Ran out of checks - What should I do?

Factual Questions
41

Yes. BSB stands for “Bank-Suburb-Branch.” Basically, the banks all got together and streamlined their systems so that each have account numbers in the same format of say, 12345678 rather than one bank having JZ-123-T and another having 11-A-thy, then each huge banking corporation has its code number, and the suburb/town/branch has another code, so BIG C0NGLOMERATE BANK might be 02, downtown Sydney might be 5430…

So if you want to pay me, you go to your online banking, hit “Transfer money”, and…

BSB?
025340

ACCOUNT?

12345678

ACCOUNT NAME?
Mr. T. L. Dog
(this acts as a crosscheck with the numbers against typos)

Amount?
$500

SUBMIT
Is this correct?

YES

Your receipt number is N34756534 - save for your records
You might find it’s instant for customers with the same bank, and max 48 hours for different ones.

Stands for Dsomebullshit Eor other Funds Transfer. It’s a proprietary rent payment system that was big in the 90s, but limited compared to BPay and BSB transfers, and I’m not sure if it’s still going. Basically, in the bad old days, you’d go to the real estate agent that managed your property and pay cash for your rent. Then they got held up too many times, so DEFT gave you a plastic card and you could pay your rent at the post office. It’s probably dead by now.

42

I believe it is- most Real Estate Agents here accept rental payments via Direct Debit, Credit Card, or Bpay.

I would assume “DEFT” stood for Direct Electronic Funds Transfer, which seems a bit redundant, not to mention easily confused with EFTPOS or standard EFT…

43

Some people also end up using checks when, say, you get a home equity loan to build an addition to your house - they send you checks, and that works out because often “Ted and his buddies” don’t take credit cards, you know. Checks are still very popular as a method of paying small time contractors.

44

That’s the only time we’ll physically write a check, and only if we are too busy to get to the bank to make a cash withdrawal the day before.

My wife and I bank with Citibank - several accounts. I never write a check. I can, however, have Citibank write the check and mail it for me. It takes away my ability to play the float, but it also takes away my ability to bounce a check (well, that and overdraft protection). My pay is direct deposited. I automatically pay monthly bills on one of the deposit days. By paying on my pay schedule, I never have to worry about a provider trying to take money that isn’t there. By scheduling payments to coincide with payday, I always know there are funds available. Then I can sweep money into an interest bearing account, and use my mobile phone to transfer it back to checking if I exceed my ‘allowance’ for the pay period.

For the record, I’m a ‘merkin and I’m over 40. I have been using banks’ automated payment systems for two decades, back when Chase had Bank-by-Phone. I despise checks, and will always try for another option. Run out of checks? I’m still on the box I got ~10 years ago when I opened the account.

45

My wife and I haven’t written a check in years. Our credit union has online banking that is awesome. We can go online, set up a check-pay account to whoever we want, including private people (or ourselves, if we’re feeling masochistic), tell 'em we want a check cut for $x amount, and the bank cuts it and sends it – including whatever Memo line information we want, if any; account numbers, mostly.

The money comes out of our account immediately, so there’s no question of available funds; the check itself has a unique account number that only works for that one transaction, so there’s no problem with ID theft (which is a real problem with checks these days), and we can get a copy of it any time, again, online.

Plus the bank guarantees delivery on checks cut this way. If someone claims they didn’t get the check, the bank investigates it for you and will cover any fees if it turns out to be true. They got a credit for me on my utilities payment when the city claimed I hadn’t paid them. Turns out I had, they’d applied it to the wrong account.

We pay nothing for this. It’s all part of the service.

There are some limits – no more than X checks per month, but X is some ridiculously large number as far as we’re concerned, and you can only store (I think) 20 accounts at any one time, but again, no problem there. Before I moved over to paying by card, I paid all my bills this way – rent, car payment, utilities, you name it.

Anyway, the reason I like it is because there’s no fee for it AND there’s no requirement that the merchant be part of some bank-approved association. I can cut a check to anyone and never touch the checkbook myself. BankAmerica had this a while ago, I think, but when I was with them (not for long!), they only supported ‘authorized’ merchants and you couldn’t cut a check online to just anybody.

I love my bank. Credit union. Whatever. :slight_smile:

D_Odds: I’m with you on that. Last time a plumber was working on our property, my wife went down to the bank (only a few blocks away) to get the cash to pay him while he was packing up his tools. He would’ve been fine with a check (he said); I offered him a beer in exchange for waiting a few minutes so I didn’t have to write one. I despise paper checks. (He seemed to think it was a good deal, go figure :))

46

I thought the check had the advantage of being a paper trail to prove you paid. I guess a receipt might be enough?

47

In my opinion, yep.

When it comes to tradesmen, I don’t hire them in the first place if they seem to be the sort of place that would cause the sorts of issues that I’d need a paper trail for. The receipt should be enough in most cases, anyway – as long as you hang on to it, I guess. :slight_smile:

For some things, I’d rather have the trail, though. Usually creditors of one stripe or another. That’s why I have the bank cut checks to them, so there IS a trail. I tell ya, the hassle I went through after paying one of the bills in person with cash was ENOUGH. Never again. (Of course they never recieved payment. Riiiight.)

I’d probably use (online, bank-sent) checks if I was paying a general contractor to add onto my house or something, but paying the plumber for snaking a drain? Nah. :slight_smile:

But I still won’t reach for my paper checkbook. Hates it. HATES IT!

48

As a perpetual checkbook-misplacer, I’ve found that cashiers checks are overpriced ($5+ at most banks as an accountholder). I usually just take out cash and then go to the grocery store or post office and buy a money order (around $1) for any situation where starter checks might be unwelcome.

49

Actually, just the other week I saw someone using a cheque at the grocery store. It was the first time in twenty years that I’d seen such a thing. I text messaged a friend about it. She was incredulous and asked if the cashier even knew how to handle it.