Some businesses do not accept checks because people write bad checks. My ATM cards doubles as a debit or a “check” card. You can use it exactly like a check. You can shop online with it exactly like a credit card, though the charges are different.
But you can’t just use this card. Some businesses only take checks.
You have to have both.
The thing is, checks from the company I use cost upwards of $11.00 per box, shipping and all. I didn’t know if I should get several boxes per order for the better price, & used several boxes this year. The ATM card costs $15 a year.
You pay for everything twice.
I’m used to checks and buying whenever I want to. Cash would not work. Besides, you buy almost anything, you will find yourself just outside the area of your bank’s machines–getting charged $2.50 per withdrawal.
Making few withdrawals of more cash (for fewer fees) doesn’t work–I feel as though I’ve got more, so it gets spent.
Every bank around here has it so you are paying something in every type of account, no two banks the same way. Mutual Funds always charges for the card, somehow. No dropping off one deposit only and piling up the interest. They don’t want you to win. Interest-bearing accounts charge a “maintenance fee” 8 $ every month. Exactly what is this maintaining?!
But it says right there on the money, “This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private.” Why doesn’t it work? I carry cash all the time, nobody ever turns it down.
I use my trusty Visa card. Almost everyone takes them now, even the supermarket and even some fast-food places. And you sure can’t “pay-at-the-pump” for gas with a check. I pay it off every month, and it doesn’t cost me a cent extra. So instead of writing 20 or 30 checks every month, I write one check to Visa. Pretty damn cool if you ask me.
(Of course, the hard part is first paying off all the credit-card debt you racked up over the years.)
Another reason I love my credit union. No ATM fees if I use their (many) machines. No fees to use the debit card or the check card. No per-check charges. No maintenance fees. No annual fees on their credit cards. No charge to bank by phone. No charge to bank on line. No charge to bank in person. And getting a loan from them is easier than when I used to go to Daddy National Bank.
I get my checks from a clearing house, so they’re about $6.95 for 200 checks.
If you’re paying $2.50 every time you use an ATM, you are not using your bank’s ATM. Either use your bank’s ATM, or pay for the convenience of using another one that’s closer.
I have a high enough balance in my checking account that I don’t get charged a maintenence fee.
Look around for a credit union…dirt cheap, and they treat you right.
I can top that - my Mastercard electronically drafts the monthly payment out of my checking account (the full amount, of course, not the minimum payment due), so I don’t even have to write a check to pay off the credit card! Mighty handy when you’re out of town.
I don’t know if you have a Commerce Bank anywhere near you, but they have a no fee checking account, no matter what your balance is. No fee for the ATM card, no fee for using the ATM as long as its a Commerce ATM, no fee to use the internet to keep an eye on my account, etc. I don’t pay anything to bank.
I’d shop around for a different bank, or even call your bank and tell them you plan to shop around - see if you can get a better deal.
Cash doesn’t work because when you break a tenner on something that costs £5.01, the loose change goblins eat the remaining £4.99 and you never see any benefit from it.
You know what would be even better? We could have credit chips implanted in our foreheads, and then they could just point the scanner at our face and it would automatically deduct the correct amount. (O.K., too far…)
It all seems so bizarrely complicated. And paying for a ATM card? What the hell would you do that for? I felt ripped off enough by my bank, but a system where you pay for check books, atm cards, withdrawing your money…hell, I complain that they don’t pay enough interest on my current account, paying for the privilege would seem like a bloody insult.
Agreed - I don’t pay anything for ATM cards, debit cards, credit cards, using my own bank’s ATM machines, or anything else except being in debt (which I am :D)
It’s even worse; some banks used to (and may still, for all I know, since I never had an account with any of them) charge you for using their own ATMs. And until recently, one rather large bank had been charging fees for using the teller windows.
TwungTister, I suggest you start shopping around for a better bank. I’ve never been with a bank that charged a fee for an ATM card. Paying for checks and for using other banks’ ATMs is pretty standard, but you shouldn’t have to pay a fee just to have a card.
Do you remember the outcry when banks announced they would start charging disloyalty fees for customers who used other banks’ ATMs? At the same time, I believe they were proposing to up their own ATM fees for non-customers. I vaguely recall one high street bank considering charges for any counter transactions.
It was only the media fuss and the resulting government attention that prompted a climbdown.