Checks aren't as useful overall as they used to be but they still have their place. They're useful for donations and such where you might want a paper trail. Our local treasurer's office doesn't accept credit cards, so we need to pay water bills, property tax, etc., either by cash or check. Costco doesn't accept credit cards unless it's one of their more limited types of cards. Checks are especially useful if you don't have credit cards at all.
Here are six tips we use for dealing with our check-writing:
- Shop around for good deals on checks. Third-party check printers give deals better than your bank or credit union will. It usually pays to switch companies rather than reorder from the same company. Competition is alive and well.
- Duplicate checks are definitely worth it even though they cost more. It's so easy to forget to write down a check payment in a register in the midst of rushed checkouts. Duplicates give you a backup record.
- But remember to write it down if the merchant prints the check for you at checkout. Costco is a good example. I just sign a check, they run it through their register, show it to me after it prints, and I go along my merry way. Except that I don't have a record of the check in the checkbook. So this one I have to make sure I write down.
- Make it difficult for someone to change the amount of the check. Aside from making it really easy by carrying around a signed blank check, try these tricks:
- Write the “number” amount in the box starting as far left as you can so that it's still legible. This prevents people from adding a digit in front of your number.
- Make your numbers difficult to change. Consider putting a slash through zeroes, a serif on your ones, etc.
- Write the “word” amount on the line starting as far left as you can. For the same reason.
- Scrunch your writing as much as you can. So that people can't insert anything.
- Fill up the rest of the box/line. Draw a line all the way to the end of the line. Put “and” just to the right of the last word in the dollars amount to indicate the decimal point. Put the cents at the right edge of the line.
- Use “XX” rather than “00” in the word amount for whole dollar amounts. “00” is easier to change to “66” or “88” on the line and in the box than “XX.”
- Consider highlighting different categories of checks in your registers. This is useful for categorizing for your budget, or for when you do your taxes. We highlight the lines with checks to charities so that it's faster to add them up at the end of the year.
- Consider putting in entries for big ACH withdrawals in your register as they show up. We put a lot of our recurring expenses on our credit card, but some don't let us (like the company that handles our mortgage, our power company, and our life insurance company). Putting those expenses, and our credit card payment, in the register as they show up helps us to look ahead to what's going to happen to our balance a few weeks out. If the charges are only a couple of weeks out, we usually put those in the register as if they are already gone so that we don't overwithdraw.
If you have any other checkbook hacks, I'd love to hear them!
why use checks? i just use online bill pay with my bank.
nearly every bank provides it for free now.
You should also keep a gel pen for writing your checks. This helps prevent the check from being 'washed' later and having new amounts and/or payee written on the check.
A gel pen negative is it takes a bit longer for the ink to dry.
Because I do as my mother taught me, I usually write the full amount in the words and end with the "only" before drawing a line through the rest of the space (e.g. "one pound and ten pence only", or "two pounds only").
My personal favorite (although it takes discipline) is using my check register for saving for spending goals.
For example, I have my "save" the amount of my last raise every week in the checkbook by subtracting it from the main amount and keeping a running total in the register. Once I hit a threshold (say $70 for a pair of Naturalizer shoes) or something, I can simply write a check to purchase what I've been saving for. (At the moment, I'm using this money towards debts, but in the future it will be available to purchase some of the things I used to pay for with credit.)
I also save a certain amount each week in a vacation fund, that I can use to pay for expenses or take with me as cash for food, etc.
It seems that it would be very easy to change XX to 88. In fact, when I was first taught how to write checks, I was instructed to never use Xs.
I do like the idea of putting slashes through my zeros, however. I think I'll start doing that.