I Am Not a Crook

[kevin_standlee]

I don't write a whole lot of checks anymore. One of the usual places I have a burst of them is at Westercon and Worldcon, as I typically pay my voting fee/advance supporting membership and conversion fees by check. I also had to write a check to Lisa's osteopath last month, as he doesn't take insurance or credit cards.

Comments

[paradoox]

I'm confused now. IIRC, the check you gave me is drawn on a CA bank has a Sunnyvalle address, and a fairly low number (< 200). It is packed in my luggage. Is it one of the good or bad ones?

[kevin_standlee]

Green background, WaMu account: good.

Train image, Bank of America account: bad.

We don't write many checks at all on the "household" account, and what you have is one of the original checks issued on what was then Washington Mutual (before Chase swallowed it when WaMu went off the rails) when we took advantage of their free checking for life offer. I still keep the Sunnyvale PO Box because I am in the Bay Area two weeks per month.

The other (bad) checks have trains printed on them, and also a Sunnyvale address. Eventually I'll use up all of the Sunnyvale checks from the good accounts and order new ones with the Fernley address on them.

[retro_rider55]

- but you did pay him Tuesday for that hamburger...

[soon_lee]

Hope you don't get stung too badly by dishonored check fees/penalties.

[kevin_standlee]

$12 for the return fee; $10 for the cashier's check from my bank. (I could have saved money by withdrawing cash and going elsewhere to buy a money order, but at that point I was running short on time, so I just ate it.

Presumably I'm going to have another fee from the Sunnyvale post office for the returned item and for renewing the box late -- possibly a box-reopening fee.

[buddykat]

A lot of banks also sell money orders, and usually for a much lower fee - around $1 last time I bought one at the bank.

[kevin_standlee]

Yeah, but not mine. I asked for a money order and was informed that a cashier's check was all that Bank of America would sell me.

[pcornelius]

That's a nasty thing to have happen, but hopefully you've already run to the end of the bad consequences. Meanwhile…
Financial Hygeine Measures, cont'd : shred any cheques as soon as you close the account they refer to!

[kevin_standlee]

The last of the consequences was yesterday, as I had to pay a collection agency for the check for my PO Box, with extra fees on top of the box rental. I've now shredded the dead checkbooks.