Anian

I filed in Feb for a hefty refund (several thousand, I have no idea why it was so big since I have a normal withholding on my W-4 and everything else is out of my control AFAIK) and got it a month later electronically deposited into my account. Could there be an issue with sending cheques?

HarryTheSpider

I filed electronically and asked for the refund to be deposited electronically...

Could it be that we're new to the US - I'm assuming from what you've said that you've been here a few years..?

Cheers

HTS

Bob

You have much to learn about US banking

Anian

Could be, or maybe you are "lucky" enough to be part of an audit (maybe not of you but of the processes that they use themselves)

Squirrel

DH and I actually burst out laughing when we went shopping at the supermarket with MIL and she paid by cheque, it's just so backwards and holds up other customers.

I still can't get over that my FIL sits down and writes a load of cheques every month. ALL our bills are paid via direct debit or online.

DH talked about ordering 'some' chequebooks ages ago and I said 'You mean 'a' chequebook.' No, it was actually a big package of loads of chequebooks!

HarryTheSpider

Yup - I recently ordered some chequebooks from my bank - I couldn't order just one, I had to order 4. And I was advised to choose relatively high cheque numbers (individual cheque numbers) as companies would sometimes refuse cheques with low numbers as this indicated a new checking account and therefore, for some reason, a higher risk customer...

Bizarre.

Still, just another one of those things that are different here in the US!

As an aside, you might find this of interest - inequity, or, as some say "welcome to the land of the free, so long as you can afford it"

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/busin...nse_08-16.html

I've been a fan of Dan Ariely's work for some time - enjoy!

Cheers

HTS

Giantaxe

Don't re-order checks through your bank; use a third party check printer. Typically, they're much cheaper and usually you have more control over how many checks you can order. Order through your bank and both the bank and the check printer they use are taking a slice of your money.

Bob

Yup....and also temporary cheques you get from the bank when you open the account, most people won't accept those either.

Then again, the old common scam is open an account, buy something expensive with the temp cheque and close the account, knowing it'll bounce etc...happens less these days because of the hassles in opening an account, but I think this hang up is from those days.

And as Giantaxe mentioned, get cheques via third party, usually get coupon type flyers in the mail for free cheque books or extra features like the side stub to copy details etc.

We only get ours through our bank as they are free.

HarryTheSpider

Thanks for the advice on alternative/cheaper sources of cheques.

I seem to recall somebody saying that technically you could use almost anything... Given the amount of packaging that we seem to acquire from food etc, perhaps I'll recycle some of that as cheques...

Cheers

HTS