Women - WTF is your attachment to the checkbook?

I just came back from the store. The woman in front of me whipped out her checkbook for a $6.20 bill. Why? What is this fascination women seem to have with a checkbook? This is not an isolated observation… I’ve noticed that a majority of women use a checkbook instead of a credit card or cash… why?

And just to set the record straight. The worst thing I ever saw… A woman wrote a check for .75 cents. Even the cashier was aggravated.

OK dopers… flame away (unless you agree, of course)

I used to like checks. Much easier to keep track of my finances. using checks. And I’ve written checks for a dollar or even less. I wasn’t happy about it. 'Course, your opinion wouldn’t have mattered to me at the time. Nor would it now.

I’m a guy.

Now, I use a debit card for almost everything. And it takes just as long as a check ever did.

My SO doesn’t write checks obsessively. She’s a woman.

My So’s mother doesn’t write checks obsessively. She’s a woman too.

Ditto for my sisters, my SO’s sisters, my mother, my grandmother (GRHS).
I guess the upshot is . . . no flames. I just haven’t the slightest clue what the problem is with checkwriting.

Now, if you want to rant about people who know they are writing a check for something, have time in line, and don’t bother even getting out the checkbook until their purchases are all totalled, I’m with you 100%. Few things drive me nuts in stores–that’s one of 'em.

Why was the cashier aggravated over a .75 cent check? It doesn’t take any longer to write a .75 cent check then a $500 check.

Women can carry checkbooks in their purses. That is why women have them more often then men. I only have cash on me right after pay day because I don’t feel safe stopping at my bank’s ATM at night. I tend to use my debt card for everything (even to get cash sometimes in the stores that allow it.) But, some people get charged for using their debt card or have banks that don’t offer them. And that is why they write checks!

Why do you care if someone writes a check?

And suddenly, andros gets it.

See, neither my SO, my sisters, my mom, nor most of my female friends carry a traditional purse. Which might explain why they might not write checks as often as someone who does.

When I do deposits for my company, we get charged per cheque… something like 10 cents or some god damn thing. I could see why writing a cheque for .75 may get frowned on in instances like that.

That being said, I don’t personally know anyone that writes cheques for purchases anymore. Debit is used all the time.

I hardly ever write checks. I use my debit card for most purchases and pay bills via Internet banking.

Last time I checked, I was a chick.

I stopped carrying a purse ten years ago, and neither do I carry a checkbook. I never leave the house with a checkbook. A single check, perhaps, if I know it’s going to be used for something specific (like if I were going to make a down payment on a vehicle), but never a checkbook.

[hijack]
andros, I thought my sister and I were rare for never carrying a purse. What do they use? I have a small card-sized wallet attached to a keychain that I carry.

I use my debit card except near the end of the month, at which point I switch to checks and cross my fingers that they don’t clear until after the paycheck goes through.

My name is Karol, and I write checks. Quite a few of them, actually. If you write your check out before you get to the register, all you have to do is fill in the amount and sign it, and it’s just as quick as the guy I always gets behind. You know, the one who looks surprised that he actually has to PAY for his purchases, so he has to get out his wallet and snuffle through it looking for just the right bills to hand over, then decides it makes way more sense to give the cashier a twenty and a handful of change instead of just a twenty, so he gets back, say ten and a quarter instead of $9.74 or whatever.
I know stores have to pay a surcharge of some sort on credit card payments; I wonder if the same applies to debit card purchases?
Usually I use checks because I am always on the verge of being overdrawn and the two or three day cushion saves me a bit of trouble. Also, there is no way I want to carry the amount of cash that I need for groceries alone, much less gas, diapers, etc…I’d need a bigger purse. :slight_smile:

I find the OP patently offensive and frankly, fucking annoying.

Your rant appears to be about people who write checks… what does being female have to do with it?

FTR, I use a debit card for everything and rarely carry cash. Checkbook is only for paying bills, and I’ll be using online banking for that just as soon as the Wachovia/First Union merge is complete in Florida (When I’ll have free online banking!)

