FREE NEWSLETTER
Go to main Forum page »
I saw this article in the Washington Post and thought that I haven’t sent a check by mail in years. Am I the minority in this?
I pay all my bills electronically and once in a blue moon, I pay a few bills by the Wells Fargo app.
Also, if you pay by mail, what do do to protect yourself from what is described in the article?
My wife clings to the old ways, but I’m managing the money now, and everything is electronic. I only pay three bills every month via ACH. Everything is paid using credit cards because we earn 2% to 6% on those cards via rebates. I treat them as the new “savings account.”
I have not had a checkbook since 2017. I only allow my mortgage and HOA to be automatically withdrawn from my checking. For all other routine bills I push the money electronically.
For non-routine bills when possible I use Zelle. Otherwise, I can use my credit union’s bill pay feature to have a check mailed to the vendor.
I write a check for my condo fees, and a check for property taxes, but I always pay in person. The clerk at the town hall told me that many people still pay cash.
I still write checks for some bills. I won’t auto-pay certain firms or certain subscriptions where I think the company could abuse the authorization if we had a financial dispute. I pay all my credit card bills with a check, because I want to review my charges before I give them money. I pay the periodic contractors (plumber, electrician, handyman) with a check. And I pay my estimated taxes and any tax bill with a check. I try to use those pens that resist check-washing. When I put a check in the mail, I put it in the box inside my post office, rather than an outside box or in my mailbox for pickup. So far, so good.
I don’t have my credit card payments on automatic because, like you, I want to review the charges. But I don’t send a check: I do a bank transfer on the company’s website. Rumor has it that a clerk at our main post office is involved in check washing, so using the inside box would be no help.
I wish I had the option to never write a check but some tradespeople still don’t take credit cards or ACH. I just had to pay a plumbing company that has no other options. I make a copy of the check on top of the invoice before I mail it and keep the copied invoice in my files. I also get an email every day with my bank balance and any credits/debits. Unfortunately you have a much shorter window to dispute any check problems compared to the protections given to use of a credit card.
In the context of a business issuing checks there is Positive Pay where the issuer of the check provides a list to their bank with certain information regarding the check which typically includes payee name, amount, check # and date. If the check does not match the bank will not cash.
This procedure will be overkill for most individuals and many in business but could be useful for some entities who must issue checks.
You can read an article about Positive Pay –
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/positive-pay.asp
I wonder if there are some attorneys among the HumbleDollar readers who have established a trust Positive Pay account for payments from their required IOLTA (Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts) bank account or who have a title company that frequently issues high dollar amount checks and have working knowledge of having a Positive Pay account?
All but one of my regular monthly bills go to my primary credit card account. The one exception is the monthly bill for that credit card, which I received via USPS. The card’s account statement in hard copy lists all those other transactions on paper, which is very handy and useful.
I still write about a fourth of my bills by check, but I use a sharpie permanent marker on the ‘pay to’ line. Bill Pay online at my credit unions allow my other payments to be future dated for ‘just in time’ application to credit card and other invoices. Years ago a mailed check was altered by a thief and I was notified by the local police who caught the guy before he could get the money…he was in possession of dozens of checks when arrested. And when I mail a check, I put it in our community’s locked mailbox sometime during the daylight hours before the USPS person picks it up.
I have no problem putting a check in the mail. I have taken to surrounding it with a piece of scrap paper, as others do, just to give postal workers and whoever else the illusion that it’s not a check. I receive plenty of checks myself through a volunteer job I have. I did have a bit of hesitation about sending my state tax return in the mail. There was no street address provided for overnight delivery, and I refuse to file electronically if it costs me money to do so. I am pleased to report that my tax return did apparently make it to the state office unscathed.
New York prohibits tax software companies from charging to file a return electronically.
Many years ago I put my wife in charge of paying all the bills for reasons we won’t go into here, let’s just say I needed her to understand how much we had coming in and going out. She’s become a great CFO and pays about half the bills with paper checks and refuses to switch to auto draft if she has a choice. She knows exactly how much we have at any moment. We’ve never had a problem with mailing checks. (knock on wood!)…
Bravo! My wife learned through this same practice.
