How often do you use a checkbook? or do you pay all bills online?

[Anonymous]

Do you have automatic payments set up for everything and just check your bank once a week? My wife wants me to do everything online, I actually like writing a check. It make me feel more accountable.

[Anonymous]

I have some things I have to write checks for, all related to my kids' sport. Don't ask me why they don't use Venmo/PayPal/Zelle but they don't. That's it. Everything else I do has automatic checks or electronic payments.

There's the psychology behind paying cash - it makes it feel like you're really parting with the money. I'm sure writing a check for you is similar.

[Anonymous]

I’m not spending money to mail the damn check, OP. You can feel accountable when you look at the money you’re saving by not purchasing ridiculously overpriced stamps.

[Anonymous]

I write a check for our house cleaner because she prefers it. And occasionally my dentist sends a bill which I return with a check. Other than that, I do everything online.

BUT I write it all down in my checkbook and I balance that frigging' checkbook every month. Old habits die hard!

[Anonymous]

I probably couldn't even tell you where my check book is. I haven't written a check in forever. I have had to get cashiers checks from the bank, but otherwise everything is paid online or with a credit card (which is then paid online).

[Anonymous]

I pay some by phone, some autopay, some by check, some manual but online. Where I live, paying my water bill online costs more than mailing it.
Charitable donations and purchases I pay by check except political contributions (online) and my church (autopay) and Doctors Without Borders (also autopay).
Also, it actually helps me remember to pay stuff different methods.
Car insurance--used to be autopay. Then DH paid the entire premium at once and I never realized it wasn't being auto-paid after the following renewal. Discovered 2.5 months after policy expired we'd been driving without insurance the entire time.

[Anonymous]

My son bought a house which had just been leased as a rental to 4 college students and his landlord had made him to back to a year lease (had been a year lease a couple of years, then month to month, then they required a lease again). The kids literally did not know how to pay by check. They had some rental app they wanted to use but he settled for venmo. Although there was never anyone making SURE that the entire rent was paid and one guy was always late (and the water bill was in his name, which he didn't get around to paying, so when the water was turned off they thought the pipes had frozen).

[Anonymous]

I don't even have a checkbook anymore since I opened a new account. Everything is online.

[Anonymous]

I pay about half my bills by check. The other half is auto pay. But I enjoy the writing of the check and then putting a label and stamp. Kind of therapeutic becuase it feels like a slowing down of time.

[Anonymous]

I use checks for things I don't want to use a credit card for or allow automatic withdrawals. Ever since JHU Health was hacked I write them checks instead of giving them a credit card number.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you have automatic payments set up for everything and just check your bank once a week? My wife wants me to do everything online, I actually like writing a check. It make me feel more accountable.

I have auto payments set up for everything but one thing. I check my accounts once or twice a month. I write a check maybe once every year or three, generally for a bar/bat mitzvah or wedding.

[Anonymous]

Automatic or at least online for all except when we need someone to repair the AC, a plumber...Just give them a check on the spot because they tend to prefer that. I never mail checks, would not.

[Anonymous]

Once a year I set up all of my payments for the year. I pay a set amount for utilities and then at the end of the year either have a credit or have to pay a little bit.

For bills that do not do electronic pay, I have them automatically bill my credit card.

For property taxes and insurance, when the bill arrives, I schedule it for payment online - taxes have to be debited, insurance takes electronic pay.

I have two annual bills that charge to pay he credit card and don’t take electronic payments. For those, I write a check and deliver it in person.

The reason I have so many bills that don’t take electronic payments is because I have a second house in a rural area and they just haven’t caught up.

Very occasionally I will have another bill, like a medical bill. I pay those when they arrive.

My bills are never late and I spend next to no time dealing with them.

[Anonymous]

DH (60) still prefers checks so he uses that for our bill paying. If I was handling that job it would be all online but he can do it how he wants.

I occasionally write a check for a home service provider but I think that's about it.

[Anonymous]

I pay probably 90% online— most via automatic withdrawal / Bill Pay through my bank, a few that I’ll log on and pay manually (or by Venmo). Sometimes repair companies only take check, and we write checks for church.