4 ms·

Few charities or small martial-arts businesses will trust a paper check. The possibility for fraud and nonpayment is too threatening to a small business to be w

Few charities or small martial-arts businesses will trust a paper check. The possibility for fraud and nonpayment is too threatening to a small business to be worth it - they'd rather miss the sale than take payment in check. I haven't seen a non-utility, non-bank business accept paper checks in about 13 years.

VLM 11y ago
I volunteered as a treasurer of a (very) small non-profit org in the USA and in the last couple years I'd conservatively say I deposited many hundreds of checks, with two bounces. Perhaps 3/4 the total cash flow. Figure maybe $10K/yr worth of rather small checks. Generally people trust a check made out to "xyz" will end up in the "xyz" bank account better than just handing money to someone and hoping for the best. Also being a small org ALL our payments were done by me hand writing checks for expense reimbursements, various fees, rentals, etc. To minimize the appearance of impropriety, no cash payments were permitted, all documented and traceable check payments with the check number linked to transaction paperwork (reimbursement form, etc). Most businesses get to pay for the privilege of having a business account and per transaction, as a volunteer org our banking expenses were zero, and all the competitors (square, paypal, various wallets, etc) all want a cut of the action, even if its small, so we had no interest. A startup in the wallet business could get a lot of buzz and transactions by offering free service to all volunteer orgs / non profits. Even just temporarily for a year...
- reagency 11y ago
  Capital One credit cards don't charge feed on charitable donations made through their website.
reagency 11y ago
Why are martial arts special? And why would a charity care about a bounced check?
- geofft 11y ago
  I assume that was a response to the ancestor comment about "charity donations, payments to friends and family, paying for little johnny's karate lessons, stuff like that." FWIW, personal checks for religious offerings seem to be common and accepted (at least accepted enough that I've seen them in offering plates in multiple churches, and I've never seen any church tell people that they'll reject personal checks), so I think you're right on that front. Anecdotally, I pay for my music lessons with personal checks, and I paid rent in my SF apartment, to an individual landlord, with personal checks sent via USPS. In both cases there are reasonable means to complain if those checks bounce.

VLM 11y ago

I volunteered as a treasurer of a (very) small non-profit org in the USA and in the last couple years I'd conservatively say I deposited many hundreds of checks, with two bounces. Perhaps 3/4 the total cash flow. Figure maybe $10K/yr worth of rather small checks. Generally people trust a check made out to "xyz" will end up in the "xyz" bank account better than just handing money to someone and hoping for the best. Also being a small org ALL our payments were done by me hand writing checks for expense reimbursements, various fees, rentals, etc. To minimize the appearance of impropriety, no cash payments were permitted, all documented and traceable check payments with the check number linked to transaction paperwork (reimbursement form, etc). Most businesses get to pay for the privilege of having a business account and per transaction, as a volunteer org our banking expenses were zero, and all the competitors (square, paypal, various wallets, etc) all want a cut of the action, even if its small, so we had no interest. A startup in the wallet business could get a lot of buzz and transactions by offering free service to all volunteer orgs / non profits. Even just temporarily for a year...

reagency 11y ago
Capital One credit cards don't charge feed on charitable donations made through their website.

reagency 11y ago

Why are martial arts special? And why would a charity care about a bounced check?

geofft 11y ago
I assume that was a response to the ancestor comment about "charity donations, payments to friends and family, paying for little johnny's karate lessons, stuff like that." FWIW, personal checks for religious offerings seem to be common and accepted (at least accepted enough that I've seen them in offering plates in multiple churches, and I've never seen any church tell people that they'll reject personal checks), so I think you're right on that front. Anecdotally, I pay for my music lessons with personal checks, and I paid rent in my SF apartment, to an individual landlord, with personal checks sent via USPS. In both cases there are reasonable means to complain if those checks bounce.