In America’s Hat, aka Canada
I used to write four or five checks per month. I prefer paper statements, as I can put them into my checkbook and know what I have to pay, then remove them once I’ve done so. I liked writing checks because I could see them online in my account.
Then my employer switched payroll providers, and instead of being paid on the 1st and the 15th of each month, we’re now paid on the 7th and 20th. That created timing issues with my bills and mortgage (the mortgage is automatically paid), so I had no choice but to pay my bills online. Also one of my credit cards switched providers from US Bank to Capital One. Capital One doesn’t have brick-and-mortar offices, so I can no longer drive to the bank to pay a pending bill. TBH it’s much easier than writing checks, and I don’t have to stress about slow mail.
But I do – or did – continue to record transactions in my check register. While I have hundreds of checks to use, I’m completely out of registers. So I’ve made an Excel spreadsheet to keep track. The spreadsheet also eliminates math errors.
I didn’t realize so many respondents were from Commonwealth countries.
I still have to write a few checks a month - I pay all my actual bills electronically but the neighbor I rent the garage from and my husband’s bowling activities (leagues and tournaments) often require checks. Aside from that, I write a few checks a year for wedding gifts and so on.
My son’s co-op loan is from a lender that does accept online payments or have any account info online. That seems really strange to me.
The one good thing about checks is that you can use them to pay someone you know nothing about, except their name. You can write a check to “Joe Shlobotnik” and he can get the money. You don’t have to know his address or telephone number or email and you certainly don’t need any of his banking information. I find this property very useful when I give gifts: I can give a gift knowing zero except the recipient’s name.
I haven’t written a personal cheque in over 20 years but I’ve occasional used a bank cheque for a large purchase such as a house.
This might not be completely correct, but wouldn’t it be basically any English-speaking country that was NOT the US?
I can send money to anyone and I don’t even have to know their name - just a phone number or email address, and the email can be a burner.
Shh. Don’t let them in on our club.
Almost all of my bills are paid via my
Once I’ve entered a new payee, the bank stores the contact info so it’s just a matter of pressing a few keys to pay a bill now.
I truly don’t understand why some people aren’t using this if it’s an option for them. Do people really enjoy filling out checks and wasting money on postage?
My plumber gets a regular check, though, as he wants to be paid on the spot.
I have to pay my property tax with a regular check mailed in with their payment stub. But my boss just told me he paid his via his bank’s online bill pay and it was credited correctly, so I’ll try that this year.
So I probably write ~2 checks a year if I don’t have any plumbing problems.
All my checks have my old address on them. So I haven’t ordered checks since at least 2016. I do write them from time to time – when I make my quarterlies to the IRS, that’s on a check. When I pay my lawnmower guys, that’s with cash or check (although I heard our guy just finally got on the Zelle bandwagon at the end of the season.) But with my last check order, I’m pretty good until … well … until I die, for sure.
I just ordered new checks, mainly because I needed a new check register. I don’t write that many checks; one a month to my HOA, one a year to pay my property taxes, and the occasional one for miscellaneous reasons. Most of the banking action on my checking account is automated transfers, both in and out, and deposits of checks via my phone app. The new checks will have the name of the bank which bought out my old one several years ago.
Most tradesfolk I deal with want to be paid immediately, by an e-transfer to their bank, via e-mail. They don’t want cheques. Don’t you have that in the US?
For the example, the guy who installed my new car battery on my driveway wanted to be paid by e-mail transfer before he installed it. We hit “send” on our iPhone, he saw the money hit his bank account seconds later, and went to work. E-transfer or cash were the only payment options.
I can’t remember the last time I’ve written a check. It has to be years. I receive and deposit several each month, but send? 0 per year. Every single bill is paid online.
No. Zelle is pretty close, though. Which my plumber wouldn’t take.
We have this, e.g. Zelle, but it’s pretty new and a lot of people don’t have it set up.
Zelle started in 2017, so that tells you how new this all is for Americans.
Also, it requires internet access, and even in this day and age there are people with no internet access.
I last ordered checks in 2017. I always get duplicate checks (with the carbon copy), so I know when previous checks were written; the current book of checks that’s in our check wallet has had 11 checks written from it in the last two years (so, a little over one check a quarter). Most of the checks we’re written in that time were to repair services, though two of them were birthday money that my wife gave to our twin nieces for their birthdays last year.
There are still 9 checks in that book, and there’s another full book still in the box; at this rate, I anticipate needing to order checks again sometime in 2030. 
I’ve never met a tradesman in the last 15 years who didn’t have an iPhone or an Android. That’s all you need. Each one installs their bank app on the phone, which uses their e-mail to send and receive the money. Don’t need a desktop or laptop.
Maybe not tradesman but if, for example, I want to send a gift to my mother-in-law, it has to be by check. She has never touched a computer or a smartphone in her life.
I can answer this: yes.
As I said previously, I don’t know about the various payment systems in the US, but it sounds like Interac is different because it doesn’t require the recipient to set anything up. Unless the recipient expects regular payments from me, and then they can set up autodeposit which makes it even easier because they don’t have to do anything at all.
The way Interac works is … hmmm, actually, damned if I know how it works technically! But from a user standpoint, the recipient gets an email saying “Wolfpup sent you money”. Then they have to answer a security question. If correctly answered, they’re directed to log into their Interac-enrolled banking institution and some sort of magic token in the email causes the transferred amount to magically appear in the selected account. I’ve been both sender and recipient, and it always works well, usually within seconds. The worst that’s ever happened is that transfers have been delayed for up to 30 minutes or so. I don’t know if it’s just coincidence, but those transfer delays have usually been for larger amounts, like over $1000 or so.