Do you still use checks?

[fivechickens]

I am listening to a true crime podcast and one of the hosts is aghast that people were using checks at a bakery in the late 90’s. She made the comment ‘who uses checks anymore?!?!’.

I rarely carry cash on me and pay for the majority of things with a credit card. However, I just wrote a check out to add money to my kids lunch accounts (I can use a CC to add money but it cost a fee). Actually most things school related (like field trips) I pay with a check.

Most bills we have paid from our accounts but H pays our taxes and water bill with a check.

Are we the only ones?!?!?

[rachers]

Very very rarely.

[mccallister84]

I never use them at a store but I do use them fairly often - at least once or twice a month.

[TR]

I think the only thing we use checks for nowadays is paying contractors who prefer to be paid that way.

[gretchenindisguise]

Only to pay myself salary from my private gig to my actual bank account because my credit union stopped supporting it electronically (I'm still mad) and to pay for my kids theater productions because I don't want to pay the service fee through paypal.

[madDawg228]

I only use checks for our HOA dues and to pay bills for my dad's estate (going through probate).

[cereal K]

I have checks. But more for "just in case". We pay for the majority of things online of via credit card, but every so often I need to write a check for school, for taxes, or for service calls. I might use 5-6 checks a year, but it's almost like a comfort thing to have them.

I feel like I remember being taught how to fill out a check in school, like the same way we were taught to address an envelope. I'm pretty sure my kids (13 and 9) will never use paper checks.

[followyourarrow]

I do sometimes. I transfer money between a couple of different banks with checks, because neither bank offers fund transfers outside of their system. Depositing a mobile check seems the easiest way. I had to have a check when I did my passport.

[cjcouple]

Yes.

Monthly rent, school fundraisers, pictures, functions on occasion, town taxes (they charge a fee for credit card), that kind of thing.

[devonpow]

I do - our landscaper, cleaning lady, high school sports fees, and a few other random bills only take checks still/aren’t online.

I use one of those special “safe” pens and drop them off in the post office because check washing is an issue around here

[candreco]

Our yard guy and our trash collection company prefer checks, and they're the only checks I write regularly now. Occasionally I write one for a registration fee or school field trip, but even those are few and far between.

[mrsslocombe]

I have a few doctors that you can't pay online-you either have to mail a check or mail them your handwritten credit card info. In the year of our lord 2024. Neither option is very secure.

[W.T.Faulkner]

1. School tuition
2. Gifts
3. Taxes

[wanderingback]

Every once in awhile!
I recently got a small tax bill that I guess my accountant missed. I’m known to procrastinate and I was sitting there at my desk and my checks were right there so I just wrote a check instead of figuring out how to log in and pay online. I’ve done that for a few bills this past year.

I was recently thinking I wonder if I’ll teach my daughter how to write checks, but people still give me checks for birthday and Christmas and sometimes pay comes in the form of a check (even if electronic), so still seems like a skill to need to understand how checks work.

[emilyinchile]

I had to get a new checkbook solely to leave the security deposit for our wedding venue. And then the owner had to tell me how to write it correctly because I automatically put that day's date on it, and she was like no, you need to put a date after the wedding otherwise I can cash it. I'm sure she thinks I'm useless, but I just don't ever use checks!

[circa1978]

Exceedingly rarely. I think I've written three this year. One was for a car and two for DS's tuition.

[Nonny]

We do, but rarely, like probably 3-5 times a year these days. Off the top of my head the last checks I wrote wrote were for the charity I'm on the board for (we can do square, but it's harder than checks or cash), and I sent one last year for a graduation gift (I offered venmo, but was told a check was fine).

I'm not sure what my H has used them for lately. We use to do them for things like registering the cars (and cats) to avoid paying the online fees, but they changed how things are billed and we stopped.

[gummybear]

We pay a lot of our contractors with checks. The kids school is also big on checks, as is Girl Scouts (cookies)

[lavenderblue]

Very rarely. The last bill that I was writing a check for was my water bill. It's a quarterly bill and I always forget to pay it so I finally set it up on autodraft. Otherwise, maybe an occasional field trip or something. The last check I wrote was too my exH in December, so it's been over two months since I've needed to write one.

[livinitup]

We have some auto checks tied to our checking account that we send out automatically or manually. Does that count? Probably not.

We use the old fashioned paper checks a few times a year for very few things (taxes last week).

I have probably used a check in a store 5 times in my life. I don’t think it was that rare in the ‘90s. Debit cards just became a thing.

Who uses Apple Pay? Using my phone seems super modern.

[rhian]

Rarely. I can't remember the last time I wrote a check. Maybe for a wedding gift?

[gottadobe]

I write a check maybe twice a year.

[firedancer10288]

The last check I wrote was for my daughter’s passport in October. Before that it had been over a year.

Everything for school here is electronic. No cash/check. You order and pay online (you can link bank and checking accounts) for everything- gym uniforms, sports fees, lunch, field trips, etc.

[Jalapeñomel]

I wrote one for summer camp, and I had to scour the place to find them.

[ECB]

Every once in a blue moon. Most common use is if i forget to get cash for our cleaning lady.

[shauni27]

a few bills every month. I like writing checks!

[1confused1]

Yes, for rent.

[noodleoo]

Yes. We pay our daycare by check. They don't take credit cards and didn't have Venmo or any electronic payment until Covid (where they quickly set it up to make sure we could keep paying while they were closed LOL). How else would I pay them? I'm not walking in with thousands of dollars in cash!

There's a few other random things we will pay by check (eg. like landscapers or small projects). We probably write about 15-20 a year (12 of which are daycare).

[bex1973]

We still use a good amount which is surprising. We pay our housecleaner with check, a couple of other bills and then quarterly water bill.

In fact this reminds me that I need to remember to bring the checkbook when we get our taxes done this weekend because that's how they prefer to be paid.

[followyourarrow]

I also wrote quite a few checks when we went through the house buying process.