We pay by paper check very seldom anymore. We use online banking since it is cheaper, faster, and easier. The online billing is tracked like a paper check but better. With an online check I have the statement from the bank saying when the check was sent and expected receipt. Some of the checks are paper as well as electronic transfers. Both are shown on the bank statement. If I use a paper check there is no proof at all that I sent the check. The check could have been lost in the mail or never sent.
No way, no how will I ever allow automatic payments or deductions. Nope Nope Nope. Did it once and the company made a mistake that took me months to correct. Never again.
I stopped using my debit card years ago to pay at retail. More paperwork on my part tracking the debits and the risk of the card getting stolen was too high. With a credit card my liability is nothing compared to a stolen debit card.
We now have two cards that give us from 1-5% cash back. I carry emergency cash and use the cards for everything. That 1-5% adds up FAST. I stopped at the store that issues one of the cards this week since they own me a bunch of money.
One time I did this and they just credited the credit card which is fine with me. The last couple of years they had to give cash but they did not have enough cash in the register so they had to get the case from the office. This year the employee's eyes bulged out when the store owed me $300.
They are sending a check. :laughing:
We have a couple credit cards that we do not use much. We got them as a backup to what was the primary card. The bank ended up sending us two different cards instead of one.
I was going to cancel one of them but figured if I did so our credit score would drop since the amount of available credit would drop. We then got another credit card that gives us up to 5% off certain items so we really do not need the other two cards but I drop them are available credit will drop as well the credit score.
Security is a real concern. We just had an overdraft on a checking account we have not used in years. SOMEHOW someone figured out the account number and removed money. Eventually we got our money back but I do not know what happened. A few months later one of our credit cards was scammed. The card company caught the strange buying patterns and called us. We never paid a dime on the fraudulent charges.
We are pretty careful with the cards. Best we can figure an online store account was hacked.
No way would I put my SS number on a check.
Later,
Dan
