Peeve: People who wait to cash large checks

[Anonymous]

OP must be really stupid if this plays tricks on her mind.

[Anonymous]

It's one of my pet peeves too OP. I hate it because when you check your balance on your iPhone or such it looks higher. And if they hold it for a long time you may forget.

Plus it kills me that people just don't deposit the check! I don't get it. I once knew an old woman who kept a need file of checks received and she cashed them only when she needed money - as if she were holding bonds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why? You should be looking at your account as if the money isn't there as soon as the check is written and until it is cleared. If you have the money to cover the check, and you know that eventually it will get cashed, this is a non issue. You balance your acct as if it already gone.

Yes, I know, but feels artificial to me to keep the "minimum" of the account at $2,000 more than it actually is. I balance my account online, so whenever I see the balance is $2,000 higher, it plays tricks on my mind that makes me think I have more money than I actually do. It's just a minor annoyance to have to have that feeling for two months.

Wait. Balancing your account online isn't balancing your account. The point of balancing it yourself is to catch mistakes that may be made by the bank; you'll never catch these if you check against their record exclusively. And furthermore, you won't know what you've put out as opposed to what you have sitting there, as you are seeing now.

We keep a shared google doc running where we essentially balance our checking account daily (or every other day). It's a copy of the bank's record, but by our account in real-time. Was tedious at first, but now habit. Works for us.

NP here. As compared to reviewing your account and transactions online, isn't the only advantage to this that you'll catch arithmetic errors and outstanding checks? Chances of an aritchmetic error are extremely low and if someone rarely writes checks or maintains a sufficiently high balance to cover the margin of error isn't this kind of a waste of time?

It's a huge help to us because we are able to see what our ACTUAL balance is versus what people have processed or claimed. Plus, we keep a section below the entries about expected upcoming expenses. So it's not really about errors as much as it is the real-time aspect.

We, however, live on a tight budget, so if we had 15K coming in each month we'd be a lot less inclined to keep track this way. So I suppose we are not in that sufficiently high balance range you speak of.

Honey, is that you? I could have written this word for word. It works for us and has also helped our long-term planning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why? You should be looking at your account as if the money isn't there as soon as the check is written and until it is cleared. If you have the money to cover the check, and you know that eventually it will get cashed, this is a non issue. You balance your acct as if it already gone.

Yes, I know, but feels artificial to me to keep the "minimum" of the account at $2,000 more than it actually is. I balance my account online, so whenever I see the balance is $2,000 higher, it plays tricks on my mind that makes me think I have more money than I actually do. It's just a minor annoyance to have to have that feeling for two months.

Wait. Balancing your account online isn't balancing your account. The point of balancing it yourself is to catch mistakes that may be made by the bank; you'll never catch these if you check against their record exclusively. And furthermore, you won't know what you've put out as opposed to what you have sitting there, as you are seeing now.

We keep a shared google doc running where we essentially balance our checking account daily (or every other day). It's a copy of the bank's record, but by our account in real-time. Was tedious at first, but now habit. Works for us.

NP here. As compared to reviewing your account and transactions online, isn't the only advantage to this that you'll catch arithmetic errors and outstanding checks? Chances of an aritchmetic error are extremely low and if someone rarely writes checks or maintains a sufficiently high balance to cover the margin of error isn't this kind of a waste of time?

It's a huge help to us because we are able to see what our ACTUAL balance is versus what people have processed or claimed. Plus, we keep a section below the entries about expected upcoming expenses. So it's not really about errors as much as it is the real-time aspect.

We, however, live on a tight budget, so if we had 15K coming in each month we'd be a lot less inclined to keep track this way. So I suppose we are not in that sufficiently high balance range you speak of.

Honey, is that you? I could have written this word for word. It works for us and has also helped our long-term planning.

Another poster who does the same thing. I know my balance to the penny and I know what I'm planning it to be months ahead.

[Anonymous]

OP, I hate that. The old daycare used to hold 3 checks and then cash them. I was living paycheck to paycheck at the time, so it used to drive me batty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have 2 checking accounts just for this purpose. I write checks only from one account. I transfer the money from my main account to my writing account when I write the check.

New poster here- thanks, this is a great idea!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

NP here. As compared to reviewing your account and transactions online, isn't the only advantage to this that you'll catch arithmetic errors and outstanding checks? Chances of an aritchmetic error are extremely low and if someone rarely writes checks or maintains a sufficiently high balance to cover the margin of error isn't this kind of a waste of time?

You also catch fraudulent transactions. Since you typically have 60 days after which its your responsibility, its a good idea to do this monthly.

Also, now that many checks are cleared electronically, I don't always get a check image to verify some weird payment is something I actually intended to make.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

NP here. As compared to reviewing your account and transactions online, isn't the only advantage to this that you'll catch arithmetic errors and outstanding checks? Chances of an aritchmetic error are extremely low and if someone rarely writes checks or maintains a sufficiently high balance to cover the margin of error isn't this kind of a waste of time?

You also catch fraudulent transactions. Since you typically have 60 days after which its your responsibility, its a good idea to do this monthly.

Also, now that many checks are cleared electronically, I don't always get a check image to verify some weird payment is something I actually intended to make.

You have 60 days from the date of the bank statement to catch errors. But I don't know any bank that has a time limit for fraud claims.

[Anonymous]

OP can you not put in checks written on your online account? I can put the check number, payee, amount, and date on there and it will adjust the available balance on my account while the check is pending.

[Anonymous]

I have BOA. Instead of writing the person a physical check, I go there and send them one thru bill pay. it takes the money out when it sends them the check!!!

[Anonymous]

For those of you who balance your accounts separately, have you caught errors?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who balance your accounts separately, have you caught errors?

Never, but I'm doing it to know how much money I really have to avoid "tricks bring played on my mind." Before you could check balances online, this is what people actually did--there was no other way until your statement came to know what you had. The moment you wrote the check, you deducted the amount from your "balance" in the register. Ta da, no tricks.

Btw, I do this with an app now, if only to keep track of card purchases when I make them (I'm terrible with receipts).

[Anonymous]

I use bill pay and if the check cancels in 180 days.

[Anonymous]

I write all transactions in a paper check register and compare it with excell downloads from my bank website.

We don't want this online in a google document. I use bill pay for most bills that cannot be done [or have a large fee] since you don't have any postage etc. Some payees are electronic and others the bank mails a paper check.

We don't use account debit cards-no points or rewards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who balance your accounts separately, have you caught errors?

Never, but I'm doing it to know how much money I really have to avoid "tricks bring played on my mind." Before you could check balances online, this is what people actually did--there was no other way until your statement came to know what you had. The moment you wrote the check, you deducted the amount from your "balance" in the register. Ta da, no tricks.

Btw, I do this with an app now, if only to keep track of card purchases when I make them (I'm terrible with receipts).

Yes, I have.