Why do people even use checks?
 

Hello, its 2006 people... I get checks from small programs and cbill. I have never cashed a check, they all get lost somewhere. I need the money NOW, checks are show as shit! Why do people even use that?

I personally like checks.

Because that's how real businesses still operate in 2006.

only to pay the rent....

Because its the lowest cost of transferring funds between companies, I don't need my money instantly and would rather save the money and wait the whole 3 business days to get paid.
WG

With epass/wire the $ is there quick. With checks it takes like 3 or 4 days to come, then you have to go to bank and deposit and then it needs to clear.

I do not mind checks for the following reasons.
My bank places no hold on them as long as they are under 10k.

It gives me a record of what was done that I also can copy.

I am not in need of the money right this second and can easily wait for it until I make a deposit.

If someone bounces a check on me that is a crime, if someone does not send some electronic payment that is only a civil matter.

There are no charges to recieve them, deposit them, cash them, or get/use my money.

That said - I do not accept checks from tennets.

And it costs me a whole 10 cents to cash a check as opposed to wire / epass fees. I can wait the 3 days.
WG

i can understand that but its also nice to have access to it right away. i'll pay for that option.

wires cost way too much, especially if you're getting payments from many sources.
if you trust epass with your primary source of income, you're most trusting than I would ever be.
if you're operating that close to the line where you need the money in one day instead of one week, you're not operating in a "business" framework to start with.
and unless you live in the frozen tundra and have to get the dog team and sled out, it's really a burden to stop at the bank once a week?

I don't like cheques, they charge me almost 13 euro for it (per cheque)

leaves a paper trail for tax

I have no problem with checks but i do prefer epass...

What manowar said.

I seriously hope people do not really think that epassporte transactions are trailess with the IRS.

Once they tied into the US banks to do direct deposits I think that may have got them on the radar.

i always, ALWAYS, want paper trail for ANY business transaction

I think he wasn't saying anything about epassporte, I think he is like me and wants a paper trail for all business/tax purposes

to me, a check is just easy to hand my accountant a stack of check stubs and have him go through it all, with epass and wires I would have to keep a ledger and print out bank reports and all that jazz

:thumbsup :thumbsup

I dont use them.

Yea, thats for you, here in Sweden they charge $130 to cash a US check, and it's a 4 weeks hold on the money due to fraud check. So for me wire's and epass is the only option.

Just out of curiosity, are the tax laws and shit anywhere near as stiff in Sweden as they are in USA?

well they wont see anything if you just use the electron card :)

Do you mean the accuall law that you must pay tax or the % of income tax we have?

income tax is at 35%. If you dont pay income tax and they find out they can tax you for whatever amount they feel you have been hiding. Also you can get jail time.

That said, it's almost impossible for them to find out about stuff like epassporte accounts etc.

I hate checks.

I have some from ccbill that are months old and that I never bothered to deposit.

Outside of the US it's just too much work and fees.

I don't want to write checks, but I want checks from sponsors. The only exception to that is from one sponsor, and only then so I can have funds in epass to pay for a partner account. If I could pay for it by credit card, I'd have no epass payments. I don't have to have the money right away, for the fees the other options cost me.

just fax in your wire info to ccbill, it's a breeze

I don't mind them at all,as long as they still come

i prefer checks..my bank places no hold on any amount deposited. no fees for a check. prefer it for accounting.

Absolutely. There is no reason to live paycheck to paycheck in this business.

At my bank I have a US funds account set up. I deposit all my US cheques every week into that account, and transfer over money from there to my Canadian account as needed.

I have what's called a "unifee" charged to me on that account. It's a small fee, like $10 per month, and it covers all my incidental fees like cheques, transactions etc.

Plus it's more fun than ever to check the mail because it's not just bills coming in. Nice to find a few cheques in the mailbox, which is a far cry nicer than back in the days of when I had an actual job working for someone else and always being broke.

Checks are great unless you're a dirty foreigner, but they don't deserve our American freedom dollars anyway.

i hate checks, its extremely old fashioned and each check i cash costs me hahaha8364; 12,50 (= $15)

seems like only non-us people don't like them due to fees

i'd rather pay fees than have to explain to tax the entire details of your epass account.

Companies like iBill are why people still use checks.

What I want to know is why people dont still use gold coins. Oh wait, I know the answer to that one...

It needs to go in my bank account anyway, so I can wait a few days for the check or wait a few days for it to transfer from epass to my account. I don't keep a large amount of money in my epass account and I wouldn't recommend that anyone else count on it like a bank account either.

would you pay $130 per check and wait 4 weeks for the money?

The only companies that use cheques are the ones that want to hang on to your money longer.

It is no longer an efficient way of doing business in this technological age. It actually costs the company more money to write cheques, so the fact that you guys hang onto small payments, lose cheques and take ages to deposit those funds explains the whole purpose of using them.

Lyn from Oz

and if you have any good relations with the bank you dont have to wait for funds to clear anytime on a simple 1000$ check

because thats how business is done and how to keep good records.

I do wires on anything that will end up going over $10k, such as processors. Almost all programs pay us via epassport, those payments cover our epass webmaster payments, being so it's rare that we have to send a wire to epass. However, we report the money earned and spent in epass.

American Companies / Persons have to report world wide income, virtual accounts, oversea bank accounts, all of it. The IRS already knows what epassport is.



Program wise, it's cheaper for me to do epassport payments than checks.