Checks are for people who are afraid of technology or for people who can’t use/don’t have debit cards. Has nothing to do with having ovaries.

putz.

IME it’s more often women who write checks than men. I almost never see men at a store with a checkbook, or a check, but I see women at the store every day with them.

Hell in my own family, my father is not allowed access to the checkbook. It stays firmly planted in my mother’s purse. Where she uses it for EVERY FREAKING PURCHASE she makes.

I don’t write checks myself because I don’t carry a purse, therefore I don’t carry a checkbook in it. My sister carries a backpack everywhere, and writes checks for everything. None of my male relatives will write a check if they can possibly get around it, but all of my female relatives live on checks. I’m the only female in my family who doesn’t.

So call me a ‘putz’ if you want, but it’s my experience that women write more checks. And if I’m standing behind one in line who’s writing a check for her pack of Wrigley’s and forgot her driver’s license, I’m going to be irritated.

I write checks. I’m a male.

I like checks because I use the duplicating checks and therefore I have a better record of expenses. I am notoriously bad about keeping track of cash and debit card purchases.

I used to be a check writer, now I’m a debit card user. I almost never carry cash because it is just too easy to spend. With a check, credit card, or debit card, I have to stop and consider if it is worth the hassle. (Also, being overweight and having a tendency to impulsivity when out and about, lack of ready cash makes buying junk food a little less easy.)

And the benefit of it is records, records, records. I like to know where my money went. When I have $100 in my wallet on Monday, and .69 cents on Friday and I have no memory of where it all went…well, that makes me crazy. With checks and cards, a clear record is kept of every purchase.

Deadly:

Well, MY SO carries a regular (men’s) billfold. Her mother does carry a shoulderbag to keep her phone in and such, but almost invariably keeps it in her car instead of carrying it around. My other friends/relatives who don’t carry purses have an array of other things, mostly fannypacks and the like, as well as jackets with lots of pockets.

So I guess though they don’t usually carry “traditional” purses, they do mosly have something or other they could have a checkbook in. They just don’t, usually.

Hmm, maybe it’s nothing to do with the purses after all. I dunno–whenever I carry my checkbook I juse keep it in my back pocket with my wallet.

If they take debit cards, I’ll use the debit card.
If they don’t - for most purchases, I tend to prefer using a check (and having it come straight out of my bank) than using a credit card. I don’t use the check register - so at least I do save time by not having to fill that in.Perhaps I’m weird that way. I don’t like check cards, so I don’t use them at all.

I do carry a purse with a checkbook, so they’re right there, all the time.

Holy crap, are you me? :wink:

I’ve worked as a cashier, and I really cannot fully describe how much I HATE checks. They are an outmoded form of payment, and if I had my way their only purpose would be to pay bills by mail and transfer money from one person to the other. They do not belong in retail settings.

Checks take much longer to process. For a credit card, you just swipe and sign. Easy. For checks, first I have to wait for you to write the check. Then I have to look at your driver’s licence and write down any information that isn’t printed on the check. Then I have to put the check through a machine that reads the numbers, then I have to wait to hear back that the check is good. If something goes wrong, I have to call a freaking 1-800 number to manually approve it. Then I have to insert the check into a part of my register for an approval code to be stamped on it. Only then (assuming nothing goes wrong) is the transaction finisehd. If the check is over a certain amount, I have to get my manager to approve it. If I let a bad check get through, I get in trouble. Overall, checks take three to four times longer to process than other forms of payment, and that is a lot when you have a line of impatiant customers waiting in line behind you. Plus, there are just a lot more things that can go wrong when processing a check. It all adds up to make me dread people pulling out their checkbooks.

And yes, it is a bit upsetting when people use checks for minor purchases, especially if they have the cash on them, but they want to keep the quarters to pay parking meters or something. Checks turn what should be a quick transaction into a long drawn out process. It isn’t as much of a blow when you are buying twenty cases of motor oil or something, but if you are just buying a bag of cheetos, you are using up more than your fair share of resources by holding up the line and making the cashier go through a lot of extra strife.

Quit yer bitchin’. You get paid by the hour, it’s all the same pay.

:wink: