The last ones I ordered were from Costco. They will probably be the last checks I ever order unless we moved which is not in the plan. I write less than 6 checks a year. I ordered them for our joint account. I don't even bother with checks on my personal account. All my payments and 99% plus of my banking is handled online. Checks/stamps etc. are becoming quaint and obsolete.

My orders for business and money market account are free through my bank (Harland Clarke products). Do have to pay for my household checks through that vendor, and I think a supply was about $26 last time I ordered.

I just ordered 1 box from Value checksdotcom for $5.95. They will last me about 3 years.

I order checks from Walmart, and have for many years.

We don't use many checks and just get them through the bank and I think that they were about $40. We haven't needed any since we moved here and ordered with the new address.

How do Costco and Walmart offer cheques?? Ours are only available through our banking institutions and have the bank number, transit number and of course the account number printed. As well as our name, address and even a phone number if so inclined. How do third party places get the bank info on the cheques?

Our bank "used to" offer free check to seniors, but not any more. Now I have to pay for them. I go through a lot of checks. All of our bills are paid that way.

Jasdip, you simply give other sources a voided check. They get the numbers that way.

LOL!! Banks do not print their own checks........they use a third party printing company just the same as anywhere else, which is why the prices can fluctuate widely. Typically the bank takes a cut of the check fees and then the printing company has their own. The bank info is delivered to the third party printer either by filing out a form or by using a voided check as a template. Or the reorder form from your current check supply.

I still get mine from my bank - as a founding member, my checks are free. But a supply of checks will last me multiple years........I use very few.

Gardengal, I worded my question poorly. I apologize. Yes, when I click on "order cheques' on my bank website, it does take me to a printing company. The prices as a rip-off, but it's the only way we can get cheques. Never at WM, Costco or a retailer

Chloecat, thanks so much for the explanation!

I don't write very many checks either but there are a few contractors I use who prefer checks over credit cards and I try to accommodate them. We just moved and since I get free checks from my bank I decided to get new checks with the current address. I'm disappointed with the quality of the new checks. The paper is thinner and unglazed and lacks the smoothness of my other checks - which were also free.

Jasdip, both Costco Canada and Walmart Canada offer check printing services. And at prices stated to be significantly lower than through your own bank. So when the time comes that you do need to reorder checks, I'd suggest you look to those sources to save money.

FYI I just looked at "Value Checks". (I'd never heard of them) The best deal they have is 60 checks/ $5.29. That includes non-trackable shipping $2.99 + .35 tax. I placed an order. That should last me about 10 years. :0)

I get my checks from the bank - Its convenient; No mailing in the order and my account is large enough they do not charge me except sometimes a small processing fee. Recently, they have reduced the number of checks per book from 40 to 30. I suppose that is one way to increase fees.

I have ever only had one book of 50 cheques in the past 25 years. It was one of the prerequisits (SP? haven't had my 1st coffee yet... lol) of opening my mortgage account when I bought my house (25 years ago next month!) I still have 45 cheques. Nobody accepts them here anymore. Not one store that I can think of. With all stores accepting debit and credit and online banking there is no use for them anymore. I honestly can't remember the last time I wrote a cheque.

Be careful about that value check link above I clicked on the link and it sent me to a scam site I had to close my browser window to get out of.

Here's a good deal at Vista print. I have ordered business cards from them for years. It's a huge link but includes a promo code discount.

https://www.vistaprint.com/designs/CKP-61359/blue-wallet-checks.aspx?pspid=343CMB61359&type=pla&device=m&psloc=9027642&pstid=pla-146276419453&crtv=84807758893&psite=mkwid%7cdNQ4Sjq7&iv_=iv_p_1_a_207185533_g_20606547373_w_pla-146276419453_h_9027642_ii__d_m_v__n_g_x_pla_y_11732_f_online_o_343CMB61359_z_US_i_en_j_146276419453_s__vi&gclid=Cj0KCQiA-ebSBRC8ARIsAGuxJIobapOAUEmbDn2XT_vcLyFePXov5LEbp2MgN1_upNQXP3nHxbdW_6UaApY1EALw_wcB&couponAutoload=1&GP=01%2f13%2f2018+09%3a33%3a16&GPS=4760134038&GNF=0&rd=1

Nobody accepts checks?? I find that hard to believe :-) With the exception of some (not all) restaurants, everywhere that used to accept checks in my area when they were the most common form of payment still does - all grocery stores, box stores, department stores, smaller boutique-type stores. Even gas stations, if you are known to them :-))

With almost no exceptions, all my clients pay me by check. My business is not set up to accept credit cards nor do I care to pay the service fees associated with processing them. I have never encountered anyone who did not use checks from time to time.....maybe not very often but they still had them available.