Wrote no checks in the last year, and intend to do my best to write no more in the future. Use Quicken to track all bank accounts and charge cards, and all bills paid automatically for by charge card. For gifts now use, Apple Pay, PayPal, Zelle and Venmo, as young people use these exclusively.
The only checks I write are for property tax, which I take to the court house to pay and the occasional odd ball. Maybe 5 checks a year.
I do not like to use the bill pay service from the credit union since I do not know how each bill is paid. Large volume payees, (State Farm or Verizon, for example,) have an electronic transfer so no check. But the local tree service is paid by a paper check the system generates and is subject to the issue.
While Dave Ramsey would not like this, most of my regular bills go on my credit card and I transfer pay this at the credit union. The cash-back points are a bonus, but not a motivator.
I doubt I write five checks a year. I have to remind myself where I keep the checkbook.
The most recent ones we wrote were to the U.S. Dept of State for our passport renewals. You can renew online, but the mechanics of taking and uploading passport head shots felt beyond us, so we put everything in the mail. I filled out the forms online, printed them, wrote two checks, and then we trotted over to CVS for the photos and then to the UPS store to mail everything off.
I have nearly all of our bills on autopay with credit cards (to earn points) and for the bills I can’t do that with, auto bill pay through our checking account. My hairstylist and nail salon take Venmo. I use credit cards (the real thing or on my phone) at the store/pharmacy/gas station/restaurants.
I never mail a check any more, my dentist sent me a bill, and if I can’t pay over the phone, I’ll drive there
All of my bills are set to autopay electronically. I don’t even remember how to write a check. I track all of my expenses in Quicken and have reminders in the program about what bills are on the horizon
Electronic payments, Venmo, Zelle, Bill Pay, credit cards, and checks-I use them all on a regular basis. I prefer the electronic/digital options. But my experience with mailing checks has been favorable. I also like the USPS. Sure there are occasional issues but most of the time USPS works like a charm. With the amount of mail they deliver, the options, the convenience for the price I think it is a deal.
I still mail checks. There are a few of my bills that I pay online, but there are others I don’t trust to do that. And I enjoy the process of writing out payments on my cute checks, and I love the stamps. I guess I’m a nerd in that way, but it also helps me keep track of my money better. Checks have gotten more expensive, I’m guessing it’s because fewer people use them now.
I am not inherently anti-post office. My sister & best friend are retirees after after long careers. I now try to avoid using their services as much as I can. Many of their employees customer service skills are right out of the Soviet Union circa 1970.
I recently sent a package to my son. He lives in St. Croix, USVI. He does not get home mail delivery. The package was sent from NJ-Ground Advantage. It took 28 days to arrive in St. Croix-after sitting in Jacksonville, Fl for 13 days. The package was marked to hold for pick up at the PO substation where he has his PO Box.
As per tracking, it arrived around 5 00 p.m. I texted my son that he could pick it up the next day. That morning tracking indicated it was “out for delivery” at 6:30 a.m. At 2:30 p.m., I received a text “attempted-not known”. Since he doesn’t get home delivery one can only imagine what happened. Package was eventually returned to me-damaged of course.
Also, have had several instances of missing/tampered with mail. It almost seems that they want to put themselves out of business. I’m sure there has to be some competent PO employees but the bad eggs are ruining the system.
I live in a rural area so I contract with a trash service. They don’t take credit cards, so I pay 6 months at a time..two checks a year.
The only other checks I write are from my Vanguard IRA account that I use for QCD’s. I usually write 10 checks a year from that account as well. Other than those checks, everything else is paid online through credit cards.
Locally, I have even started to inquire regarding making cash payments. My wife and I had about $16,000 worth of dental work done last year and by paying cash, our dentist gave us a 5% discount because we didn’t use credit cards. I’ve also used it at my local jeweler.
The largest discount I received was on a whole home improvement project. I offering to pay cash, I got a significant discount. The discount itself was 5%, but the job was quite large.
That might be something to think about on local purchases.
