The Checkbook (Wherein The Author Lives A 20th Century Lifestyle In The 21st Century)
I wrote a check this week. When I was engaged in that task, it occurred to me that this is something I very seldom do anymore. It also occurred to me that I probably have a lifetime supply of checks in my checkbook. Although I have reached an age where that is a less impressive claim than it might have been at one time.
I remember when I got my first checkbook. As I was preparing to go off to college, my mother told me that I would need a checking account. Off to the bank was I, and found myself a real adult with a checkbook. And, it being the late 1970’s, I dutifully ordered my checks from the bank. I chose the yellow ones because my mother had blue ones and because I wasn’t crazy about the green or the pink. It seemed like a large selection of choices at the time. And how convenient that the check printers would put my social security number right under my address!
My bank suggested that I start with check number 101, which I did. It was a good idea, because what self-respecting business would have accepted check no. 1 (or even 7) from a high school kid? “HEY EVERYBODY, I HAVE A BRAND NEW CHECKING ACCOUNT” would be the unmistakable sign.
Mom taught me to balance that account each month, and I dutifully did so for decades. I used the form on the back of the statement and reconciled the balance in my checkbook to the balance the bank said I had. My college roommate considered this to be a waste of time. He proudly proclaimed that he trusted his bank implicitly, and that if any error got made it was a virtual certainty that the error was his and not the bank’s, so he was happy to take his bank’s word for it. A few decades on, I am coming to the conclusion that he may have been right.
I remember the trauma of getting a joint checking account after I got married. Yes, I was in this married thing for keeps, and nothing says “I trust you” more than a joint checking account. But actually sharing the checkbook was another matter. Marianne, you see, writes much bigger than I do. Big enough that the dates and payees and amounts didn’t always (he said generously) stay within the little shaded gray fields of the check register. Then there was the problem of needing to record the amounts. I finally caved to the need to buy those books of checks with the carbon copies.
Checkbooks figured quite prominently in my life for several years. I had an office checkbook, and a separate one for the client trust account. I somehow became treasurer for both my neighborhood association and for my kids’ Cub Scout troop. These, plus our personal checkbook, left me with 5 separate checking accounts to reconcile every month. Now, having come around to my old roommate’s way of thinking, I am trying to remember how long it has been since I actually reconciled the one account I still have.
Somewhere along the line, the need to carry a checkbook around with you went away. Getting check-writing privileges at the grocery store was no longer the big deal it had once been, and those plastic card things relegated the checkbook to a desk drawer at home. Which made it a lot easier to find because I no longer needed to explore the insides of way too many of Marianne’s purses. Which I still think she buys at magician’s supply stores because of the way things disappear and reappear inside of them.
I am not sure how it happened, but one of our personal check orders got botched and we got a delivery of some of those big 3-to-a-page business checks – the ones that are kept in an 8 1/2 x 14 inch 3-ring binder. I used those at my office, and decided that I liked them, so they stayed for the personal account. And let me tell you, when your checkbook is 8 1/2 x 14 inches, it is mighty hard to misplace! “Hunnnneeeee – have you seen the checkbook?” is a question that is almost never asked around my house anymore. And I have not seen the inside of a purse in ages.
We actually ran through that first batch of big checks and had to reorder. Our current supply goes back about 3 1/2 years, in which time we have written about 50 checks. Most of these have been gifts for family birthdays, with annual checks for taxes if we have not had enough withheld. At this rate, I am good for the next 15 years. Unless another 250 is sitting in a box somewhere, and then I am good until some date so far off in the future that I cannot comprehend it. With the advent of Venmo, checks to Marianne’s hairdresser and for family birthdays have been largely replaced. And because I pay almost everything else online, writing a check has become kind of an event. Even more of an event if it is a check to our plumber. So barring a catastrophic series of small plumbing events, even my remaining 200 checks may see me through to the end.