Not in Canada. You can mail a cheque (notice the different spelling: here we check on the kids but we write a cheque) to mail a payment to pay your bills, but why would you do that when you can pay everything online, or over the phone? Or just go to the bank with your bills and pay them there. My parents even know how to pay them online and they're in their mid-80's. No stores here accept cheques. Ours stopped accepting them almost 20 years ago with the introduction of debit cards.

ETA: my kids pay their rent via EFT. Neither son owns a cheque book. They just open their bank app, and send the landlord the money. When the landlord sees he's received the payment, he deposits it in his account. No need to worry that the tenant bounced the rent cheque.

Commercial use for cheques is still there: we take payments from companies who owe our store money, but not from customers.

Debby, you are making some very broad assumptions :-) And ones that do not seem to be supported by any online sources. Checks - regardless of how you spell them, they are still the same thing - are still very much used in Canada: "The options available to Canadians to make payments have never been more plentiful: from cash, credit cards, Interac and e-mail transfers, to a growing number of mobile payment apps. And yet last year, 875 million payments in this country were made via cheque, for an average of about 25 a person, according to Gerry Gaetz, the president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Payments Association, the organization responsible for this country's national clearing and settlement systems." The Globe and Mail, March 24, 2017.

And not all bills can be paid online or via one's bank. Many small businesses do not have an online payment system set up nor are they necessary willing to accept credit cards due to the processing fees involved. And what about folks that pay rent to an individual rather than a corporation?? Electronically or online is not going to cut it :-) I think you are oversimplifying the situation.

Is the Cheque Disappearing?

Raven...THAT is a BAD link. I went to Value Checks.com. It's also not a great price for the amount of checks you get...but I don't need very many. :0)

Bills that are paid online with bill pay....most of those payments are issued a check by the bank, it's not electronically wired money. Yes....I use bill pay for an individual I'm paying. They're sent a check.

The BIG advantage to using bill pay is not only the convenience of not using your own checks and stamps....but if it's lost in the mail....stop payments are FREE.

I agree that personnel checks are obsolete, a thing of the past...but until the US government stops charging additional fees to accept bill pay....or moving money between banks can be done free w/ a phone call.....I'll use pesonnel checks.

Apple Pay is the BIG deal here now. Landlords can accept renters payments with no charge to them. Note: Paypal charges the recipient a fee.

I write quite a few checks per month for bills. Groceries, and shopping. I don't have unlimited internet so it would be a pain to go online and keep tabs on my balance. A lot easier to look at my checkbook register to see if my balance is five dollars or five million dollars ( I wish). Lol. I do have payments that are auto-pay on my credit card each month for Onstar, etc.

I once worked for the Deluxe Corporation for three years. One of the largest check printers in the USA. Deluxe Wikipedia link

Let me tell you....they are worried about the sustainability of the check printing business. They've branched out.

Nicole, money CAN be transferred for free between banks. I don't know about over the phone but it's easily done with (almost?) all banks using their app or with a browser session online. I use that feature several times a month involving multiple banks. It's a one-time step to give one bank the account and routing numbers of another bank account you own and then it's ready to go. Depending on the bank, the funds arrive either in one day or two - never more than two, and there's no hold on the funds so available immediately.

Free federal tax payments? Sure, using EFTPS. Some taxpayers are required to use it (I am) but it's available for anyone. It can be accessed by phone or online. Most states also have a same free electronic tax payment capability.

Elmer....apparently not at Chase or Key banks. ??? They charge to wire money(about $33). They charge $8 for a cashiers check. They charge $2.50 to print 3 personnel checks.

Free electronic tax payment we have. :0)

No, it's not a "wire transfer", that's a different animal. Wire transfers are a guaranteed payment. Think of wire transfers as the transfer equivalent of a certified check.

