a lot. Anything that requires me to mail a physical check is definitely in exception processing territory. Mostly I either setup payments through my bank or pay well in advance if due dates. Means I cover a fairly big float but don’t have much of a choice.
- Keverw 7y agoYeah, I heard that's with the water bill they charge extra to use a card... I still am at home, but things like that sound annoying when I get my own place... However since doing programming can be remotely, my dream is to be a nomad or full time RVer instead. I think the idea of staying in one place all your life is boring and can follow the weather too. However I know some phone and satellite tv companies give you a tiny discount if you pay online. Also another thing that annoys me, with satellite radio in the car apparently you can't cancel online. You have to call and be put on hold and then they try to retain you. Seems so unfriendly, I know they don't want people to quit but people sell cars, etc... and knowing that it makes me kinda not want to signup in the first place on a new car, but it is a nice service at least using it.
- epa 7y ago"Computers handling it all". Not quite. You would be surprised how big of an effort it is to reconcile cash in the bank compared to what you charged on a credit card. This is before even accounting for chargebacks and fees.
- ghaff 7y agoMy town is the same way. They use some outside service that charges for paying online. Checks are free--stamp aside. In practice, I mostly pay online through my bank which cuts them a check--which is mostly the same thing for me and is free. I assume the deal is that an outside service sets up these things for municipalities for "free" but they take a cut so the person paying the bill pays for the free service.
- DarmokJalad1701 7y agoCheck if your credit union has online bill pay. Mine does. I used to have a landlord who was the same way about checks. I could set it up so that the bank mailed them a check every month for no extra charge. It was like paying online, and they handled all details.
- techsupporter 7y agoEveryone says to do this but the blocker is that my rent must be paid on the 1st of the month and my paycheck arrives on the last business day. Because of the archaic system that we in the United States call "how to move money between accounts," and my credit union outsourcing its bill pay feature, the check will not be mailed until the funds are present and it is sent from the East Coast when I live in the Pacific time zone so I stick with the 52-second walk from my apartment to the drop box. Yes, I could leave sufficient money in that account to deal with it but I send most of my paycheck to savings and retirement accounts that earn much better interest than the paltry 0.05% my credit union's checking account gives me. Plus, the walk is good for my health.
- preem_palver 7y agotake a look at plastiq.com
- aroch 7y agoThey have a 2.5% fee, which again means you're paying to have the privilege of paying someone.
- tyri_kai_psomi 7y agoMoney costs money.
- merb 7y agothe only way to fix this is to save enough money to haver "another" rent payment on your bank account. sadly that does not work for everybody (thats even more sad than the banking system the us has. I live in germany and I never seen a check)
- jacquesm 7y agoThose fees are outrageous.
- lazyjeff 7y agoJust last December, I mindlessly selected my credit card to pay my quarterly property tax, and was hit with a $97 fee. Yeah my fault for quickly clicking through and using my browser autofill, but I was watching a TV show thought it'd be just a few dollars.
- steelframe 7y ago> Your reasoning isn't flawed but one big reason why I still write some checks is this: they're accepted as payment for free by the receiver where most electronic methods are charged. And it's not just monetary charges. It's also a desire to not demonstrate consent when I'm blasted with a CAPTCHA. The instant I get a CAPTCHA, I reflexively hit Ctrl-W to close the tab and either (1) take my business elsewhere or (2) mail a check in. It's especially infuriating when they wait to hit me with a CAPTCHA at the very end of the process, after I've already copied over account numbers and other information from the paper bill they sent me. I'll find any way I can to waste the time of that company's employees at that point.
- pitaj 7y agoI'm confused. Why do you hate captchas so much? I can't see why anyone would draw the line there. I mean, how else are electronic forms supposed to prevent spam?
- steelframe 7y agoNot my problem. Don't make me play stupid and infuriating Google-AI-training games just to pay you.
- erikpukinskis 7y agoWhy would they want to prevent spammers from sending them money?
- spookthesunset 7y agoDon't hate the player, hate the game. That captcha probably exists to prevent some kind of automated fraud that you aren't aware of. If you have a better means of stopping automated fraud, you could make yourself a tidy amount of money...
- PickledJesus 7y agoThat is quite insane. Card payment fees are illegal in the EU for the consumer, and interchange fees are capped at 0.2/0.3% for the merchant. It should cost the merchant less than 2% all in.
- lotsofpulp 7y agoAdd in the cost of chargeback risks and dealing with that. Checks are far less risky for the payment receiver, it’s much more difficult dispute it and yank the money back.
- lostcolony 7y agoI had something like that for utility charges at an apartment. The apartment staff would not take a check...and there was no posted mailing address to send it too either. There was no way to pay the bill except to also pay them a fee. I hated that just on principle the entire time i stayed there, and is, in fact, my biggest complaint about that apartment complex (which otherwise was a delight to live in)
- bastardoperator 7y agoI use a check when I want to preserve a record of payment. Mortgage and rent are perfect examples.
- ljm 7y agoThose ‘convenience charges’ seem absolutely bonkers living outside of the US. Surely you’d want to incentivise a direct debit if it meant you got paid on time, regularly? No excuses about lost cheques, less risk of late payment...
- Macha 7y agoMy utility providers (Ireland) charge 2-5% less if you setup payment by direct debit here, so they at least agree with you.
- nine_k 7y agoMy landlord used to accept paper checks only. They he set up some form of electronic payment that took something like 1.5% of the amount paid; it seemed to be largely ignored because paying extra $20-30 feels like more expense than spend time to write and mail the check. By now the landlord set up another electronic payment system that takes a fixed $2.99 fee for the transaction. I've never written him a paper check since then. So, if you want to not walk to the bank with a wad of checks, find a payment provider with a right price.