# How many checks do you write?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-checks-do-you-write/637992
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [October 17, 2012, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-checks-do-you-write/637992 "2012-10-17T12:35:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2012, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-checks-do-you-write/637992/1 "2012-10-17T12:35:43Z")
Inspired by [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=668703&goto=newpost): how many checks (on average) do you write per month / year?
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### Author:  [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2012, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-checks-do-you-write/637992/2 "2012-10-17T12:37:24Z")
None. Cheques have gone the way of the Dodo here.
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2012, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-checks-do-you-write/637992/3 "2012-10-17T12:40:35Z")
Two a month, generally.
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### Author:  [@RealOmegaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealOmegaMan)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2012, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-checks-do-you-write/637992/4 "2012-10-17T12:44:58Z")
None
think most shops wont accept them any more. (Scotland)
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### Author:  [@Rollo\_Tomasi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rollo_Tomasi)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2012, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-checks-do-you-write/637992/5 "2012-10-17T12:45:31Z")
Only one a month, for my rent.
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### Author:  [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2012, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-checks-do-you-write/637992/6 "2012-10-17T12:47:40Z")
I just pulled up Quicken, and did a count for checks written in the past 12 months. 88, which was more than I’d mentally estimated.
I have kids, which makes a difference - I often have to send checks with them to pay for school activities (there’s rarely a good alternative; we could replenish their lunch money online but there’s a surcharge for that), and I pay the cleaning lady 2x a month, and we give Dweezil his spending money via check. And the occasional medical bill (stunning that more places don’t have an online payment facility!). If I eliminate all those, it’s more like 15-20 in a year.
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### Author:  [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2012, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-checks-do-you-write/637992/7 "2012-10-17T12:51:10Z")
Can’t remember the last time I had to write one, but it comes up now and then. Certainly no more than a dozen a year.
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2012, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-checks-do-you-write/637992/8 "2012-10-17T12:53:44Z")
I have only used them in Australia in the last 40 years when I had a business account for managing rental ownerships years ago. I don’t know that anyone uses them here for anything except business.
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### Author:  [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2012, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-checks-do-you-write/637992/9 "2012-10-17T13:01:13Z")
48-72.
I pay day care with a check every week, and for some reason I’ve never set up my water bill for automatic payment.
I also use checks when I split an expense like a Dr. visit with my son’s Mom.
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### Author:  [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2012, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-checks-do-you-write/637992/10 "2012-10-17T13:01:21Z")
Same as Don’t Ask. I haven’t written a cheque in 20 years.
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### Author:  [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2012, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-checks-do-you-write/637992/11 "2012-10-17T13:05:51Z")
Aside from rent, I just use them for payments to smaller merchants who don’t take credit card payments and who charge more than I’d carry in cash. That’s mostly just the woman who boards our rabbits when we go on vacation. Until this year, it was also for our CSA farm payments, but apparently for next year they’re starting an online registration and payment system.
So that’s 12 per year for rent and 2-3 for boarding payments, and I used to write 3/year to the farm.
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2012, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-checks-do-you-write/637992/12 "2012-10-17T13:10:26Z")
Four per month. With some finagling I could get that down to 3.
Some places don’t have anything to swipe a credit card in.
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### Author:  [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2012, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-checks-do-you-write/637992/13 "2012-10-17T13:19:51Z")
One a month, for rent. I think the most it’s been in the last 10 years has been three a month several years ago; one for rent, one for car payment to Teachers Credit Union, one for Fry’s Electronics for a finance plan on a laptop. I was mystified by the last two, as both the CU and Fry’s had websites, but didn’t allow online payments/transfers.
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### Author:  [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2012, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-checks-do-you-write/637992/14 "2012-10-17T13:22:18Z")
Just my rent, so, 12 a year. I guess it’s 13 with my CSA payment (a single payment at the start of season).
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### Author:  [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2012, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-checks-do-you-write/637992/15 "2012-10-17T13:22:25Z")
I didn’t vote because there was no option for “18”.
One check every month for rent, and one check every other month for my hydro bill.
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### Author:  [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2012, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-checks-do-you-write/637992/16 "2012-10-17T13:25:52Z")
I used to write none but since we sold our house and are renting it back I sent a stack of post dated _cheques_(Poll should have been multiple choices cretin ;)) to the property developer so now I’m at 1 per month.
I still have the cheque books I bought when I opened the account 6 years ago, there are 20/bk and I’ve used 3 out of one book and 11 out of the other (first and last were one cheque)
I am an enthusiastic convert to online banking and I love the ability to not only pay all my bills from my banks website but email money to anyone with a Canadian bank account.
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2012, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-checks-do-you-write/637992/17 "2012-10-17T13:36:27Z")
> [@Sicks\_Ate](#):
>
> 48-72.
>
> I pay day care with a check every week, and for some reason I’ve never set up my water bill for automatic payment.
That’s almost exactly my answer except that my water bill doesn’t allow online payment. It’s a little outfit run by the subdivision and I have to mail a check directly to their bank.
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### Author:  [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2012, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-checks-do-you-write/637992/18 "2012-10-17T13:49:34Z")
> [@amanset](#):
>
> None. Cheques have gone the way of the Dodo here.
How do you give money to another private person? That’s about the only thing in the US that still pretty much has to be done by check. Like, when I pick up some groceries for my parents, if it’s more than $20-$30, they generally write me a check to cover it.
There’s no other convenient way besides check or cash here. I wish there were.
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2012, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-checks-do-you-write/637992/19 "2012-10-17T13:53:26Z")
The only thing we use cheques for is to transfer funds from one bank account to another. Cheques are free for me, but bank transfers aren’t.
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### Author:  [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2012, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-checks-do-you-write/637992/20 "2012-10-17T13:59:38Z")
I don’t write any when I pay our regular monthly recurring bills. But my wife has to write a bunch of them each month for various services that don’t have the ability to pay online- the piano teacher each week, the PTA, the Girl Scouts, school-related things (student/class pictures, lunch money account, etc), reimbursing someone for our portion of a group gift, that type of thing. Somehow it seems there are about 8-10 of these a month.
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