As I was paying for my rent this month I realized that this is the only time I ever use personal cheques. I remember getting a cheques in the mail for my birthday when I was younger and coming from a small town, I was able to cash them in any store. Everyone in town knew the aunt or grandparent who issued the check, they also know that they could afford the $20 so it was easy. Moving to the city however renders personal cheques useless to any retailer that I came across. The only people who like them are landlords.
My Issue With Personal Cheques
I hate using them, I use them so infrequently that I can never remember where I put the cheque book last and end up using a different packet of cheques so my accounting is screwy. The good side to that is I know that all my cheques are for the same amount addressed to the same company so at least that solves some of my problem. I don’t really like receiving them either because than I have to go out and find an CIBC ATM to cash the thing or else I get dinged with all of the fees they like handing out. Setting up online banking with utilities is getting easier to do these days and paying back and forth between your family and friends is usually done in cash anyways.
Easy Alternatives
Good alternatives that people can use to pay family or friends is of course cash, but sometimes the amounts can be large. Recently (although I’m not sure how recently) the major banks set up INTERAC e-Transfer payments. I gave these a spin and they work great! You can set the amount, and the email of the person you want it to go to and you type in a security question for them to answer. The person receiving the payment has to do their online banking with the email address that you will use. Once the person gets the email request and answers the question correctly the bank will transfer the money. The fees were around $1.50 which isn’t bad considering the time it takes to do it, and its still less than your ATM fees. Another solution is of course Paypal, where you can send money for free in Canada by phone or email, or even by using a credit card.
The Best Solution To Personal Cheques
Sometimes we do need them, but when you start up an account with a new bank don’t go ordering 500 of them. Chances are you’re only going to need 13-14, 12 for your landlord, and 2 for your utility companies. For anything else you can use Paypal or the INTERAC e-Transfer. Personally I like using Paypal for everything because I can still track it using mint and its great for sending small amounts of money here and there. I use the internet for many of my purchases and I never came across one site that didn’t offer Paypal as a means to use to make the payment.
Business Owners Rejoice!
Technically we’re a business and we make websites for small businesses on the side. We always assumed that we would get paid via cheque. But after tinkering around with Paypal I figured out how you can send someone an invoice and they can pay with a credit card. The best part about that is they don’t need to have a Paypal account to complete the transaction. Paypal of course takes a fee (2.9% + $0.30 for every transaction) but for the convince its well worth it. Plus it gives your business the capability to handle credit card payments without a dedicated phone line. Paypal is even coming out with a device you can attach to your phone to “swipe” credit cards!
Readers, what are your thoughts? Do you use personal cheques?
I hadn’t written a cheque for years until last summer when we had to rent for 3 months while our house was being built. I found my original chequebook, which still had about 20 cheques left and has my old address information on it.
A lot of contractor’s still like to be paid by cash or cheque, so I’ll need another one to pay for our landscaping, and maybe another one for the fence.
I hope cheques go away completely before I have to order another book.
Only when I have to. I have most things set up for automated payment, but every now and then there’s a one off I need to use a cheque for. I like them for wedding gifts if I choose to give cash – that way, if anything gets lost, it’s not money down the drain. By the way – did you change the look of the site?
We use Bank of America’s “bill pay” option where we can pay most of our bills online without having to use personal checks. It will send a check to the recipient automatically. All we have to do is enter the data online. It is a free service as far as I know.
I love the INTERAC e-transfer option, even though it does cost money to use. One day, I’m hoping the banks will allow us to transfer in between banks without fees, but that’s not an option right now – I do love how the e-transfer is pretty much automatic (however long it takes for somebody to go and accept the email transfer).
I forgot all about weddings! That is the only time I would actively use a cheque, but I usually get my girlfriend to write it and I just give her cash ;)
Yes we did do a redesign on the site, minor tweaks here and there, and of course a new logo.
Well if you think about it the fee isn’t too bad, I think its even free if you have the same bank as the person you’re sending too. But if you take in the fees for cheques, its roughly the same. But its still far cheaper than a normal wire transfer the last time I checked.
Yup, same thing out here. Normally the utility companies ask for a void cheque to get the online payments started. But lately they are giving you the option to enter your account information online. And it is free which makes it nice to “set and forget” your utility payments.
I haven’t needed a personal check in years. I started online banking in 97 and have been lucky to only need a personal check here and there. As of late I haven’t had to even think of it.