I used to be the worst with that. Hated checks. Never cashed them. I know I've come across as an ungrateful gift recipient in the past, never getting around to cashing them. But there's little excuse nowadays when you just deposit them on your phone. And zero excuse ever if that's the form of payment you REQUEST.

I had an inspection service come out, wrote the check, then later realized I had written the check for too little. In the meantime, the owner of the business called to ask for full payment. I said, I gave it to the inspector and I sent a photo of the receipt stamped ”Paid”. It was eventually deposited. But, they haven’t deposited the second check for the balance that I sent. I need to call them Monday, thanks for the reminder. All this went down in December. Sigh.

Then there’s my son. He pet-sat for a neighbor. They wrote him a check. I recently found the check. It’s about two years old. Grr.

My husband lives for deposited checks. He loves, LOVES, people who deposit their checks within a day of receipt. If it takes them a week, he is on the phone to them. He also hates loose ends.

i thought i was the only person left in the world that still writes checks!

fyi, once 6 months has passed (if it gets to be that long), the check you wrote is no longer valid.

https://www.realsimple.com/work-life/money/do-checks-expire

I very very rarely write checks. I still have the same box of checks I got when I opened my bank account at 16 years old. I do not like sending or writing checks because all my information is on them, including of course the routing and account number, and you never know who sees them and will use that info. I have 14 more nieces/nephews that haven't graduated yet. I am hoping by the time they do, they will all have a nice, convenient Venmo or Cashapp accounts.

Amy, I give cash to nieces and nephews. And I do mail it.

I wrote a check to our roofer who had sent someone out to make a gutter repair. It was 4 - 5 months before that check was processed - DH had called him twice. Finally taken care of. I have one outstanding now that I wrote to my brother and mailed 6 weeks ago. Every time I want to reconcile the balance in my account I have to allow for that check.

I don't write many checks any more, but I do have some things I pay by check. I've had a checking account 50 years. No one has ever misused the information printed on my checks.

I’m not sure I understand this. If the guy hasn’t paid the cheque into his account surely that’s his problem, not yours? Why put yourself out for his lack of organisation?

The OP keeps track, balances it every month. So that outstanding check has to be carried over each month. Checks floating about are a tish dangerous as people at times change them so it's a completed operation when the check is paid out and cancelled.

I write checks all the time and mail them. Recently, the phone company said you'd have to pay $3 extra to receive a bill in the mail. So, OK, I get an email for my bill. BUT, I mail them a check and they email me to tell me it's arrived. Only way I would do it. I don't bank by mail and would have no other way to pay the bill.

I write checks at stores, for work done (lawn mowing, etc). Everyone I know writes checks. I've never had a company hold a check. Occasionally I have to phone a friend who has a check (maybe she picked up something for me, or pet sat, etc) and remind her to please cash the check.

It's a pain, floral, to have to keep carrying an unpaid check on your checkbook. Too easy to forget about it and then try and figure out why you cant balance your checkboodk.

Many years ago in another town, we wrote a check to pay our property taxes and it took literally months before the check cleared...turns out the worker there was embezzling money from the town.

I have a similar feeling about gift cards. If someone gives me a gift card, there are good chances that I will never use it.

I write checks every month and have not had problems with them.

I pay for most things with a credit card but do write some checks. Doesn't bother me to carry it over when balancing my checkbook.

When you use a credit card people have access your info also 🤷‍♀️

fyi, once 6 months has passed (if it gets to be that long), the check you wrote is no longer valid.

A stale check is still valid, but after 6 months and one day the financial institution it is presented to has the option of not accepting it.

Any credit card payment to the government has a surcharge....I think it's $5. So I've started going to the county office(it's on my way to my book club)....and I pay my property taxes for ALL the houses with one check...in person...they run it through the register...put it in their drawer...it's instantly cashed....right there! License plate renewals I mail a check....but it's cashed within 3 days. I just opened a CD....gave them a check. That girl/teller was new....she about fell over when I handed her the check....🤣Cash would have killed her!

I like writing some checks because all I have to do is look in my check register at tax time. This includes contributions and estimated tax payments.