Really, I wonder how much longer the banking system is going to support the infrastructure for processing paper checks. Things like party line and rotary dial telephones have quietly gone away, as have major appliances that last longer than about 7 years. I suppose that paper checks may join that club some day. If it happens, I hope that they do so before I have to re-order my supply of checks. Because my design of choice will almost certainly not be around, and I really don’t want to look through the 600 silly designs – or even worse, have to go back to the tiny old regular personal-size checkbook. That would be hard.
Lede photo sourced online from freepik.com
Photo of business checks found online at abccheckprinting.com
J. P.'s Blog 
I am a constant check writer, AND, I use checks with carbonless copies that are attached to the part of my bill that I keep. I do NOT, under any circumstance, allow vendors whose services I require, to have access to automatically debiting my checking account at my bank; they don’t even know my banking account numbers, unless they read it off my check. The idea that a vendor could debit money from my banking accounts, without me agreeing to the fees, in a dispute, is insane. The few things I pay on-line, are paid via a credit card, or a debit card. My banker told me years ago, that if I used my debit card as my vehicle for on-line payment, my branch bank can cancel it immediately and issue me a new card immediately with a different number to facilitate halting any debits I did not authorize, my debit card is admin’d by a big credit card company, so it has many of the same checks and balances. Ditto with smart phone banking. The idea that I would put all my financial information on a device that people lose all the time, can be broken into by digitally hip criminals, and that criminals are experimenting with being able to download all the information from by you just answering a call from them, is also insane. BTW, I write all my checks with a Uni-Ball 207, a pigmented ink that cannot be “washed” if stolen.
The thing that will convert me to on-line payments is the “third-world ineptness” of my local post office. I live in a marginal area, and they cannot seem to deliver the mail properly, and the post office my mail comes out of is filled with sub-standard employees, and has a recent history of arresting employees who have been caught stealing. We do NOT have an assigned mail carrier, and many time do not get mail every day we are supposed to, this includes the whole neighborhood. This is so terrible, and seems to be increasing, that it has made me start investigating costs associated with moving to a more upscale neighborhood in the far suburbs with a different concept of employment hiring.
I am also investigating the “cash card” business, like Chime, where you pre-pay the card. My bank also offers one of these. These have zero link to my bank accounts, and I would have to go In and actually write a transfer for it. If I am pushed into more on-line bill paying, I’m thinking of loading these with my monthly expenses, and then using them as the sole payment method. You can, of course, also do this with a regular credit card, altho then, you might have to pay this on-line from your bank account as well, which defeats the purpose.
It’s interesting to note that everyone assumes you have an internet connection, and that the connection is “safe”. That’s not true. Internet is expensive where I live, no competition, so as I told someone who was trying to get me to pay their bill on-line”: “you want me to pay $800.00 a year for a safe internet connection, and have at least a $500.00 iPad, to pay your bill because you don’t want to send me a statement? On a fixed income in retirement?
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On the post office – having spent some time “on the inside” in my capacity as a driver, it is an amazing experience. There are some great, hard working people there, and there are also the kinds you describe. For anyone who wants to do mischief, the systems don’t appear to be there to make it hard. And the opportunities for error seem pretty high. But then again, maybe UPS works the same way and I just don’t know it.
I am less of a Luddite, and have a few monthly bills that withdraw automatically (only large, reputable entities), but most of them are ones I pay manually online. I figure that anyone who has access to one of my checks can steal and sell account info too, so I don’t view that as much of a defense to living in a society that has a sub-class that thrives on theft and fraud. Which, sadly, is where we are.
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Andy, what you describe with the postal service won’t be any different in a more upscale area – as I can attest. I live in an upscale part of my city in central Illinois, and our service has become just as pathetic as yours. We had a long-time postwoman for many years who was exemplary, but she retired last year. Since then it has been a non stop comedy of errors, from mail being delivered to the wrong house to going up to a week with no mail at all. Our local postmaster insists that the deterioration in service is NOT related to her retirement. HA! To make it more frustrating, the wife has that email service where you can see the mail that you are supposed to get that day; only to wait anxiously for it not to arrive for several days if not never.
