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Show HN: Check Supply – Send Checks in the Mail

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Re: Show HN: Check Supply – Send Checks in the Mail

#51

Post by epcoa »

vorador wrote: post #4

Exciting – many landlords in SF only believe in checks for some reason

1. Open Ally Bank account (there are others but this definitely works)

2. Setup recurring bill pay for your check payment.

3. Setup recurring external transfer from your hipster bank to Ally or equivalent in step 1.

$6.99 isn’t worth replacing the above system that has another distinct advantage over this: you have two layers of cushion from your main account. My understanding is that this service will print your account details on the check. The “bill pay” services typically are not writing checks against your account, they withdraw the money and use their own account. Knowing the horror stories of intercepted checks that are cashed, this is not a triviality.

Re: Show HN: Check Supply – Send Checks in the Mail

#52

Post by BeetleB »

$6.99 per check? That's expensive!

I have envelopes. I have stamps. And I have a checkbook. The only thing this is saving me is the (minor) physical labor?

Not worth $6.99 per month. More for the times I have to write checks for other things (e.g. paying contractors).

Besides, when I bought my house I bought one of those 300 address label sticker thingies. How else am I going to use those?!

Re: Show HN: Check Supply – Send Checks in the Mail

#53

Post by apsurd »

I join my dad occasionally to watch the lakers games on tv. Recently he had his bills set up and was writing checks and placing them in envelopes.

I remembered specifically helping him resolve a bill pay issue for one of his payments so I asked why doesn't he use bill pay for all of them?

He says he likes practicing writing, the physical nature, and the routine of intaking these bills and mailing them out.

he's retired.

Re: Show HN: Check Supply – Send Checks in the Mail

#54

Post by 0_____0 »

lxgr wrote: post #44

It's still baffling to me that the US, unlike most other countries, have never developed "push" bank/credit transfers. Checks might have been useful historically, but I really can't think of any use case these days where I'd prefer writing a check over just instructing my bank to pay somebody directly, which has the huge advantage of being more secure (my bank and I can agree on any security measures we like, vs. hav…

India has UPI. The RBI spun it up in what, a couple years?

The issue isn't technological, it's this notion in the US that rent-seekers ought to exist and be enabled. Your Paypal/Venmo, CashApp, etc. enable things, for a cut of the transaction, that you can do for exactly zero dollars in India.

Re: Show HN: Check Supply – Send Checks in the Mail

#55

Post by lxgr »

pintxo wrote: post #38

Good to see that there are things where Germany is not behind the US when it comes to digitalization. I haven’t seen a check for at least 20 years now. Financial transactions are all nicely digitalized by now.

Even long before banking became digital, most European countries had an efficient bank transfer system in place in parallel to checks.

Both have their advantages, and I accordingly find it baffling that the US only got one, but not the other, and even more baffling that this has largely survived the transition to digital transfers (consumers usually can't initiate ACH credit transfers to third parties directly).

Re: Show HN: Check Supply – Send Checks in the Mail

#56

Post by lxgr »

gruez wrote: post #50
lxgr wrote: post #44

It's still baffling to me that the US, unlike most other countries, have never developed "push" bank/credit transfers. Checks might have been useful historically, but I really can't think of any use case these days where I'd prefer writing a check over just instructing my bank to pay somebody directly, which has the huge advantage of being more secure (my bank and I can agree on any security measures we like, vs. hav…

>It's still baffling to me that the US, unlike most other countries, have never developed "push" bank/credit transfers. ACH and Zelle are both "push" transfers, although the former isn't typically available to consumers. Businesses certainly use it to do direct payroll deposits, for instance.

Yes, and I find that baffling. Many countries have had push transfers for decades.

Germany and Austria, for example, had standardized slips of paper that the payer could send to/drop off at their bank to instruct them to wire money to some payee at a nominal or no fee. The big advantage over checks is that there's no possibility of overdrawing, and as a payee, once you saw the money in your account, you knew the transfer was final (unlike for deposited checks, which can bounce).

This also means that there is much less risk for banks to open "checking" accounts, as the biggest risk for depository banks, i.e. that of potentially bounced checks, just does not exist, which in turn means that "unbanking" is much less of a concern.

Re: Show HN: Check Supply – Send Checks in the Mail

#57

Post by deathanatos »

lxgr wrote: post #44

It's still baffling to me that the US, unlike most other countries, have never developed "push" bank/credit transfers. Checks might have been useful historically, but I really can't think of any use case these days where I'd prefer writing a check over just instructing my bank to pay somebody directly, which has the huge advantage of being more secure (my bank and I can agree on any security measures we like, vs. hav…

> It's still baffling to me that the US, unlike most other countries, have never developed "push" bank/credit transfers.

My (US) bank has this functionality. It's a real pain to set up, and most people I know will prefer Venmo/Paypal, or god help me Zello, before a bank-to-bank transfer.

> my bank and I can agree on any security measures we like

Well … so it's more like my bank and I can agree on any security measures the bank likes. My opinion doesn't matter to them, or there'd be some actual cryptography involved.

My bank's set up / "security" involves an odd song and dance of depositing a few cents into the destination's bank account over multiple transactions over multiple days, and then using the transaction amounts as some sort of authentication.

I've done it for transfers that exceed what I am comfortable sending on the payment services above. (And I don't have/use checks.)

Re: Show HN: Check Supply – Send Checks in the Mail

#58

Post by subhro »

> Check writing is becoming a rarity, and many first-time senders find the process daunting

Now, I am scared of even the thought of pulling out my pen and writing. And you merely call it daunting?

/s

Some people assume people will fucking buy anything when wrapped by a pretty website eh?

Re: Show HN: Check Supply – Send Checks in the Mail

#59

Post by j0hnjjun9 »

BeetleB wrote: post #52

$6.99 per check? That's expensive! I have envelopes. I have stamps. And I have a checkbook. The only thing this is saving me is the (minor) physical labor? Not worth $6.99 per month. More for the times I have to write checks for other things (e.g. paying contractors). Besides, when I bought my house I bought one of those 300 address label sticker thingies. How else am I going to use those?!

Yup our target market is for people who are busy and want instant gratification that something got done.

Envelopes, checks, postage, gas / your time trip to the post office - agreed isn’t a lot of money probably about $3 + your time.

Re: Show HN: Check Supply – Send Checks in the Mail

#60

Post by ryandrake »

4ndrewl wrote: post #7

How common is check usage in the USA? Is it a daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly thing?

I wrote 37 checks in the last 12 months, not counting my bank's online Bill Pay which itself is just an automation for writing and mailing physical checks. If you counted Bill Pay, I've probably paid with checks about 100 times in the last year. Like others said, mostly contractors and service providers for the home, and regular utility bills. Also property taxes. I go through checks like crazy.
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