I had forgotten about QCDs. Vanguard sends me a check and I mail it to the recipient. I mail it at my retirement community, which presumably is safer than a mail box, but maybe not if someone in the post office is corrupt.
discounts for cash often times indicate undeclared income for the recipient. Next time ask them to complete a W-9 and tell them that you will be sending a 1099 and see what they say.
I very rarely put a check in the mail anymore, and when I do, I mail it inside the post office.
Never used Zelle or Venmo.
I have a brokerage account and requested the proceeds of a recent stock sale. Previous attempts to set up an electronic delivery system were unsuccessful, so I was told a check would be mailed to me. It never arrived, because my name was washed off and replaced by a forger’s name who then deposited it in his account. The company claims the check must have been stolen from the postal service. The check was issued and cashed in another state, so it was not stolen from my mailbox. After several weeks, the bank which cashed the altered check recovered all but $1,100 from the thief and I picked up a new check, in person. I filed a police report, as I was advised to do. Apparently, I must bear the loss, not the company which claimed to have mailed the check (and not even using certified mail) nor the bank which cashed the altered check. I will be moving the remaining assets in my account to a different company.
I asked AI if some stock brokers use Positive Pay and the reply was – Yes, stock brokers often utilize Positive Pay systems for check disbursements to mitigate the risk of fraud and ensure the authenticity of payments. Positive Pay is a technology that compares the details of a check presented for payment against a list of checks issued by the account holder, helping to detect and prevent fraudulent transactions.
Did you ask your broker if they use positive pay? If yes, I would think any theft loss would be on their bank if the broker followed procedures and on the broker if they did not. If no, who made the decision to mail a paper check to you? From your description above is sounds like the broker made the decision and should bear the loss.
I certainly would formally demand payment for your loss in writing from the broker.
I wonder if this situation is an area where you could file an effective complaint with either FINRA, the USPS inspector, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or a state regulator or some combination.
I have my brokerage account connected to my bank account. IMO, that is a much safer way than US mail. I also use Zelle for sending cash to daughter and family for birthdays and Christmas. I avoid US mail like the plague.
If a broker can’t or won’t establish electronic transfer that’s a huge red flag for me.
Instead of getting a check in the mail, perhaps get it at a local office, forcing them to maintain custody until delivery.
I know that now.
I think what happened, can happen to anyone. Who thinks ahead of time, I can’t get a check in the mail.
The red flag for me is not being client oriented. If that makes sense. I wouldn’t have thought about the security side (tho now I will thanks to you).
I am surprised that you had to bear the loss. How awful.
Agree.
What brokerage company do you use?
I haven’t mentioned them by name yet, partly because I don’t know if I will pursue legal action against them. I fear that for the sum involved, I would end up losing money due to legal fees.
We almost never use written checks other than to pay ourselves (B 2 P) or local tax authorities. However we do issue checks through the bank which seems to work well hopefully with less risk.
I’ve read articles like this for a few years. I seem to recall last year check washing was prevalent, so I really only write a a few checks that are usually given directly to the service provider, or I’m dropping at the PO- though that proved unreliable 2 weeks ago for a package. Tracking showed it never left the PO. Have pending insurance claim for that one.
Based on reading this, I’ll likely just stop writing checks.
I will write a check for my plumber or other local service provider for a costly visit (they take cards but it costs 5% more)
Otherwise, it’s all electronic, I prefer having the vendor pull the money.
I stopped mailing a very long time ago after I caught a major bank holding checks to create late fees on my credit card.
> I prefer having the vendor pull the money.
A word of caution. I once had a large credit card company empty my checking account when they pulled the whole balance rather than the balance due. Now i push the payments.
Interesting, I set up automatic pushes from a bank and one month they failed to do it. Lots of time on the phone that month. (Their answer was, we don’t know why it didn’t happen)
I suspect there’s no fail safe system, it always boils down to a particular companies execution.
My mobile veterinarian charges 3% more with a credit card, so I hand him a check. A local used bookstore charges a fee for using a credit card, but the prices there are so low I just use cash.
I probably should switch over to cash for restaurants, many are doing the 3% thing now and over a year it adds up. (one of the reasons I like online budgeting, lets me see whats what and make decisions)
Can’t recall when I last wrote a check. Connie sends a few checks to charities. Most bills are just drawn from our bank account and I receive a text when it happens.
The bills I do pay, I use my bank app and bank sends the check. Five working days or less delivery.
Rarely do I use checks but I will probably continue until I’m down to having only a handful left. I don’t want to waste them.
I like getting a canceled check as proof of payment.
Zelle’s security is questioned by Clark Howard on Clark.com. Maybe one of the contributors could ask for our personal experiences with Zelle versus Venmo versus others?
I worked a few summers as a bank teller, and we were trained to go by the written out words not the numbers in the number box.
Call me old-fashioned but I think the United States Postal Service is a solid example that both major parties have cooperated on and historically done well in government. I think that anything we can imagine has probably happened somewhere, but dropping mail in a collection box is very secure from theft or having being opened altered for check fraud and that the stories in the news are kind of a lot of negativity that the news media has all the time anyway.
When I want to use Zelle to send mone to someone, I send a $1 payment to test that I have the recipient’s correct Zelle address. I tell the recipient that I am doing this and wait until they confirm receipt before sending the balance. This is after asking the recipient for their Zelle address in the first place……
https://wapo.st/3GEhm3k the link without a paywall.
I would not recommend Zelle as an alternative to other payments. Banks do not stand behind you when fraud occurs. https://www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/ZELLE%20REPORT%20OCTOBER%202022.pdf
I originally started using the bank’s billpay service to save the ever increasing cost of postage. I still use for some things, however some businesses are now requiring a direct debit to the bank account to prevent a higher monthly price for their service. I dislike the idea of giving this kind of access to my bank account to every Tom, Dick, and Sally. So, some of the payments made by the billpay service end up in the mail. I like Zelle for sending money to my kids and grandkids.
Even if you never drop a check in the mail, you aren’t out of risky territory. There are lots of stories about fraud when using payment services like Zelle and others. Criminals are very creative. You must be ever vigilant to frequently monitor any bank or credit card account. While the bank no longer returns your cancelled checks, generally, you can see images of the checks on the banks website.
You can use EFTPS or IRS direct pay to pay federal income tax estimated tax payments. Both now require you to use ID.me to confirm your identity before you can register.
I paid both my federal and state taxes online. I was not required to use ID.me. See here: “No sign-in required”.
I have made ES payments as late as September 2024 through direct pay without ID.me.
From the IRS website today
Each time you reenter Direct Pay after closing it, Direct Pay verifies your personal or business information.
When you pay as an individual, Direct Pay uses personal information from a prior year tax return of your choice. This information does not need to be for the same tax year on which you are making your payment. It can be from as far back as 5 to 6 years ago depending on the time of year.
For businesses, Direct Pay verifies your business name and Employer Identification Number (EIN) on file.
Having to use ID.me, a non government private company, to access a government website rubs me the wrong way.
Here’s an article I wrote three years ago:
https://humbledollar.com/2022/06/a-dirty-business/
I now only mail checks (which I don’t do often) using the slot within the post office. I also make out checks using a fraud prevention pen.
Google search resulted in this:
We also noted in our post that utilizing gel ink pens is not enough on its own to prevent check fraud. Fraudsters can, of course, still create counterfeits using information from the check via software like Photoshop — once output on a simple desktop printer, they can be deposited via mRDC to a “drop account.”
i 🤷♀️
I use some online portals including the IRS. My bank “pushes” most payments directly to my billers. I have one insurance bill that we pay via check. I use a Uniball 207 security pen and our resort has its own mail room. No blue box. My outgoing mail is handed directly to a postman or woman.
I pay the IRS and VA State estimated taxes via check because I thought there was no alternative. Is there?
I pay the IRS, Pennsylvania and the City of Philadelphia using their various online portals. Here’s info on the IRS system:
https://www.irs.gov/payments/eftps-the-electronic-federal-tax-payment-system
Nick, thanks for the link. Like most of the commenters, I write very few checks. This is an interesting twist to the push back against credit card fees I’ve observed with many merchants. A few years back I wrote about this and how one local HVAC contractor gave a discount for paying by check. In that case I dropped off the check at their local office.
Multiple boxes at our main post office were broken into and then it was reported that checks from the drop slot inside the facility were also stolen. What has happened to our country? I know I sound like a typical boomer but in my childhood I remember $5 bills and small checks coming from my grandparents, aunts and uncles in birthday cards.
The article was about theft from the blue postal boxes. This is happening in our metro area also. I started paying bills through our bank’s online banking when the box near our house was hit. If we need to mail a check, we use a gel pen and take it inside the post office. Even that is no guarantee, I know. We have mostly gone to what Mike does by putting things on the credit card, then paying it off through the online banking. I personally think it is very sad that the US mail can’t be trusted anymore. It wasn’t so long ago that they were one of the most trusted of the govt agencies. A friend of our son’s works in security for the US mail, so I know they are working on it. Chris
I am trying to send as a gift article. Chris
https://wapo.st/3GEhm3k
I don’t remember the last time I mailed a check. I really dislike doing that if possible. For the grand kids I use Zelle. My wife’s hairdresser won’t accept credit cards so my wife uses Zelle for her as well. My wife sent a small gift recently to someone and I suggested it’s the lessor of 2 evils to simply send cash, so that’s what she did. The bills are on autopay or paid online.
Article is behind paywall. I am with you as I only pay via US mail as a last resort. A few years ago my wife put a $50 check in the local post office branch’s box. Later, I got a call from the bank that someone had altered the check to $850 and deposited at Wells Fargo, our bank.
The WF person explained that if the numbers are legible on the check, it will be deposited. It does not matter what is written out. IMO, it was a poor job of forgery, but it got past WF. I talked to the police and they said this was a common crime. They would pursue it if WF would provide info on the deposit account. WF refused to provide any info.
I was told not to complain to the post office branch because the manager could be involved. It took a couple of hours, but I figured out how to register a complaint using an online form. I never heard back from the PO but a few months later there was an article in paper of PO employees charged with theft of US mail.
I later learned that the key to open mailboxes is universal. One key can open all mailboxes. How stupid is that!
We never lost anything other than a few hours dealing with the issue, but it was extremely frustrating and showed how lax the post office is. Cannot wait for Elon to privatize the post office.
Do you really believe that privatization will eliminate theft problems?
I believe it will dramatically reduce fraud. Reading all the posts on HD of people avoiding checks in the mail suggests a serious problem. People do not have that fear of sending important or valuable things via Fedex or UPS.
Doubt it Mike … It’s not like Fed Ex has never lost or smashed a package
I mostly use Zelle or CashApp to pay local vendors and rely on my bank’s bill pay service for everything else. I rarely write checks, and that works perfectly for me. If I do need to send a check, I don’t stress about it—I’m always keeping an eye on my bank account, so if anything seems off, I catch it right away. I also avoid using my debit card for this reason and put everything on my credit card. If something gets skimmed (which has happened before), I let the bank handle the mess.
Honestly, some of today’s scammers probably don’t even know what a check is or how to forge one. They’re much more adept at scamming you electronically. But that’s just my two cents..
Occasional gifts to the out of town kids. Just mailed one to my granddaughter, who just moved into an apartment in Chicago. I was relieved when she texted thanks. I use a thick gel pen, which is difficult to alter. Otherwise I write a check to our maid once a month.
There’s a lot of risk involved with banking no matter the method used to pay the bills.
I was planning to pay my taxes by check this year, to keep my bank info out of the hands of the DOGE bros (although it’s probably in the records from last year). But then friends of mine got hit by this scam. They were lucky not to lose any money, but clearing up the mess took a lot of time and energy. I wound up paying online. Rumor has it one of the clerks at our main post office is involved. I have handed checks to a couple of people recently, but I don’t think I’ve mailed one since I sold my house and stopped paying my yard service that way.
Apparently the correct kind of pen can prevent check washing.
I pay most of my bills through my bank’s billpay service, and pay some with a credit card. There are only a few times a year when I use a check. One of our favorite pizza places only takes cash or checks, no debit or credit cards accepted. Handing or sending a check to local vendors doesn’t worry me.
Handing a check to someone is fine, putting one in the mail is risky.