Check Images?

This is my shot at a poll real quick.

Quick Backstory:

Mrs. Small had an account with a regional bank, as did I. Her info got stolen and they didn’t do much to help us with closing out the account. We finished our business with them, then today we went to open a new account at a different bank. I don’t deal with checks at all, but she uses them for bill paying and such. We were offered a couple different check images for our first 500 checks.

We shredded the ATM cards and checks today from the old account, so I was thinking about images on checks…

Now the poll:

1.) Do you pay extra for pretty pictures on your checks?
2.) If so, what pictures?

Since I need to answer my own poll…

1.) We have, but not this time. We did get a selection though.
2.) They are green with a dark green border and have our banks emblem/symbol thing on them.

So, Dopers, tell me about your checks…

Brendon

No images. When I was a teenager and got my first checking account, I believe I did spring for the pretty, pretty checks with a silver border and pictures of rainbows. Now I don’t think the checks with images are worth the money; or, put another way, I’d rather spend that money on something else.

Personally, no. In fact when I need checks (I go through about a box ever four years or so), I hunt around for the cheapest price. (Which BTW I got from American Express).

My mother was a supervisor at a savings and loan for many, many years, and when she felt I was old enough to have a checking account (16, as I recall), she sat me down and explained that a) I must always, always write down the check information at the same time I wrote the check, b) I must balance my register to the penny every month, and c) I should get plain checks because pretty checks are more likely to bounce than plain ones. I’ll admit to a few lapses on the first two points, but my checks have always been the plainest ones possible.

I used to have these checks. Now I have a Dr. Suess design.

We have checks with maps on them for the joint account. To be honest, I don’t have the slightest idea if we paid extra for them or not. I pay almost every bill online and if I had to write a check, I would be hard pressed to even find a checkbook.

I almost never use checks anymore, what with paying bills online and all, but I’m sooooo tempted to buy these checks for when I have to send money to someone I don’t like.

Sadly, I shelled out for some fancy marble-looking checks with a blue and gold top border. I suppose I thought that, what with the law practicing and all, I had to get checks with some dignity.

My first set of checks (in 2004, I think) had animals or nature or something, I don’t know. The design was free since I’d just opened my account.

A couple of months ago I ordered new checks for the first time (yeah it took me over 2 years to go through, I think, 100) and decided I don’t use the blasted things often enough to pay extra. Who’ll see them? Pretty much just the landlord.

So I opted for a pretty, plain blue. Hurrah.

When I’m anywhere except the States I don’t use checks, so no.

In the States, I just chose from whatever regular models the bank carried. Once I had to return a batch because they’re misprinted my name and I was offered a wider selection; I still went for a pretty dull model.

Apologies: I always chose the models where you get a duplicate of the check as you write it. I’m lazy :slight_smile:

As plain as possible. Some checks are impossible to read as online images when the writing disappears into the background as one big black-and-white smudge.

Plain, green, duplicates. The partner Slip sees the checkbook more than I do - I usually have to ask him where it is.

Wha???

I’ve always had designs on my checks, and I’ve never bounced a check. I get mine fromArtistic Checks, but since I pay bills online, I hardly use them anymore.

Agreed.

A check bounces if there’s insufficient funds in the account. That’s it. The bleepin’ design of the check plays no part of it.

I guess MAYBE (if her observations were accurate where she worked) it could just be that people who got frivolous check designs were more likely to be a bit irresponsible with their checking account balances (while NATURALLY the people who got the boring ones are obviously upstanding mature citizens). I still really really doubt that.

I should elaborate. My mother worked at the savings and loan in the 70s, when it was less common to have “pretty” checks. Keep in mind that this is also the woman who told me that too much salt would make me go bald (when I expressed doubt, she’d say, “Just look at your father”) and that eating raw potatoes would give me worms. I should have made it clear that I took the advice with a grain of salt (but only a grain - I didn’t want to lose any hair).

I should think it would take a lot more salt to make raw potatoes palatable.

Well, I don’t eat them - it’s not the worms so much as the starchiness - but Mr. Legend does and apparently the taste for raw potatoes is a dominant gene, because the kids do, too.

But I still never got over the plain checks thing.

My current checks are a pale blue woven pattern with a dark blue border. They’re one of my bank’s basic offerings.

My very favorite ones had a narrow border of flags from around the world on a stark white background. Yeah, I’m a check minimalist. Haven’t been able to get those for nearly ten years now. I still miss them.

I do like spending a little extra for the duplicates though. Because I’ve never gotten into the habit of writing down the pertinent information at the time of the transaction, I’ve saved myself some stress by being able to easily find the duplicate and say, “Yeah, I did write that check!”

Somehow, the last time I ordered cheques (yes, we use them a lot in Canada), I pressed the wrong button on the website and got really plain, boring ones which did not have copies for a record. Since then, my financial situation has greatly improved.

Coincidence? I think so!

I’d like to put my own artwork on cheques. Is there a company that will do this?

I have ones with faint animal pictures on them (I’d be surprised if the pictures would have even remotely close to enough contrast to interfere with copying or scanning) and a monogrammed initial. I might switch to Anne Geddes baby pictures with my next box (I’m down to my last book of cheques, but it’ll be at least 6 months before I’m even close to finishing that). Why? Purely for fun. I use them so rarely that the additional cost is irrelevant. If I actually wrote many cheques I’d probably buy cheap ones. My cheques have a bunch of “security features”, but I don’t believe they would make a significant difference in the likelihood of fraud or forgery. The “security features” just come with the pretty cheques.