I opened a new checking account and to my surprise, they didn’t require me to buy checks from them. They gave me five starter checks.
Since I only use my checks for rent and a few others things, (I’d rather pay rent by check, so I can see if it’s been cashed), I don’t want to spend $25.00 for them to print up a big box.
I don’t have access to a program like Quicken so I can’t print my own checks anymore.
Anyone have any recommendations for an online place, where I can print some checks up. I imagine 50 would last me two or three years.
I had to figure this out recently, Costco was the cheapest place I found. IIRC Walmart was also very affordable. Remember to factor in shipping, with Costco the standard shipping is free.
I did some shopping around recently, and to my wild surprise my bank (Bank of America) was the cheapest by far: 150 checks for $10.50 plus tax, and free shipping if I was willing to wait a week or so.
Even if you aren’t with BoA, don’t forget to see what your bank offers.
Last time I needed checks for home I had a coupon for ChecksUnlimited.com. Something like 6 boxes for $27. It’ll last me a LOOOONG time. At work, where we go thought a lot, I’ve found the best deals at samsclubchecks.com.
Now, if you only need a few, say less then 20 or so a year, your best bet might be just to go in to your bank and ask them for a few. They have a machine that can print them for you and should be able to rattle you out 20 or so for free in about a minute. I’ve done that in the past when I’m waiting on new checks to come or when it’s an account that get’s very little use and I don’t need an entire box.
I just remembered: a few years ago, I needed a check and didn’t have time to wait for ones to be printed. The bank (Wells Fargo) offered sheets of checks for something like $1 a check.
At that price, though, you may as well get a box for $5 of some generic looking check for a website.
Thanks I’ll check these out. I was a bit leary of the online sites, as I am not sure you are gonna get check quality. I only really use them for rent. Thanks again
So, why do you need to buy cheques? And who can issue them? Just anyone? I think in the UK, only banks can issue cheques. I’ve never seen any that aren’t bank-issued, anyway. Looking at those links, you guys get all different designs - I’d totally use cheques more if I had National Parks or something pretty on them!
The checks you buy carry all the official bank info. You need to provide the account info. They look just like a regular bank issued check except for the funky designs.
I don’t think Quicken is required to do this. (And anyway, there are free open-source equivalents to Quicken.)
Blank check stock paper is available online or in office supply stores, and you can print on this with any standard word processing program. You will need to have the appropriate font to print the bank symbols, but that is readily found. Your checks will not be printed in magnetic ink, but nearly all banks use optical rather than magnetic recognition now.
This should work fine for a few checks. But I don’t know that it will be any cheaper than just buying the smallest box of checks from one of those suppliers suggested by others.
All you get around here is a book of maybe 5 ‘starter’ checks that don’t have your name and address on them and therefore most businesses won’t accept them. Is this what you’re talking about or does your bank give you something else?
The last time I opened an account – whoa, at least a decade ago – they gave me the five starter checks (each a different background design) and had me order a batch of checks the same day.
As I recall, those checks were WAY more expensive that I could get through ChecksByMail and their ilk. Which is why I was so surpised that this time the order-through-the-bank’s website checks turned out to be so cheap.
Actually, if they are imaging their items, they are using both, and will be for the forseeable future.
MICR printing is not going away… many banks will not accept checks if the MICR line is not printed in magnetic ink.
With the advent of the Check 21 process, all checks are imaged, then sent and received from the FRB in an image format. When the bank initially images the items, they still require the account information on the bottom of the check to be printed with magnetic ink so the MICR readers on the scanning machines pick up that information.
The scanners incorporate CAR-LAR software (Character Amount Recognition - Legal Amount Recognition) that can optically read the amounts written on the items, both in the numeric field and on the legal amount line. They compare the level of accuracy and assign the dollar amount accordingly. If the accuracy level is not met, the rejected images are reviewed by a bank employee and the info is manually keyed.
If a copy of a previous imaged item is requested, the printed copy will be printed with a magnetic MICR line.
I’ve worked in proof departments, and my current job works in conjunction with them.
