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I agree! It drives me crazy when I'm stuck behind an old lady in line who writes a check and marks it down in her checkbook so slow, it feels like she should be dead by the time she's finished. I'm 16 and haven't met another person my age who has a checking account. I never pay with cash. My MasterCard is ALWAYS used (even when buying a coffee). Though, I'm trying to stray to cash. All those $1 marks in my checkbook get annoying to write.
 
I don't think I have written a personal check in a year...

Do you?
:eek: I have NEVER written a check. I don't own any to write even if I had to. There have been times I actually did need to write a check (parking tickets and rent) and so had to ask my mom or boyfriend to do so. :eek:

Chundles, i pay for my coffee with my debit card, why? because it means i have less to carry around with me. less to keep track of. and i also end up keeping track of all my purchases through my statements this way. even the little ones. its convenience and it doesn't cost anything extra, so why not?
Yup. I love being to check all my purchases with a glance at the website and I love the security-- if I lose or have my wallet stolen, I won't lose cash and I can instantly cancel the card and/or verify purchases.
 
I just started a new job and they asked me for a voided check for paycheck direct deposit. And I stared back blankly.

I had to do that when I started work in Alberta. Couldn't figure out why they didn't just ask me to give them my bank account details. They're part of the forms you fill out here when you get a job, I don't know of anyone my age who even has an account with cheque-writing privileges let alone carries any around.
 
Cheques? Haven't written one for over three years, maybe longer.

Everything to do with my money is done with cash (lunch, drinks etc.) or electronically either with debit or credit cards. All of my accounts are managed online with direct debits and standing orders to pay all bills.

There have been some reports of some supermarkets in the UK banning the use of cheques in-store...
 
Cheques? Haven't written one for over three years, maybe longer.

Everything to do with my money is done with cash (lunch, drinks etc.) or electronically either with debit or credit cards. All of my accounts are managed online with direct debits and standing orders to pay all bills.

There have been some reports of some supermarkets in the UK banning the use of cheques in-store...

Never ever seen anyone write a cheque at a supermarket. I'm not even sure if they'll take a cheque.
 
This makes them very handy for making purchases the day before pay day, when your account is running on fumes and you HAVE to buy pet food or your dog will DIE, even though you too are starving but you'll be able to survive just a bit longer.

rofl :D

I try to use debit when I can, otherwise I'll write checks for bills, etc.
 
Cheques were phased out a long time ago here in the Netherlands. I can safely say that I have never used a cheque in my life and have also never seen anyone else use one for as long as I can remember. The only thing that was used was a eurocheque which was any easy way to transfer money from one european country to another. But thos were killed off 5 or 6 years ago as well.

For me its simple. I pay every I can electronically. So either by debitcard, credit card, or chip (yeah, we've moved into the 21st century here in europe:p ). Paying by cell phone is slowly coming our way too. In Finland its already widely used.

For transferring money to people I just wire it (which is free within the EU).

Worst case I use cash, but I usually don't bother.
 
Never ever seen anyone write a cheque at a supermarket. I'm not even sure if they'll take a cheque.

Believe me they do. Im a cashier at one, and I would say the majority of people at least in Southern, VA write checks for their groceries. I don't get it, it's 2006...Get a DEBIT CARD already!! And the ones that do have a debit card, always seem to want to use it as a credit card, because they can't remember the pin. Why did you get a debit card in the first place if your not going to remember the pin? It's not like PIN numbers are randomly assigned, they ask you for the number, so that you will actually remember it. I've even had people tell me they "never got a pin" What do these people do with their debit cards if they can't remember their PINS? You need a PIN to get money out of an ATM etc...
 
The important thing to me is that a Cheque goes through a sorting house and the sorting house makes errors. These errors are covered by the Bank and they would really like a way of avoiding this problem/loss.

Your debit card is between the two accounts making the transaction, so either you or the seller will pick up any error.

Another stupid thing is your pin number is the same for regular transactions as it is for your dealings with the bank.

