Some of us can’t get credit cards.
And we aren’t about to carry hundreds of dollars in cash to flash every time we buy groceries!
Risistance to change? I think not. My bank doesn’t charge me to deposit a check with a teller and if they ever did I would switch banks. I once had my deposit “lost” at an ATM. I will never deal with that headache again.
And it’ll cost ya. Either at the store or the bank. Checks only cost (I get mine free) if ya bounce 'em.
Checks is 
.
Hmmm…I don’t think I said food was a luxury item. We were talking about people who “force” themselves to spend less money by writing checks, and my point was that it shouldn’t be necessary if you are only buying things you really need. Sometimes topics expand a little beyond the exact wording of the OP - let’s not get thrown by it.
Fair enough.
Right. Like I said, credit cards aren’t for everyone. I was a student once, and it was tough to get out from under that credit card debt when I just didn’t have the money to pay it off. I only said I don’t have sympathy for you IF you are buying stuff you don’t need. Otherwise, I have tons of sympathy for you, cuz I’ve been there myself.
That’s cool. I was really talking about this one issue:
I personally don’t get the whole “self-restraint by inconvenience” thing. If you are only buying necessities, then there’s not really a choice as to whether or not to spend the money. All the other reasons you stated for using checks notwithstanding, forcing yourself to be aware of the numerical amount by writing it on a check doesn’t really seem necessary. But hey - if it works for you, that’s great.
Besides, I can’t really criticize you, since I do some illogical things myself, like setting my watch ahead 5 minutes. It bugs the hell out of my friends, but somehow it seems to get me places on time, even though I know it’s 5 minutes fast:)
an additional 2 cents:
cash is dead. cash can be lost or stolen, and is unrecoverable. cash can burn up or blow away. cash can be counterfieted. cash can be short-changed easily. cash is a lure for bad shit to happen to you if you carry large quantities.
these are some things wrong with cash. i am no fan of checks, either, but they are one step better than cash, and for those not having credit/debit cards, the logical choice for use in a grocery store.
I scream, you scream, we all denounce Jesus for Ice Cream!
I swear the following is true:
About a half hour ago, I was at the supermarket. I come up to the registers with about a half cart full of groceries. The express lane is completely empty. The other few open lanes have long lines. I cast a look to the woman at the empty express lane and she immediately waves me over.
Now, this makes sense right? I agree with the purpose of the express register, but if no one is using it then why let it go to waste? Plus, she waved me in. I didn’t even ask.
So, what happens…while she is swiping my groceries no less than 3 people form a line behind me. All of them have the required 10 items or less. They came out of nowhere. To make matters worse, I am on my way back from a job interview and am wearing a business suit.
People were looking at me like I was the most inconsiderate jerk alive, and all I could think of was this thread. LoL.
I think the world would be a much more pleasant place if people could just get over these types of small annoyances. The little old ladies taking an extra minute to write out their checks really aren’t doing so just to piss you off. (IOW, as shocking as this statement may sound, the world does not revolve around you!)
I happen to be one of those uber-efficient types (did you know that you don’t have to wait for the cashier to finish ringing up your items to swipe your card? I always step up and punch in my info right away. Then it is waiting and ready to go when she is finished.) But I don’t expect everyone else to be. And I don’t want to live in a world where people aren’t allowed to fall into a daydream once in a while, or take their time(whether they need to or not), or just plain live at a less-than-frenetic pace.
In any case, this:
ain’t necessarily so. My checks aren’t free, though my debit card is. And I can get cash back at the grocery store, the drugstore, even the post office, with no fee charged. Also, in my state, debit cards are protected in a similar manner to credit cards, i.e. the first $50 is my problem if someone gets away with it, but after that the bank has to pony up.
Really? Not in this country. In fact AFAIK there are no fees for the purchaser attached to any private transactions involving cheques or debit cards in this country - certainly not for any bank I’ve ever heard of.
But if they charge for cashback in your location, I can see why the cheque would be a more desirable option.
pan
Sometimes you have to go up to the teller because you cannot get rolls of quarters at the driveup, nor at the ATM!
I went shoppping last night, bought groceries, then went over and bought a six-pack. Paid with a check at both places. Timed myself writing a check for the beer. I think it came up to about $5.75 for the sixpack.
From when he told me the price, until I handed him the check, because the store name, date, sig was filled out in advance, it took 12 seconds. Not living in NY or LA or a more crowded city, we don’t have long lines anywhere. I seldom get in a line with more than 2 people, unless it’s a ‘10 items or under’ line and then it’s 5 or 6 maximum.
Now even if it takes 5 more seconds to wait for a check writer instead of cash, I say, dude, you need to readjust your life if you can’t wait 5 seconds.
Yea, I got a few weird looks because I was timing myself. 
This month’s consumer reports has an interesting article on Debit Cards, in that:
If you use them as “you’re supposed to”; i.e. with a PIN, then Banks will often charge you for that transaction, $.50 or more. This is because the merchant pays a (small) fixed fee for the transaction.
If you use them as a credit card (i.e. sign for the purchase), then the banks won’t charge you because they can hit the merchant up for the usual credit card percentage (1-3%).
I have never heard of banks charging for Debit card purchases. My bank certainly doesn’t. I often use my card both ways which SirRay mentions.
If you use a debit card twice a day on average then thats over 600 a year at .50 each. If banks did this, then no one would use Debit cards.
For some of us, it isn’t necessarily a choice. I’d love to have money to spare at the end of the month, but unfortunatly my rent, insurance, car payment, and GROCERIES take up about 99.9% of my meager salary. I don’t know many people who would CHOOSE to live this way, do you?
