Money Matters
blondie42107
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
MM: Checks
If you use paper checks (such a digital world, I know a lot of people don't) where do you purchase them from? Before kids we rarely used them because we do so much online banking. However, we do write checks weekly for daycare, monthly for school tuition, various times for book orders, school pictures, sports, field trips, lunch money, etc. We normally just order through our credit union but seems like they keep increasing the prices. I'm curious if ordering else where might be cheaper.
Re: MM: Checks
We don't use them often anymore, but I think last ordered from Walmart.com and Checks.com. I think it was more expensive to buy through the bank so I didn't do it.
I think they were around $11 dollars for 4 books? They weren't anything fancy though and they will last us for a looonng time.
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About the only time I write checks are to repair people, ie plumbers, electricians. The only printed checks I have are for my HELOC. They're free, but I only get 25 at a time. Still, that 25 lasts about two years.
I've been debating about ordering checks for one of my business accounts. It does not have convenient branches for me, but that is where I receive direct deposits for my tenants on housing assistance. It would be easier if I just had checks to move those funds to other accounts.
When I'm ready to pull the trigger on that, it seems there are a lot of cheap places online to order checks. Though I'll have to check out Walmart now, due to some of the other posts on here.
What is with water companies? With my area, up until just a few years ago, I had to either mail a check...I haven't had checks (other than my HELOC) in a decade...bring cash to their office or cash to a bill payment place. They still don't have a phone system where bills can be paid. But they FINALLY added online payment options. That was a happy, happy day for me, lol. No more waiting in line at the Money Centers in Walmart, just to pay their stupid bill.Our water company lets you pay online but they charge a $3 fee to do so. Crazy! So I always send a check.
We also pay our water bill by check and drop it off at city hall, which drives me nuts. I found out the other day that the city does offer automatic withdrawal from checking accounts for water bills, which would be easier, but I'm not a fan of the lack of control/oversight that automatic withdrawal brings. H and I have been rallying for an online payment system, but knowing our city it'll be a longgg while before that happens.
Me too, I'll only do automatic withdrawals for bills that are set amounts. I've twice had incidents where I was mailed bills that were hugely wrong. They were both years ago, but still. If I'd had automatic withdrawal for either one, I would have been bouncing checks left and right.
One was a landline phone. $900 bill. At the time I was calling Canada a lot and had an international plan that was only 5 cents/minute. AT&T (not my carrier) sent a "check" to some yahoo who had my same phone number like 3-4 years earlier. They signed and cashed the check, which then supposedly gave AT&T the authorization to change the long distance to them. So they did, without my knowledge, and then I was being charged like $1/minute.
They were in major violation of FCC regulations with that little maneuver and wiped my whole bill out when we all got to the bottom of what happened.
I also got an $800 energy bill when I was living in a one-bedroom apartment. They had misread the meter. My bill should have been $50. That got taken care of fairly quickly also, but an auto-withdrawal would have been a disaster.
Both my mortgages are still with local banks. One of them is an auto-withdrawal. For the other one, they are the same bank where my paychecks are drawn. I cash my first paycheck of the month and then use some of it to pay my mortgage.
I stopped paying extra for "cute" checks years ago when I switched to online banking. We write checks monthly for church donations, then randomly for paying contractors, fundraisers etc. All of our regular bills are paid online.
I've paid my last two water companies by credit card.
My electric and gas company I pay by online bill pay though. Guessing it gets electronically transferred somehow. Although, there is the ability to enter someone who isn't in their system.
I don't usually use online bill pay. The accounts are at two different banks, though. Would I still be able to do that?
Both utilities where I live, electric/gas and water/sewerage, charge extra if you pay with a credit card. It's a $3-$4 fee for each payment.
Hmmm...I'm ashamed to admit it but, until this thread, it never occurred to me to pay my electricity bill online and avoid that fee. Paying over the phone, you can only use a credit card, so a fee. But on their website, if paying by check, it is free. That will save me $50-$60/year.
As for bills, but ordered of preference:
1. Anything I can pay by CC gets charged to the CC for the points
2. Anything that my bank's online bill pay already has an entry for (gas/electric)
3. Check for anything else, but haven't needed them in a long time.
I do similar to @jtmh2012 - bills that are static (netflix, charitable giving, phone bill, cable) are set to automatically pay to a credit card card that I use for that purpose (it doesn't have amazing rewards but it's my oldest card and has the largest credit limit so I do this to keep it active - plus since those bills are the only charges I don't have to hunt through my regular statement for them). The mortgage is set to autopay online as well (I wish I could get credit card rewards for that!), and then everything else is online pay but I do it manually so that I can review the charges before it goes out. No fees, not even a charge for stamps! If my water bill ever goes online I'll be 100% paperless billing. It's all soooooooo much easier than the old way!
We also get free checking with our Chase account, but most of the physical checks we have to write we usually send as an electronic check. Chase handles cutting and mailing the check for us for no extra free.