I think the banks need to do more to earn their ridiculous amounts of risk free profit, they're getting as bad as insurance companies.
 
I agree! It drives me crazy when I'm stuck behind an old lady in line who writes a check and marks it down in her checkbook so slow, it feels like she should be dead by the time she's finished. I'm 16 and haven't met another person my age who has a checking account. I never pay with cash. My MasterCard is ALWAYS used (even when buying a coffee). Though, I'm trying to stray to cash. All those $1 marks in my checkbook get annoying to write.

wow I am surprised they gave you a credit card. All accounts and credit cards have to be though you parents if you are under the age of 18 because they can not sign a legally binding contract with you until you are 18.
 
Rent, phone bill and purchases at Costco. Maybe one to the DMV when I renew my car license but that's about it.
 
Looking through my cheque book stubs I see the following:

pizza
pizza
curry
pizza
pizza
chinese
curry
curry
pizza
ebay
pizza
pizza
curry


A few places round me don't accept cards over the phone and if I don't have cash on me then it's a cheque.
 
When I was in the US and using my Credit & Debit Cards from Barclays, I had to sign for everything, they had these weird touchscreen pen thingy's to sign for which i thought was weird.

Almost all places that take card here use Chip & Pin, when you just enter your debit/credit card's pin number.

I use Cheques when mailing off money, cash isn't insured and can be stolen by the dodgy royal mail staff.
 
I work in a credit union (which is like a mini bank) and I'm amazed at how many people still use cheques. Most days I work I'll get at least 20-30 cheques deposited. Many are from companies that still use cheques and the reason they do this is often for signatory purposes (as in if it's a company/organisation more than 1 signature is required on the cheque). Again with companies and businesses, cheques are much easier to keep track of payments and reconcile at the end of the month for accountants.

Customers of ours that still regularly write cheques are generally of the older generations and aren't comfortable using internet/phone banking or debit cards. And as has been mentioned, cheques can be mailed more easily and remove the need of carrying large amounts of cash around.

Personally, I've never even had a cheque book. I just put everything on EFTPOS (but that's only because I get free transactions). Otherwise I'd take out bigger amounts of cash.

Interestingly, when I was still working in a supermarket, someone paying with a cheque was a real rarity...like maybe one customer a month, if that.
 
I hate cheques. The only time I write cheques is to pay for house-related crap such as ground rent to the Freeholder or my share of communal bills etc. And then I can never remember where I last left my chequebook because I use it so infrequently :rolleyes:
 
I still have a few places that don't deal with electronic funds transfers, so a check it is.

Something to remember is that the store pays a fee to the Credit Card company when you use a card. The fee is even more if you use a debt or check card. In my parent's shop, most charges under $5 ends up costing them money, especially on tight profit margin items.
 
the banking system is trribly backwards in the US. i haven't used a single check in 35 years in germany but here in the US there is no way to pay my rent electronically (my bank automatically sends a PAPER check to my landlord every month!). and to pay your gas, electricity electronically means you have to sign up for an electronic account first, you need the internet, every company does it differently, you end up with lots of passwords for different companies.

and then there is always COMCAST (cable TV and Internet)::rolleyes:
 

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I wish I could never use checks, cause I personally hate them. But we still have to use them for rent and electric bill here. I would like to be able to put everything on my credit card so I would not have to worry about keeping track of all the other ways for my money to dissapear.
 
Cheques? Haven't written one for over three years, maybe longer.

Everything to do with my money is done with cash (lunch, drinks etc.) or electronically either with debit or credit cards. All of my accounts are managed online with direct debits and standing orders to pay all bills.

There have been some reports of some supermarkets in the UK banning the use of cheques in-store...

This is primarily what I am talking about--

Grocery store; hardware store; Sears, JCPenny's etc.

The only check I write every month is for my health insurcance premium. Everything else is on my credit/debit VISA.

All of my bills--electric and cable included--get paid automatically every month.
 
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