Getting back to the check writing thing – the wife insists on doing things the old fashioned way. But there are some problems. Every. Single. Month she complains that the electric and gas bill doesn’t arrive on time (due to the aforementioned postal service delays). These are big companies that have ‘sophisticated’ systems for payment and she could pay online, or even set up auto withdrawal. But nooooo. 🙂
I myself limit myself to paying with paypal if I have to purchase something online.
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Chad, I feel your pain, and yeah, when I first moved here over six years ago, I had an old timer mailman, and everything was perfect, including the ability to hold the mail while traveling. He moved on to a less strenuous route since he was over 60, and from that point on: disaster! Not only do we not have an assigned mail person, but as I said, we don’t get daily delivery either. BTW, yes, I keep a listing of average dates I expect incoming bills, etc., and many are way over due. I called Friday to get another bill sent out from my Medicare provider, since it never got here, and was over seven days past due delivery date. I can tell you I’ve had to do this with multiple accounts, and they are well aware of the problems with the post office. The last time this happened was with a car loan payment, and when I called, they intimated that I wouldn’t believe how many people call per month not having got their bills in the mail! I’m afraid to travel, as I cannot trust my mail to be held correctly or not be rifled through by criminals.
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“Writing a check has become kind of an event”—this is so true! I’m trying to remember the last one I wrote…
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I would probably write even fewer if I had not become so used to doing it in years past.
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Writing cheques has been a habit of mine, and the preferred practice for paying my corporate bills, such as the accountant, etc. However, with Canada Post unreliability now reaching new, previously unattained echelons (stratospeheres), I have had to use e-transfers, which I dread. I do have some monthly bills that come out of my chequing account directly.
The question becomes – if we don’t write cheques from our chequing account, why do we call it a chequing account? It’s becoming more of a direct debit/credit account right?
Last reno I had done, I paid in cash, withdrawn directly from – you guessed it, my chequing account.
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I love the Canadian way of writing checques instead of checks. I think it’s from the English, but it looks French. Cheques, it seems to me, should be written with a fountain pen, while any old ball point is fine for a check.
And that’s a great point – what will they call these accounts when checks/cheques eventually disappear?
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OK you made me look it up. Cheques does come from the French, it was derived from the term “exchequier”, a term to describe attacking the king in chess. The anglicization of the term was meant to intend a control or “check” and was influenced by the use of the term “exchequer” in the royal treasury. At least what I can tell from on line sources.
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Thanks for one more piece of trivia !
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I’ve moved – slowly – to paying bills online, but I still haven’t completely kicked the check-writing habit.
I cannot remember the last time we gave anyone a check as a gift. It’s usually straight up cash, or a gift card. Primarily because I don’t want to have to wait on someone cashing the check. For younger people, that simple act is often a bother!
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This makes me laugh in total agreement. I have one nephew that is 800 miles away. I send him a check for his birthday and Christmas. He cashes neither, and these are NOT $10.00 checks! Not only do I have to yell at his Dad, three or four months down the road to make him cash the check, he has one of those banks where all he has to do is take a picture of the check and load it to his smart phone banking app, and it’s cashed, and he can’t even seem to do that? Really? These checks are substantial enough so that if they were sent to me, I’d take them to the bank immediately! I have to ask my brother: “…is he so rich he really doesn’t need this money?” I mean, the Christmas check would cover his dinner and drinks at a decent up-scale steak house? My brother tells me that they are both in their 30’s, so I should just quit giving them money if, period. I’m thinking about it this year… I’m not sure he’d get around to using a gift card either?
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Haha, I will confess that my Mrs and I used to get my mother’s goat by being slow depositors of gift checks. On my end, the problem was that once the money went into the joint checking account, it would effectively disappear into school tuition, orthodontics or some other family expense instead of for the cool thing I imagined buying.