What I'm referring to might be be called an "external funds transfer". Within the banking world, they call them ACH transfers and they're free. I think you'll find Chase and Key both have this capability. You can use them to transfer funds to/from your own accounts, or even to accounts of others.

I have my kids' accounts set up for transfers and they in turn have me. When we owe one another money, it's just a quick and effortless transfer to settle it. Under the banking laws, there's no "authority" required to make a deposit to someone else's account so you just set up the transfer to someone else's account and it happens. Same process as a transfer between your own owned accounts.

I was just there @ Chase Tuesday and they said they still do not have any way to transfer money "free" to my other bank accounts. ???? I'll call their main number & see if I get a different answer. Sure would make my life easier. :0)

Yes, I hope you can find out the information you need.

I hate to say this but in my experience the all too-frequently encountered incompetence of customer-facing bank employees is appalling. Shocking. I myself am in the process of switching to all-internet banking with institutions that happen to be far away who offer reasonable service and favorable rates/costs. If anyone is interested, my basic checking and payment accounts will be with USAA in San Antonio (free checking, no minimum balance) and savings with Ally Bank (formerly GMAC, high savings rates) in Detroit. I can do everything I need with a smartphone app and an ATM. I don't go into bank branch offices and don't need them nearby.

nicole, I have it set up online, checking account to/from a Schwab account. Look at your online banking and look for transfers/payments. I'd be surprised it the option isn't there.

sushipup1.....yes...that's like bill pay. I've done that. When I'm buying houses I need to put a deposit down or pay in full depending on the transaction and I need the money all in one place "now"....not in a week. What I'm doing has a time factor, it gives me an edge over other offers a seller might get.

The majority of people on my FB feed are Canadians. I'm going to see how many of them write cheques.

I write cheques for the rent. I know of no retailer that will even consider taking them as payment.

I haven't used cheques for bill payments for decades but my sister until she passed away used them to pay for her prescriptions at the pharmacy at the grocery store, but they knew her and she did a lot of business with them. I don't know any retailer around here that would take a personal cheque unless they knew you as a good customer or knew you personally. I get personal cheques sent to me now and then from a relative and when you I took it to the bank they wanted to know if I knew the person who I got the cheque from or if it is from a relative that I knew. Sometimes the cheque was put on hold even though I had the funds to cover it. Now the banks have a new machine that scans cheques to make sure the money is in the account. Cheques are still acceptable to send in for bills if you so choose.

Get your checks through your bank. I worked retail before I retired and we had lots of problems with checks from cheap sites not scanning correctly. I pay most of my bills online or with the check card, but there are one or two I have to mail. Whatever the bank charges is cheaper in the long run.

I haven't written a check in years nor have I been in a bank. On the rare occasion that I receive a check from someone, I use my mobile banking app on my phone and take a picture of it and deposit it into my account. And the nice thing about my mobile app is that when I use either my credit or debit card, the charge shows up instantaneously. I can buy groceries, walk out to my car, and then look at my account to see the transaction. If there's a problem, I know it right away. I pay all my bills on-line. Most are auto-payments. I just confirm on-line that the transaction occurred, and then I confirm my account to ensure the transaction occurred. I just don't have time to write checks, lick envelopes, and wait for the recipient to deposit my check, and then wait for the processing for it to clear my account. With the advanced technology available today, there's no reason to continue to do it the manual, antiquated way.

Yes, there is when you rent a lot at the lake and they don't do anything online. You have to write a check to pay for it. No web site, no Facebook, no nothing online.

At my bank, we get a free box of check if it has only our names on it. Well, that is what I get. Very seldom write a check, and can write in that info if the payee wants it. Check with your bank and see if they offer that type of checks for one box for free.

sherry, it's admittedly not that much money to buy checks, but how could paying for a more expensive check be "cheaper in the long run"? It's more expensive, in the short run and in the long run. Am I missing something?

Banks don't print checks so no matter what they all come from printing companies. Bank and account numbers use the same font no matter what printer is used. I'm not sure why your retail business was scanning checks to begin with but lots of people have been buying cheap checks for a long time and they work fine.

Checks are scanned through the cash register in order to accept them as payment. When they won't scan, retailers blame the quality of the check as the problem.

