The last check I wrote was to a guy who pruned back the mutant apple tree in my back yard. Before that, the last one was to the same guy for the same service two years ago.
Regarding “push” v “pull,” the relative benefits have been (and will be) debated to death; but one benefit I’ve found to “pull” is that if something goes wrong, it’s on the puller. I haven’t had it happen more than a few times in the last twenty-odd years, and in every case it was resolved with a single phone call.
Theoretically, I could log into some of these organizations’ websites and use my login & password to use my debit card to pay for some of these memberships, but it seems lately that everything is insecure, hackable, and exploitable, even after the transaction is completed. Am I “damned if I do, damned if I don’t”? I think that’s the rub of my position, so I take my chances with reducing my ‘digital footprint’ by using paper checks & snail mail for some payments, or large ones to trustworthy businesses / contractors like @OttoDaFe.
I recognize I’ve worn out my hijack welcome on this sidebar, so I yield back to the OP’s intent.
Tripler
Digital hygiene is my top priority.
Whoever (e.g. PBS) sent you that little slip of paper does NOT need it back. They want it back because most people who write checks are idiots and can’t remember to include their e.g. PBS account number with the check. And be careful enough to get it correct and write legibly.
What they, e.g. PBS need is their account number that they printed on that return slip. As long as you correctly provide that to your bank, they’ll correctly and legibly include that info with the check they mail and e.g. PBS will know who to credit. Easy peasy.
We are all trapped between less-than-ideally secure digital systems and less-than-ideally-secure traditional paper based systems.
Choose your poison.
end hijack.
Not quite. You do need a PIN to get cash back, but even if you do not get cash back, you can still select DEBIT and it will prompt for a PIN. When you do that, the route that the transaction takes is different than if you select CREDIT with the same card and do not enter a PIN.
This assumes you have an association-branded debit card (i.e., it says VISA or MasterCard on it), which I think it is pretty standard now (in the early days it was not).
I’m a little leery of using a PIN since I got a call from my bank asking if I’d made multiple consecutive $2999 withdrawals from an ATM in San Francisco.
I’d made one small one earlier in the day … but the theory is that someone had installed a “skimmer” to read the raised numbers on my card, and an infrared or telephoto camera to get my PIN.
But I still use one inside a trusted store… like the local Trader Joe’s because I use them as my personal cash dispensary.
Debit and credit cards seem to be handled somewhat differently in the USA than in Europe. Checks have not been around for a very long time, sending them personally by snail mail would be far too risky. There are debit cards that work with a pin, the pin is automatically sent to you shortly before the card is issued so that the debit card with the pin cannot be intercepted together (you can feel that there is a card in the envelope when you touch it). The card can only be activated with the PIN. The pin must be entered when making payments, with the exception of smaller amounts, which can be made contactlessly by holding the device on the payment device. However, the debit card cannot be used to make hotel or car rental reservations (especially abroad). This has already led to problems for some travelers (they did not get the rental car they had booked). Everything with pin etc. works the same with the credit card, but the amount is not debited immediately, but only at the end of the month. The credit card can be used to book rental cars and hotels. As a rule, a credit card costs an annual deposit and has an upper limit.
So are you describing US or European practice?
Not all of us remember where you live and you’ve not provided even a general location in your profile.
I’d forgotten about selecting Debit at the machine. I never do that but have seen it’s been an option.
What I described is European practice.
Thank you. And with the exception of checks being fully obsolete in Europe, and only mostly obsolete in the USA, everything else you describe is US-standard (or at least US commonplace) also.
Hence my question.
I occasionally write cheques for certain things at my son’s school. They just aren’t set up with an online system, but I could go in person for a card transaction if I wanted to.
I recently had to give a voided cheque to set up automatic payments and didn’t have my chequebook because it lives near my desk at home and it’s 2025 and who carries one around anymore? So I logged into my bank app on my phone, navigated to the “void cheque” option where one was generated, and I could then enter the email address of the company asking for it and send it. Easy peasy.
Demanding a paper check from you is their internal procedures; it is not a requirement of the banking system. This ensures that they don’t have to correctly read your chickenscratched account number on whatever form you need to fill out. Of course this supposes they they can correctly input the R&T & acct #s on the bottom of your check & never make a fat-fingered typo. Supppsition #2 - they’re still making you fill out a paper form vs. everything online, where the responsibility for a fat-fingered typo is yours, not theirs. Another case of bringing forward outdated requirements because “we’ve always done it that way” rather than updating to modern times.
Historically, everyone wrote checks & the incidence of fraud was fairly low. It’s probably no more insecure than using your debit card & not checking the terminal to ensure there is no skimmer on it. You will get your money back if you file the appropriate complaint/paperwork with your bank.
Though this is true. For the bills where my bank’s bill pay service mails a check; they debit my acct & credit theirs & then mail the check from their account. You, as the check receiver never know my account.
The only check of the year I both write & mail will be tomorrow, April 15th…to the thieving bastoids. I consider it gone from my account but I know they won’t cash it for four to six weeks which means I get to ‘keep’ my money for a bit longer, which I consider a bit of a win against ‘the man’
Hmm.
It’s been probably 10 years since I last sent the IRS a paper check for my Apr 15th balance. Which, like you, I would do on the 15th or 14th to keep my money as long as possible.
But my recollection of that process was they’d have deposited the check & my account would be debited within about one week. Not 4-6. Of course each IRS service center has their own backlogs and their own volume and staffing problems. Yours may be shortstaffed while mine back then (Ogden UT) might have been overstaffed.
And perhaps even more relevant, that was then and this is now. When chaos stalks the halls of all government.
In fact IIRC, my motivation to switching to them directly debiting my account was that I wasn’t getting any material float out of mailing the check.
Not IRS, local tax, which I typically owe some nominal amount; under $20.
It’s outsourced to a criminally incompetent organization who no doubt paid someone off to get the contract.
Ah. I admire your goal of getting a moral victory. I think I’d rather have the $20 check clear sooner & not leave a loose end for a criminally incompetent org to screw up any longer than necessary.
YMMV. Cheers!
I know of quite a few that no longer accept cash - mostly I’ve only seen this in cafe-restaurant type places but there are at least two in my nearest town that have a sign saying that they don’t accept cash.
The couple of cents it costs me & the effort to get to the Post Office is more than worth it. F*** 'em!
Sometimes Stickin’ it to The Man is all the reward anyone needs.