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things are that tight, you shouldn’t be buying any luxury items anyway
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Everyone here was talking about groceries. Did I blink when the thread was hijacked?
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you can write the check amount in your ledger, can you not also write the debit card amount in your ledger? It just seems “primitive” to me to still be writing checks at the grocery store.
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If you’re taking the time to write the store name, date and amount in your register, then you are essentially taking the same amount of time as if you’d written a check. Plus, you have to take the time to take both your checkbook AND card out, plus the time to put them BOTH away, versus just one or the other.
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Personally, if I don’t have enough cash, I put it on my credit card. I pay off the balance every month, so there’s no interest. I’m not saying it’s the way to go for everyone, but it works for me. It’s pretty fast with that credit card gizmo, too. **
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Well, if we’re living paycheck to paycheck, then it seems rather silly to be using credit cards, dontcha think? Seems like a rather easy way to get yourself into debt when you don’t have any money…
Sorry everyone, I didn’t preview.
I’m a bad bad girl…
hangs head in shame…
The bank charges the store a percentage of your purchase when you use credit cards or debit cards. So, really, you should thank the check-writer for helping keeping down the cost of your groceries…
that said, I usually use a debit card or cash.
Actually the reason debit cards are so popular out here ( southren cal)is many of the smaller stores have stopped taking checks and all of the resturants quit taking them years ago
And why some places charge a fee for using the atm form what im told is this:
its not that the banks charge for them mainly its the service thats the go between the store and the banks
It seems that some of the services are privatly owned ( just like a lot of actual atms)and charge from 25 cents to a buck fifty and if its under 5 dollars they end up paying these services most of your purchase
I found this out whenIi used to pay for my mice when my snake was hungry …
I’ve been writing checks for my groceries the last two months. [hangs head in shame]
But that’s because my debit card got demagnetized, and rather than pay my bank a fee to get a new one, I’m waiting to receive the new one that will automatically come in June when the old one expires.
I’m sorry I kept you waiting, but dangit, I’ve gotta pay for my food somehow!
Wow. I didn’t even know that people still used cheques. We use one every month - for rent. At this rate, our chequebook will last us forever.
I heard a stat that Canada uses debit cards far more than any other country in the world, and based on this thread, I tend to think it must be true. I don’t know of any bank that doesn’t issue debit cards, and it’s almost impossible to think of a place that doesn’t accept them. A lot of places even have them for paying rent now, and a couple of places have sattelite wireless ones to pay for delivered food. I hardly ever carry cash.
IMHO? Using a debit card takes just as long as writing a cheque. Longer if you’re comparing to someone who pre-wrote everything but the amount. Unless you’re in the express “cash only” line, I think you should allow a minute or two for someone to pay for their groceries. Writing/processing a cheque or punching in #'s/processing a debit card - either way, it’s nearly the same.
My 2 (maybe 3) cents:
As to writing a check versus debit card speed:
For me, a card is quicker because I swipe the card as soon as my items are getting scanned. Also, I am not used to writing checks, and have horrible handwriting, so I have to go extra slow to make it legible. And I do write my debit purchases in my register, but I do it at home. I realize that some people might not like this because they might forget, but it works for me.
Banks offering debit cards:
Well…I’ve only had accounts at two banks…a local one near my home, and they had a free debit card with a checking account. And my current account, with Key Bank, also has a free debit card. I realize that not all banks do this, but then this question arises (this is directed more towards the banks, since the account holder really can’t do a thing about it):
You have the ATM card right there with the account (if you don’t get an ATM card free with your acount…time to complain!) Is it really that hard to convert it into an ATM/Debit card? My local bank did this will all of theirs in a one year period…and they are not a large, rich, bank like Key or Fleet…they just wanted to provide excellent customer service (which is what local banks are known for, no?) Anyways, moving on…
Getting charged a fee:
I get a fee if I use a non-Key ATM, that’s normal, I’ve come to accept that. Does my debit card get charged a fee every time I use it? No, my bank does not charge a fee there (or at least they shouldn’t…having not used it yet I can’t say for sure, but it ain’t listed under the ‘fees’ section of my account description.) I know that at certain grocery stores, if your total is under a certain amount (usually $20) then you will get a fee on cash-back only, I haven’t yet seen a fee on simply using the card. I also know that if I deposit money or checks into my account using a teller, I will get a $1 fee, the same goes for direct deposit, unless I tell them ahead of time i will be using direct deposit and get it straightened out. This seems silly, but this is only for the type of account I have. It is designed for people who don’t want to go inside. I reap a lot of rewards for allowing that fee. No minimum balance, no other fees at all, etc… (well, I would get a fee if I overdrawed, or actually ordered checks, but I don’t do that, so it’s all OK.) I am happy using the ATM, I haven’t yet had a problem with lost money.
Basically, I love my debit card. I didn’t even bother to order any checks with my new account I opened last week because I know I will never use them. (In the two years I had my other account, I wrote a total of four checks. Three of which were to family members that I easily could have given cash to, but simply just didn’t have any on hand.) I will try to avoid a credit card as long as possible, because I hate the idea of paying for something without actually paying for it. And i know that I would forget to pay the bill one month, or let it slide just that once, and WHAM, super interest.
If you’re only buying necessities, then you have the choice of buying them or not. Sometimes, if you’re broke enough, you need to choose “not.” That’s why some of us balance our checkbooks down to the last $2.37 left in them…and write checks for $4 worth of groceries, because we don’t have $20 in the account to hit the ATM.
Thank goodness those days are over for me…at least for a while. I even buy luxuries now…like pre-made lasagna. 
Corr