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I give each of my two 20-something nephews gift cards for a popular, state-based convenience store. They will definitely use it for gas, coffee, lunch, etc. That way I don’t have to worry about it sitting in the bottom of a drawer.
Not the most glamorous gift, but they do seem to appreciate it.
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Depositing checks has become quite easy with banking apps on phones, which allows you to snap photos of the front and back for the deposit.
With us, Vermont has become the gift method of choice. It doesn’t feel very special, but it is certainly convenient for everyone.
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Funny thing about checks…I actually enjoy writing them. I like filling them out…writing out the numbers as words, legibly, and the name of whoever the check is to. And of course signing them. I realize that these are archaic activities (writing, signing, etc.), but they’re activities I’ve done for a long time and performing these rituals is one more thing to do to keep ones mind sharp.
Nevertheless, aside from a weekly check written at the grocery store — much to the dismay of the perpetually new cashier who has to sigh deeply and with a roll of the eyes has to call over a manager to explain “how to do a check” — I seldom write personal checks. I’ve moved most of my business payments (other than to myself as salary or to other employees/contractors) to electronic. My wife though, who pays the domestic bills, still writes checks and pays all of the bills on “bill day” via a snailmailed check. She’s highly resistant to paying electronically, even though this has led to some difficult situations as vendors start to assume that “all” of their customers will pay online and so don’t need a statement or time for payment to arrive in the mail. I suspect that we maybe have another year or two before the main vendors such as the phone company, electric company, insurance agencies stop taking mailed payments. I am never going to hear the end of that when it happens…because somehow I am personally responsible for the online world and most technology for that matter. I’m not sure why, but that seems to be the way it goes. Feel free to yell at me the next time your computer crashes or a streaming service logs you out and you need to get back in only you can’t remember your password. Or there’s “something broken” about texting. I’m used to it.
Finally, the one thing that I absolutely will not accept that is also a part of this check-writing thing, is the absolutely constant request nearly any company I deal with makes around my setting up “automatic payments”. I mean, what kind of person just allows a business to regularly take money out of their account? “Here’s my wallet, Verizon. Just take what you need, ok?” Huh? A check is one of the last bulwarks against that kind of insanity. Writing a check (even if it’s an electronic check) is me giving my permission, in writing, to take my money. Why would I give that up (I ask rhetorically)
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Ooh, finally – the identity of the person to blame for my tech failures. And to think it was someone I already know. What a small world!
There is a very select group that gets automatic payments from me, always for locked-in amounts. For everyone else, I have to manually pay, even if online.
My biggest regret in case checks go away is that the law school class I took on negotiable instruments under the UCC will have become completely useless.
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I enjoyed your trip down memory lane! For the first 45 or so years of my marriage, I kept track of all the money, paid all the bills, reconciled accounts, wrote all the cheques, etc. When the Car Guy finally retired (for the third and last time) I handed the whole thing to him. I have no idea what he does, though I have seen him write cheques now and then. All must be good because neither the power or the gas has ever been cut off…
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Haha, my wife did the same thing. So far our utilities have remained connected too.
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The same teacher that taught us how to use the ten-key adding machine and the typewriter also taught us how to write checks and balance a checkbook. I was never any good at it, always gambling on how long a check would “float.”
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Yes, when I was self-employed, float could be an important thing!
Years ago I was visiting my aged grandparents on the east coast. When we were at one of their clubs for dinner, my granddad asked if I knew what “kiting” was. It turned out that people they knew a couple of tables over were the parents of a guy who got convicted for one of the biggest, most elaborate check kiting schemes up to that time.
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Grandma and Grandpa knew some real crooks! That’s interesting.
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In case you’ve never seen one, here’s a check from 1900. In those days, after checks were paid they were punched with holes PAID. The dollar amount was punched as well $17$. There is a rubber stamp endorsement on the back, just the way we still do it today. This check is signed by S. S. Cargill, who may be related to W. W. Cargill, who founded the Cargill wheat empire. I have about a hundred of these checks, which I picked up at an estate sale many years ago for almost nothing.
