I’ve had the same personal checking account for around 15 years, and haven’t done the reconciliation thing yet.
When the balance drops below some arbitrary comfort amount I deposit more money.
I agree with those who suggest using cash, or a money order, or even a cashier’s check. As rarely as I ever do go into a bank, I can’t remember any time in the past few years when it ever took much more than five minutes to buy a cashier’s check, including the wait in line.
I would have suggested using the bank’s bill payment system instead of writing your own check. However–and I think this abysmal level of service is astonising–many banks’ bill payment systems simply mail a paper check which remains outstanding against the depositor’s account until the payee does deposit it. I’d just assumed that the funds were taken out of the customer’s account immediately, and the bank sent a check against its own funds. Why not, after all? They’ve got computers and everything, and this is 2015, not 1975!
Like the OP, it’s not that I have to worry about overdrawing my account; however it would be nice to be able to make a payment and have it done and out of my life. As long I still need to look at the account to find out whether the payment has cleared, it isn’t out of my life, is it?