I pay my cleaning lady by check, too.

I am guilty of not depositnig checks right away since the bank braranch close to me closed. I need to learn to deposit with a picture from home.

i rarley write checks, just b/c so much easier to pay bills on-line. i feel its safer, convenient and i know it will be processed correctly and on time.

our Verizon bill, both Fios & Wireless come out through Auto-Pay which gives us a $10 savings on each bill. i can view the bill on-line, but it never changes, so no surprises. And it saves me space to keep the bill/paper

we had trees trimmed, they used Apple Pay, perfect!!

although, just wrote 3 checks for our taxes...

I love having everything electronic! So much easier to search.

The very few times someone wants a check, they get a money order from me. For the exact reason you outline. It's so infuriating when it sits there.

Our DS and DIL are laggards. I've been at their house in April and seen our Christmas check under a magnet on the fridge. (Plus I'm uncomfortable having the check on display for anyone passing through.) An automatic transfer isn't very festive -- instead of a nice card with check enclosed.

Automatic transfer AND a nice card?

We do so much by automatic transfer, it makes kiddo happy to see the bottom line higher 😃

I don't even have a checkbook. I think i have a box of checks around somewhere. On the super rare occasion that i have to write a check, i let my bank write and send it. Comes right out of my account then regardless if the recipient does anything with it. Everything i pay is done electronically.

Same for me as sephia as regards payments, but I do have checks. Additionally, I use Quicken. On the rare occasions when I write a check, I can enter it in advance of it clearing the bank and with the one step I don't have to think about it again and it's already considered in the balance.

Tax payments, both income and property, are paid with what I think of as pull (rather than push) ACH or so-called e-check capabilities most tax authorities offer. No charge for using this payment type. In fact, I pay income taxes with estimated payments and both federal and state require me to pay electronically.

It shouldn't matter to you when he cashes it; you should put it in your register (or accounting program, or whatever you use), and that's it. As far as you're concerned the money is spent, and cashing the cheque is immaterial. He's not inconsiderate, because it's not his job to keep your bank balance up to date.

I don't write many cheques these days........I used to use them for a lot of small business people that preferred them to the cost of accepting credit cards. Now that e-transfers are so easy and usually service-charge free, they all prefer to be paid with an e-transfer. In fact, even though I can only send $3,000 a day in e-transfers, some businesses with larger bills would rather wait several days to get their bill paid than to be paid all at once with a cheque.

TV, that's part of the point of balancing your checkbook, to match the bank's total, isn't it? So uncashed checks throw your amount off compared to the bank's amount. I remember that as being an irritation back decades ago when we used checks for almost everything. Like many here, we write very few checks any more -- and haven't bothered to "balance" our checking amount versus the bank's checking amount in a long time.

Up thread, Arcy made the point that uncashed checks could be stolen and baddies could write in new amounts and make themselves the payee. So a check hanging out, who knows where, is a bit of a risk as well as an irritation.

samkaren, that is sweet and sentimental. You never know what strikes your memory until it happens.

I had a friend who knew a very famous person. He said Famous Person hated writing checks because no one ever cashed them because they valued his autograph more! It drove him crazy <- hyperbole ;-).

" Arcy made the point that uncashed checks could be stolen and baddies could write in new amounts and make themselves the payee. So a check hanging out, who knows where, is a bit of a risk as well as an irritation. "

If a check is presented to a payee, any further loss or theft is their problem.

The law remains the same - an account holder is not responsible for fraudulent or unauthorized checks or withdrawals from an account. There may be the possibility of inconvenience but not the risk of loss.

I'll accept that as fact, Elmer, and also discount the loss to the intended recipient as "too bad, so sad" -- but the hassle factor for the account holder could be a real pain.

I’m afraid I’m out of my depth in this discussion. Even in the days when I used cheques, over 30 years ago now, I never ’balanced’ the cheque book. I don't really know what that means. I just compared the bank statement against the cheque book stubs. If there was a stub that didn’t appear on the statement that didn’t matter. It just meant I still had the money. If there was an amount on the statement that didn’t have a stub that would matter.

If the uncashed cheque really is a worry why not call him and ask him to pay it in within a specified time, after which you will stop the cheque because you don’t like having it floating about. I certainly wouldn’t put myself out on my day off to do his admin for him.

nickel, the risk of a check being stolen and misappropriated is the same on the day the recipient gets it, as it is 30 days later. Anyone thinking that's a problem shouldn't write checks.

I would think that the bigger accounting issue is for those who do NOT balance their checkbooks. Check your balance at the bank and have to factor in any uncashed checks.

For those who balance their checkbooks, have you ever found an error to justify your efforts? I've never monitored my bank accounts or credit cards too carefully, just an occasional glance to make sure nothing looks unfamiliar. The only errors I've found were banking fees which I shouldn't have been charged.

TV, that's part of the point of balancing your checkbook, to match the bank's total, isn't it? So uncashed checks throw your amount off compared to the bank's amount. "

Yes, exactly - it says you have more money in your account than you're supposed to have, and that means you shouldn't spend that "extra" money. If people only look at their bank balance, they'll fall into the mistake of thinking what's in the bank account is theirs to spend.

A few years ago I found some apparent shortages in my bank balance, asked them what was going on ...

... and it appears that some overzealous bank employee had started a $2.00 monthly fee on my account to cover "overdraft protection", so it was repaid when I said that I had not authorized that fee.

ole joyful

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"If the uncashed cheque really is a worry why not call him and ask him to pay it in within a specified time, after which you will stop the cheque because you don’t like having it floating about. " There is a rule that covers this. A check 180 days old banks should be questioning it's validity and are under no obligation to honor them.

The only concern about not balancing/reconciling it is that if you are still using paper registers to track your balances, math errors or transposing numbers won't be easily found.

I have a bad habit of transposing numbers, or dropping one if it is a long string with certain characteristics. I don't think I am dyslexic, but my brain is weird. 😄 My brain tries to make sense out of numbers as if they were words is the only way I can explain it - it sees a pattern or expects them to be grouped in a certain way.

Paper checkbook registers were my archnemesis. Excel is one of my most favorite inventions, ever.

I used to write cheques more often. I recently ordered new cheques from the bank, as I pay my rent with a cheque. A quick glance at my carbon copy so a portion of my rent gets deducted at tax time. (work from home).

She often waits a week or two before cashing it, but I still deduct that amount from my balance until she does.

"For those who balance their checkbooks, have you ever found an error to justify your efforts ?"

FOAS, Over the past 20+ years there have been 6 errors concerning my checking account, all 6 were banking errors, 3 in my favor and 3 in the bank's favor. The 3 in my favor were where the checks reached the biller and were paid in full but the bank never recorded/deducted the amounts from my account. I kept note of those 3 errors over time but never got a peep from the bank, these incidents are old now, 10+ years ago. The other 3 errors were where the bank charged me for free checks (100/year). I had to go to the bank to correct these 3 mistakes.

We bought a television set YEARS ago. A 350 pound tv........... Anyway, we paid cash for 50% of it, then put the rest on credit through the stores credit agency. When my husband got his income tax return a few weeks later, we went to the store to pay it off. The store said the credit agency would send us a bill and we could pay it off. We never did get a bill. We never went to the store to see who held the credit for us. We never paid off the tv.

If that business doesn't do daily deposits, it's not a you problem, it's a them problem. Just keep the $ in the bank for 1 year. After that it's a dead cheque and the bank won't cash it.

I still have cheques from the one and only chequebook my bank gave me when I bought my house back in 1995. There's 9 left out of 50 and most of what I did use either went to new employers for direct deposit information or to my kids schools for school fees. I've been in my house 28 years now. I can't remember the last time I wrote one.

Someone upthread mentioned CashApp as a good alternative.

My DD works for a major bank, and tells me that they have been having to deal with a lot of fraud victimizing their customers recently, as a result of customers using CashApp. I think she mentioned Zelle also. Apparently, those cash transfer apps do not have any of the consumer protections/guardrails that a bank is required to have.

I pay my housekeeper by check and pay income taxes by check. Odd that Elmer says federal taxing authorities require estimates to be paid electontically because I pay federal and two states estimates (and year end, if any) by check with no complaints. I also pay my CPA by check, but probably could pay electronically. Other than that, I might pay an odd service company by check if necessary, but not that often.

I’m also guilty of not depositing checks upon receipt. I haven’t gotten around to changing some dividents to ditect deposit and let them accumulate until I am ready to go to the bank. I also transfer funds from one bank to another via check three or four times a year. The nice part of that is that going to the bank (two blocks away) has forged a personal connection with the bank personnel which is nice.

i did have an issue a few years ago when the bank miskeyed a check to my housekeeper. should have been $240, but was keyed as 2,400.00! it was easily resolved.

And that's why I like everything electronic. I know exactly what I did the day before. I don't have to think back weeks or months or hold funds to cover what happened before.

Checks are a thing of the past. Because it's too confusing to keep up with.

Far far better for it all to happen instantaneously, or within a few hours. Anything I see that is not supposed to be there, I can dispute.

Checks suck.

My check register is like a diary, and I don't need internet access to see it. (I do use auto withdrawal for routine stuff.)

My other diary is a paper calendar. I keep my calendars for a few years. "When did I see Dr. Whatsis?" "Didn't I pay the plumber to fix this faucet only two years ago?"

" Odd that Elmer says federal taxing authorities require estimates to be paid electontically "

The federal payment system is called EFTPS. At one time, I think it was 10-15 years ago, I received a letter telling me I needed to use it for tax payments. If it's now not required, that's fine, I've been making federal tax payments that way since I was instructed to do so. The California equivalent is called FTB Webpay and as I recall, I was similarly notified that I needed to use it around the same time.

Its not required and never has been required for federal It might be preferred but never required at least not for the past 40+ years that I have been paying estimates. Every year my CPAs send me vouchers to mail in with payments each quarter. Same for the two states where we pay estimates. i do understand that CA might be different.

" Its not required and never has been required "

Thanks for proposing an alternative and false scenario for something I experienced and you didn't.

I just wrote 2 checks for taxes, and recalled another reason why I "hated" checks back in the day. Compared to a credit card, it takes so much longer to flip to the next check, write in date, payee, amount in numbers, amount in words, sign ... and some people wouldn't even start fumbling for their checkbook until the cashier told them the amount!

I had to Google 'check register.' I've never seen such a thig. In the days when we used cheques they were torn out of the book leaving a stub on which the details were filled out at the same time as writing the cheque. No need to keep laborious records.

So the IRS just required you. Your logic is amazing. you can never be wrong, can you?

Huh? It isn't what I said, I never suggested it was just for me. If you too want to redirect my recollection of something you know nothing about, feel free to be foolish.

Just as an aside, who are you? Why not change your user name to something recognizable?

" I had to Google 'check register.' I've never seen such a thig "

floral, there are many different styles of check pads. The one with a stub is only one approach and offered no fewer steps than writing the check and carrying forward a balance on a check register.

A bit over 35 years ago, I lived in Western Europe (on the Continent, not in the UK) and had a Eurocheque account. The materials the bank gave me included pads of tear-off checks and a check register to keep in the small wallet-sized check folder. Different ways of doing the same thing. If writing down a check amount and manually doing math to adjust the balance, no one way is easier than another.

From California Franchise Tax Board:

”Mandatory Electronic Payments – You are required to remit all your payments electronically once you make an estimate or extension payment exceeding $20,000 or you file an original tax return with a total tax liability over $80,000. Once you meet the threshold, all subsequent payments regardless of amount, tax type, or taxable year must be remitted electronically.”

So some people are required to pay electronically, at least in California.

Laborious? We have different ideas of what that means. I'm glad to have the register at hand over having to sign in and bring records up online. I agree about paying for everyday things quickly by CC. I never spend time balancing a checking account -- just want to know what's available in round numbers. I've never paid for an overdraft, but I have asked a merchant to hold a check for a day to avoid one.