Another check story: Back when I had my video business, I sold something to Jay Leno. He sent me a check for $34.95 and the check was signed by him. I had a choice–keep the check with Jay’s authentic autograph, or deposit the check so I could get my $34.95. I chose to photocopy the check before depositing it. I don’t know where I put the copy.🙄
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Stephen, when I started my first post college job in the mid 70’s, people still sold these “check punching” machines. They were small desk top mechanical units that would punch the dollar amount into just about any sized check, as well as a color on it that was easy to read. These went the way of the dodo, but I thought about them when criminals started breaking into corner post box drops, and stealing checks, washing them, and putting different, and higher amounts in the them, and their own names as recipients. This started around her about six years ago. Criminals were doing everything from unbolting and stealing whole boxes, to braking into them, and some had stolen “arrow keys” which allowed them to just opens the boxes (and most apartment mail boxes). It’s one reason I started using pigmented ink pens, which were unwashable; but even so, it would be obvious someone did this on a check, so they would still need collusion from their cronies at a check cashing store to cash these in; I find it hard to believe a bank would take a check that looked even slightly suspicious. I know my bank, in a “bridge” neighborhood, won’t take a check from anyone who does not have an established account at the bank.
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The Jay Leno story is great! I had forgotten about the rubber stamps, but I had a few of them for bank deposits into accounts I managed. I still think rubber stamps are cool.
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And I love the old check!
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That’s amazing they initially put your social security number on the check! I write very few checks now either – it used to be I did for paying the taxes and water bill and then mailing them in or dropping them off at the City Hall drop box, but now you can do an electronic check through the bank for free, so why write a check? And, I suspect that one day my stash of Forever Stamps will run out and by that time, stamps will be a $1.00 apiece. P.S. – JP, I did not write a check, but used my credit card to buy four new tires this week, so I took your advice to heart about my 16-year-old tires. Also, I had a nail in my rear passenger tire and the pressure was 25 PSI when I stopped to get air. It is supposed to be 35 PSI. Well, the tire could not be patched as it was over 10 years old, so I got a set of new tires, which, at 14,400 miles, ought to last me a really long time. It was suggested, whether I drive a lot or not, every five to six years it’s a good idea to get new tires. I told them my blogging buddy in Indiana already told me that I should get new tires. 🙂
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Haha, my old attorney habit of deeply appreciating people who actually listen to me still bubbles up sometimes! 🙂
Back in the late 80s, my bank offered what they called “Bank By Phone”. I tried it once, a cumbersome process of spoken menus and a touch-tone landline. After one account started complaining that my payment was late, I learned that the bank’s end of Bank By Phone was to write checks and mail them. That was the last time I used it, because it was no less of a pain to write checks and mail them myself, and doing it myself was faster.
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BTW, all this reminds me that when I became “of age” in 1972, pre ATM machines, when you had a check cashing card at your local grocery store so that you could get cash when the bank wasn’t open; the customer service desk at any multi store grocery chain had a direct computer connection to the gas company, the electric company, the phone company, and maybe a few others like the city for paying fines or water and sewer bills. You could absolutely go into the grocery store any time the customer service desk was open, and pay those bills directly across the counter! Does anyone else remember this? It wasn’t unusual to get an electric bill, and wait until a few days before it was due, and just pay it at the grocery store when you were in to buy groceries. I even remember when I was a kid in Chicago, you could not only pay your electric bill this way, the electric company gave you a certain amount of free light bulbs that you could get over the counter and you had a punch card or something to keep track, or it was tracked on your bill!
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Wow, if this was available where I lived I never knew about it!
