My grandmother (born 1907) refused to accept it that way. “I want that check IN MY HAND”. Then she’d line up at the bank on the 3rd of each month. Eventually they made her do direct deposit and she grudgingly admitted how much better it was to just “know it’s there”.
Plus checks can get lost. They can get stolen. I don’t think the signature is analyzed, so they can be (easily) forged. (In fact, the “signing the back of the credit card” is stupid…Europe has the right idea: PINs; insert the card into the device, enter the PIN, done.)
I also automate almost everything. All of our monthly household bills are automatic, except the mortgage which I have to go in monthly and schedule the payment.
When you think about it, the idea of a check is really stupid. You accept a scrap of paper signed by someone as payment, and then hope it doesn’t bounce. At least cash has the backing of a government.
Yeah, that was overstated. If check-writing works for someone else, fine by me, even though I personally have as much as possible automated.
For automatic payments, I prefer:
push to pull, where possible, and
charges to credit cards to deductions from checking accounts, where possible;
although I do have several things pulled from my checking account because that’s the only option.
I like automatic payments a lot because:
I don’t have to depend on my increasingly unreliable memory to pay things. Payments that aren’t automated, that I have to initiate, are in my calendar and I get reminders for those, so that helps, but I don’t want to be getting a flood of reminders.
I don’t have to depend on the Post Office. Mail sometimes gets lost, and on top of that, check-stealing crime is on the rise. The thieves intercept mail, “wash” the checks, re-write and cash them. Now when I do mail a check, I use a gel pen instead of ball point, which helps deter fraud, but there’s still a risk it’ll be stolen and then destroyed.
I don’t have to depend on myself to get the numbers right and not accidently interpose digits or write the wrong number down because I was thinking of something else. My ability to multitask was never good, and it’s only gotten worse over time.
It’s convenient. Now that I’m handling both my own and my dad’s finances, check-writing for everything would cross the line from a neutral activity to a real nuisance.
Yes, there are glitches sometimes, but they’re pretty easily straightened out, and I keep a decent enough cushion in my dad’s and my checking accounts that problems don’t snowball.
I have never had and never will have anything automatically deducted from my bank account or charged to my credit card.
How about having my bank pay my mortgage for me every month, on time? Regardless of whether I am home or away, well or sick, on top of things of in a fog? Mine does. Likewise it pays my montly medical insurance bill just as reliably. The same for several other payments that are the same every month. If they can’t do an electronic paperless transfer they print a check and mail it at no charge. But a lot of it is electronic. For bills that change I get on line as soon as I open the mail (sometimes email) and set the date and amount for paying things like charge cards. Nobody I am paying is pulling money from my bank account. It is all push, based on what I set up and control.
I do have a several bills that get charged to a credit card every month. My cable/internet bill, cell phone bill, music streaming, on-line storage. I pick up a few points and I can’t trip myself up. A matter of a few hundred dollars.
How about having my bank pay my mortgage for me every month, on time?
I used to do this, until one month something got screwed up and the payment didn’t get done on time. What a mess getting that straightened out.
Now I have the mortgage company pull the payment from a checking account. That way, if something goes wrong it’s their problem. They guarantee that they will credit the payment on the pull date, even if the funds are slow in getting delivered.
Additionally, this checking account is dedicated to the mortgage. The money is transferred in (automatically) a few days before the pull.
Everything else, I push.
I do have a several bills that get charged to a credit card every month.
Likewise. None of these are large, and if they forget to do the charge it’s their problem not mine. Although…in 30+ year, nobody has forgotten to do the charge.