One customer had their checks printed three times before the bank was called & we figured out the bank had changed their routing code and she had a 20 year old reorder form she was using.

It has nothing to do with cheap checks. The thickness of the paper is govt. regulated. They cost nothing to print...unless there's a copyright on the design...or gold embossing.

I still write checks. Lawn mower guy. General contractor. Landscaper. Real estate taxes.

I've never seen checks scanned at a POS location (though I don't shop much) but with a problem, I'd first point a finger at the scanner hardware and software.

I can't imagine any checks being "scanned" for account information at a POS location.....what would be the point? That information is only of value to the clearinghouse that processes them and any intervening financial institutions. Not to any retail establishment. If anything, the POS system may be making a digital copy and imprinting their endorsement but the printed check data on the bottom is of no use to anyone other than another financial institution.

POS equipment is designed primarily to automate inventory controls and provide immediate updates. And to streamline/atuomate accounting practices for the retailer using it.

Hi Jasdip,

I've been thinking of doing more business with my credit union (substantially ideological reasons) but they wanted a substantial fee (no long-term member, senior, etc. discounts).

T D bank said that I could get them without a fee. So I said that I'd like a hundred - but there was a fee for that.

They'd give me 50 free ... so that's what I got.

If I have, say, $50,000 in my bank account and use online banking ...

... and it gets hacked and the account gets drained ...

... does my money get replaced by the bank?

ole joyful

"and it gets hacked and the account gets drained ...

... does my money get replaced by the bank?"

In the United States, the answer to this question is an unqualified Yes. I don't know what the rules are in Canada where you live.

The checks are put through a check reader, a MICR. They look like this.

Or this

Most checks that I write at businesses end up being converted into an EFT and my voided check is given back to me.

But yes, businesses absolutely scan checks.

They are only scanned/the account information read if they are being converted to an EFT.....which is not at all as common as "most businesses". I can think of only a couple of businesses that do this in my area......and I live in a very large metropolitan area. In most cases, they are only being endorsed or being tracked for previous NSF activity. There is no other reason a POS location - that doesn't have EFT capabilities - would scan. There is NO purpose to it!!

As for checks themselves becoming obsolete, stand behind the line for the business teller any weekday afternoon. Businesses deposit large numbers of checks everyday.........a great many financial obligations are satisfied by the issuance of checks.

Free from the bank.

This interesting topic led me to do some looking around for more information. I learned that what I'd always thought of as the "machine readable" bank routing and account numbers at the bottom of the check came into use in the late 1950s. This system is called MICR, micro ink character recognition. Magnetic readers were all that was available at that time for this task so the numbers were printed on checks with magnetic ink. Reading that reminded me of yesteryear when returned checks had that the check amount printed at the bottom right of the check. This was presumably added by a machine operated manually by a bank employee actually reading the check. The banks and clearing houses then used mag reader machines (as described before in use at retailers) to process checks.

Anyway, turn to today. It's not exactly as gardengirl described. The Check Clearing Act for the 21st Century, a federal law passed in 2003, provides that an image of a check IS a legal check and that the physical original check need not be passed through the system at all if an image is used in its place. That's why you can deposit a check using a smart phone or scanner, and why the bank doesn't return cancelled checks but rather makes an image available to a customer (readily obtained online). Bank records (also available online) can be used in place of actual checks for legal and tax purposes. When a bank receives a physical check as a deposit, it takes an image of the check (as well as the deposit slip, if the deposit took place in person) and destroys the pieces of paper. These images are what's available to see online when you access your account.

So, to TG's information - stores using MICR readers are using technology that's over 50 years old. Checks DO NOT need to have magnetically readable ink. Yes, they're doing that to cut down on check handling but it's not their only alternative. Apple and Android Pay, other proximity (non-contact) cards are also available for use. Optical readers with OCR capability can also be used, just like every smart phone can do with a bank app.

It will get to a point when retailers and other businesses won't accept checks.

Raven - thanks for alerting me to the bad link, sorry everyone! I have edited the post.

Edited to add the correct link, again, sorry to any folks that used the above link.

www.supervaluechecks.com

Been a couple years since I wrote a check. Last checks I ordered I got from the bank, no charge. Check with your bank. Most will give them for free.