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Ha ha, Well, your ears might have been ringing when I spoke about you. I had a woman tech at the service desk and when she walked over to tell me that the tire could not be patched and I would need a new set of tires, I did not bat an eyelash, nor when she said I also needed a full alignment, which it has been a while since I had that done, IF I had it done, so I said “okay” there too. I didn’t want her to think I was an easy sell, so I told her I was already counseled about the need to replace my old tires despite low mileage by you. 🙂
I didn’t like the bank by phone set-up for paying healthcare premiums (before Medicare) and I didn’t like the debit from my checking account either, so I opted for a regular check by mail, but I had to pay the first premium that way when I went off COBRA and onto my own health insurance after my boss/I left the firm. He had his wife’s insurance – she was a teacher at the time.
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The last check I wrote was a year or so ago, to pay for a speeding ticket. In my own way, it was an Eff You to the state of CO right before we moved. “No, you pricks, I’m not going to pay your CC processing fee. You can suck it and wait for that other bastion of government efficiency: the USPS to get your money.”
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Now you make me wonder why there is a fee to use cards but checks are free.
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Surface level, it’s how the card processors make their money.. They charge the merchant a percentage of the transaction. Increasingly, however, merchants have been (allowed to charge/)charging the consumer directly. It might be a state to state thing, as well.
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I still write checks but way less than before as the future grinds me down. But for people who think checks are safer than other methods of payment, the check carries your name, address, bank account number, and signature. That is a great start for people who create fake ID’s and wash checks.
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Good points. I guess the lesson is that fraud is everywhere.
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I don’t think anyone thinks that writing checks is a better way to keep from getting your ID stolen, I think most people are saying they’d rather write checks than allow a vendor to indiscriminately debit money directly out of your checking account without you agreeing before hand to the amount; which is what half the people that want me to pay electronically want me to set up.
As for ID theft, a reporter buddy of mine did a deep dive on this subject a few years ago, and still, the number one method for getting your ID stolen at that time, was handing your credit card over to a server at a restaurant and then they disappear into the back with it. Plenty of time to not only write down your number, but your three digit “safety” code. Not only that, but retailers, including restaurants, have deals with the credit card companies to identify you so they can send you mail solicitations and discount coupons. Easy for your server to get that info, and correctly identify you in a fraudulent credit card transaction, but have the item sent to a third party address as a “gift”.
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I wrote a check this week, too. Felt like pumping the pedal before turning the key.
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Haha, I had not equated a check with a carburetor, but I love it!
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We are in the boat of only writing checks for larger purchases, such as the replacement of a retaining wall a few weeks ago. It’s painfully easy to remember writing those checks!
Like Jim Grey, writing a check is like pumping the pedal (which is an excellent analogy) – and perhaps even having to pull the choke while doing so.
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With as few as I write now, it’s an excuse for maximum penmanship. What I always called my Sunday signature (as opposed to my everyday signature, that is much more scrawl-like).
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I wrote a check this week too….to the lawyers for updating my will….something I had been procrastinating about for a year and finally got around to doing. The lawyer only took cheques or Interac, no debit or credit card, so I had brought some cheques with me….after first finding them. I think there might be 50 left too, which was the smallest amount you could order the last time I ordered them ages ago. I also remember my parents taking me to the bank to open my first bank account in my last year of high school and showing me how to write a cheque. I remember traveling with traveler’s cheques……I wonder if those are extinct too?
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The last law office I was at wouldn’t take cards, so when I had someone there ready to pay (but without a checkbook) I had to wait on a check by mail instead of getting 97% of the fee right then. It was frustrating.
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I came prepared! My lawyer is older and probably getting ready to retire. He snail mailed me the draft of the will, and it took ten days to get here. So when I decided to make a small revision, I asked him to email me the new draft as it still hadn’t shown up. I suppose “snail mail” might be more secure, but we were in the middle of a ‘rotating’ postal strike. Normally I remembered going to his office to pick up the draft and then going back to sign at a later date, so I was surprised he sent it by mail.
