Do you have checks? If so, when's the last time you used one?

[Anonymous]

My hairdresser takes cash or checks for tips (credit card only for actual hairdressing fees). It is easier to write a check than be sure I have cash.

Charities often do better if you write a check - no fees. Even bank transfers have fees (although less than credit cards).

My dentist has been very kind to me over the years - I use checks with them to save them the credit card fees (they don’t ask for that and don’t charge more if you use a credit card, but I know it is helpful to them if I write a check).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:the lady in front of me a Giant still uses checks.

I have strong memories of my mom writing checks to Giant growing up. But towards the end of her doing that, they had a printer they would run them through that printed the whole check for you, you just had to sign it.

Also she'd go to the drive through teller and write a check to "cash" to get money out. Seems like such a huge hassle now! Ha.

[Anonymous]

My landscaper and handyman are both old school and only accept checks. Neither will get a Venmo which is how I pay a lot of other service providers. I do have some checks for situations where the person does not take anything else but I pay most everything I can by credit card or Venmo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We use them bi-weekly for our house cleaners and for repair people. Most of them are small business owners and it’s not a hardship to give them a check or to keep them on hand.

Same here.

[Anonymous]

I too have paper checks with the wrong address on them. I actually just used one last week.

And yes, the fees really are that high. Now that the IRS requires reporting of commercial transactions totaling over $600, I would expect some people who want to evade tax to move back to checks from Paypal and Venmo.

[Anonymous]

All the time for contractors, landscapers, and cleaners. I use my banks bill pay option to send checks for all my other bills. I'm shocked you can get through a month without writing a check. Do you login to numerous websites each week to pay bills?

[Anonymous]

Gosh, I guess I'm going to have to order some.

Our housecleaning agency sends a QB online invoice that I pay by cc. I always tip in cash and give bonuses in cash as well.

Even the school payments I need to make has an online option. Maybe once there wasn't an option for swim team and my kid paid using her check and I sent her the funds through Venmo.

Both of these places who requested checks, my auto repair shop and the chimney cleaners, are places I've used for years.

I just bought some girl scout cookies this past weekend (drive thru set up, love it!) and they were cash, Venmo, or Zelle only.

I think I destroyed or finished out my last book 6 years ago when we moved to our new house and never replaced them.

[Anonymous]

I pay my cleaners and send my nephew a check on his birthday to annoy him.

[Anonymous]

I have personal checks and joint checking account checks. I use them to pay for daycare (small local business that doesn't accept card payments) and occasionally for repair services.

My pediatrician's office (also small and local) only accepts cash and check. We're not quite in a check-free world yet, OP. I get that it's unusual for a business to not accept card payment (or discourage it) but it's not unheard of.

And yeah, card fees do eat into profit, and that hurts small/local businesses. If anything, it's crazy that you don't have checks, at all.

[Anonymous]

Repair people, gifts for children and nephews and nieces, donations……

[Anonymous]

We put checks in the collection basket at church.

[Anonymous]

Twice this week - doing hard scraping in yard.

Before than - probably May/June graduation parties.

[Anonymous]

I have a couple of bills that charge fees for credit card payments, but not for "electronic check cashing". I don't actually have to use a check, but I have to put the electronic routing information and checking account number into a web-site.

We also recently had a big kitchen/bath renovation done. The company that we used, said that they would charge 3% for credit cards. I was not going to pay 3% for a $35K renovation.

Our plumber (who we've used for about 25 years now), does not take credit cards, but he's a small one-man job and he only takes clients by referral, but he's very good and very reasonable and we aren't changing.

Like a couple of other PP's, I only use paper checks maybe once or twice a year, but I still have them just in case. The last time I ordered checks was well over 10 years ago. You can get an inexpensive set of checks for under $10 on-line and then you'll have them around as needed. They don't go bad.

[Anonymous]

I still write checks, mostly for childcare, water and electric bill, and mortgage (I know, gasp!). I just don't like having more online accounts with passwords I have to remember than I absolutely have to. I also still balance our checking account using the paper check register.

[Anonymous]

I wrote a check last week for a school field trip fees for my kid.

In general we have one consistent check we write each month--our HOA fees. The HOA charges a $7 fee if you pay it online with a credit card...so we mail a check each month.
Then we typically end up writing one or two more checks each month for various things like the school field trip fees, some of their activities fees, etc.