Friday, January 12, 2007

Check Usage Declining

About a year ago, I wrote about the decline of the checkbook-- as more and more payments go electronic, I predict paper checks will bite the dust, even if cash is with us for a long time. In 2005, I had written 26 checks. In 2006, I only wrote 24, and of those 14 related to rent paid to individuals and closing costs for my condo. I now pay my mortgage electronically, so next year, I'll be lucky if I use a dozen checks! And I have 4 accounts with checkbooks... what a waste of paper, taking up all that space in my fire-proof box!

6 comments:

fin_indie said...

I can't wait until checks bite the dust. We still need a good way to pay people person-person, tho. Unfortunately, I have to leave a check for my house cleaner twice a month. (yep, i said it: house cleaner -- with 2 aggressive careers going on, it's our guilty pleasure!). Also, anyone else doing work for you -- contractors, etc. Like to be paid in by cash or check. It's not always convenient, but you have to somehow make it work.

thc said...

I looked through our checkbook and most of the checks we've written in the past year were to our pet sitter--gee, we need to do less travelling!

Re: Paying people in cash. I once fired our housekeeper because she demanded to be paid in cash--no checks. The reason was so there would be no paper trail for the IRS to follow. My stand on this is that I work too damn hard and I pay my fair share and I'm not going to enable others to dodge paying theirs. I think that's fair. (Sorry if I got a little off the subject).

DINKs said...

This is an interesting post. It turns out that my mother in law just switched over to electronic checks a few weeks ago. Its like, welcome to the 20th century!

Anonymous said...

I only pay my rent with checks...so I'm down to 12 a year, but I would love to do that online. You can pay individuals with paypal, but the other person has to sign up and it's not an instant process...

Anonymous said...

I have had the same box of checks for years!

DivineMsN said...

Like others, my check usage has declined over the years. I basically use it to pay for my pet sitter and my doctor's appointments. I have an HSA and I need proof of payment so I can get my money back :)