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FYI, I go through 50 checks in less than a year! Per month: rent check, storage space check, utilities check, car loan check, check to the rescue mission, check for my monthly Medicare fee, two credit card payment checks. That’s 8 checks. Then miscellaneous checks for magazine subscription renewals, and memberships in professional societies. That’s 96+ checks a year.
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Wow, Andy! That’s a lot of checks. I find a lot of places here won’t even take checks anymore, unless it’s a big ticket item like furniture. My brother makes fun of me as I won’t use Interac (bank transfer person to person via email) but if I want to split a meal with someone I pay them cash, I think that’s silly to do a bank transfer for such a small amount.
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Joni, I still consider “cash” to be king! Growing up in Chicago, I used to see a lot of people we used to refer to as “neighborhood guys”, walking around with pocket cash in big rolls, because: “…da government doesn’t need to know what yer doin’…”. I still pay cash for a lot of stuff, simply because I think it’s ridiculous to be charging $3.00 cups of coffee and similar expenses, and having to track those at the end of the month to make sure the amounts were correct. I rarely go out with large groups of people to restaurants any more, but when I am out with multiple diners, I also just bring cash, and I especially tip in cash. One of the smartest business people I know, who also has a much higher income than I have; takes out cash in $500 to $1000 blocks of 20’s as mad money, keeps it in a box in his desk, and takes a few twenties with him all the time. Doesn’t mess with charging any lunch, coffee, or a anything like that. He has very streamlined bank statements.
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Interesting post. My wife and I still write checks because our debit account has been hacked seven times. I don’t trust putting my banking on line in so many places. But that’s just me. I’m waiting for the day when someone important tells me they won’t accept them any more. Heck, my son’s college won’t even accept cash any more. It’s all debit and credit cards. 🤣😎🙃
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Mr. Ohh, I used to think that a debit card was virtually unhackable because you also needed to put in a code, but I was proved wrong when mine was hacked a year ago. The bank rejected the charge (someone was trying to buy lunch for multiple people in Las Vegas, when I was also buying groceries in Milwaukee, where the card was registered, so I salute their fraud algorithm). I don’t know how it happened, because I only use it for gas and groceries, but my banker says the numbers are just “out there” and floating around in the criminal world. After it happened, I checked around with my group of friends and extended acquaintances, and found out that relatively few of them used the debit card at all (!) ; considered it to be less protected than just a regular credit card, and use their regular credit card for gas and groceries. I still use the debit card for what I’ve usually used it for, but have been thinking about change.
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I am fortunate that my debit card account has remained unhacked up to this point. Of course, now that I have actually committed this fact to writing, I am growing concerned.
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Thanks for the thoughts. It makes me wonder that if technology is so untrustworthy, why are we being forced to use it. 🤣😎🙃
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Mr. Ohh, a couple of other things I learned during my debit card hacking: some people link all their accounts to the ATM, which I do not do (checking only!) This might allow them to debit from savings accounts as well, which seems fraught with peril if you ask me! The second thing, is that if you’re hacked, that’s your money, gone from your account until they can do an investigation. You don’t have it, it might take weeks to get it back, and you might not get it back! I was surprised that my entire checking account was “in play” with my debit card. I immediately went to the bank and put a $200. daily limit on debits using an ATM card. At least we could discover what was happening before they took ALL my money in checking!
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Here in the south a lot of the local service providers take checks or cash instead of taxing you the 3% for credit card processing. It’s an incentive to dust off the paper checks every now and then. The U.S. Gov’t finally got on board with electronic processing of tax payments else I’d still be writing them checks too. The only other recipients – as you say – are our kids for birthdays and Christmas. Even in those cases I know they’d prefer electronic payments, but then they’d receive nothing tangible. So once again this year, they’ll get a “paper” gift.
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In my self-employed days, I always wrote checks for taxes so that I could delay letting go of the money until the last possible second. 🙂
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Oh, I’m all about not letting the Feds get their money until the last possible second 🙂
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