Do you use your check register?

[dioxide45]

Uh, yeah... sure. Whatever float's your boat.
IMHO, keeping a register merely duplicates what can be done electronically with Quicken.

Really with Quicken or MS Money, the check register is electronic. We keep all receipts and if we happen to write a check, we keep the carbon until we can enter it in to the register on MS Money. We don't keep a paper register. Any time we get a new order of checks, the register that comes with the box goes in the trash.

We actually write several checks a month, some service providers we use still don't take credit or debit card, just cash or check.

 

[normab]

Used to keep a register and spent too long trying to balance it each month--I could never be an accountant or bookkeeper!

Now I only write a handful of checks each month. I just verify online that the bank has all the deposits and checks listed accurately, and I usually check it 2-3 times a month, so I know where I stand. DH manages the house accounts and he checks the account online a couple of times a week. So no registers in our household....

Of course, we spend more time checking the credit card statements since we have more household bills on auto-pay now than we did years ago.

 

[pjrose]

I think it's easier to grab a pencil and the register and scribble in the check or ATM withdrawal than to fire up the computer and quicken and type it all in. And if I don't have decent backup and it crashes....there goes my system. I like paper. When I mail a check I get back the real check (or its image) as proof.

I dislike having my bank account number floating out there in the cloud if I do online pay for each bill. The very few times I pay something online (when there's not enough time to mail) I am very hesitant about putting in my bank account number. Yeah, I know billions of transactions have been safely done this way....but it still bothers me.

 

[dougp26364]

As a bankruptcy attorney, i look at people's financial records all day long. It used to be common to look at check registers. Now, almost NONE of my clients keep a check register. And they don't use an electronic register like Quicken or Money, either. Instead, they simply check their bank balance.

I am wondering if this is limited to the specific demographic that I serve. Is it common for most people to not use their registers or other tracking method and to just rely on their bank??? Or is it that people that don't monitor/track their finances end up in bankruptcy more often?

I am OCD about my finances and always have been." I use Quicken, Quickbooks and Excel (but not a check register). I use Quicken at home, Quickbooks at work, and Excel (which I use for cash flow, not tracking per se) at both home and work.

* when I was 21 and going on my honeymoon for 2 weeks, I called all of my creditors to let them know that I would not be able to pay them when I got the bill. I had never NOT paid a bill the same day that I received it.

I had a client come in with a COMPLETE check register today which made me think about it. It has been YEARS since I have had a client provide me with their own trackingl My client used online bill pay for several of her bills and dutifully wrote down the confirmation numbers and subtracted the debit from her account. Those confirmation numbers are the only way to prove payments on electronic payments --- and almost no one (that I see) has a system for keeping track of the confirmation of their payments!

So, I am wondering, how do you keep track of your finances?

elaine

I haven't used a check register for a long time. For that matter, I haven't written but 3 or 4 checks a year in the last 7 or 8 years. We haven't even purchased checks in that amount of time. My wife writes 1 check per month to her hair dresser. I almost resent any organization that requires me to write out a check rather than accept a credit card. If you don't write checks or use a debit card, a check register isn't really necessary.

Nearly all of our transactions are direct payments from our checking account (very few like the house and cars) or paid using a rewards CC. All our income is direct deposited into our checking account. At the end of the month we make online payments to pay our CC balances. It's not hard to keep track of the bank online when you have 4 to 6 deposits per months and only 7 or 8 withdrawls per month.

Of course, the trick is not to over spend using the plastic. That's where people get into trouble. We don't go wild spending all sorts of money and, for larger periodic payments like timeshare MF's, insurance, car tags et.... I have a savings account set up. At the begining of the year, I calculate the tab for all the periodic payments, divide that by the number of paychecks in the year and have that amount direct deposited into that savings account. When those bills come due, we pay them using the CC. At the end of the month that money is transfered to the checking account and the CC bill is paid as one payment for the periodic payments and all our monthly expenditures.

We don't write checks anymore and we don't use a debit card. I just don't need to keep a check register when we don't have more than a dozen transactions in a months time.

 

[MelBay]

Of course, the trick is not to over spend using the plastic. That's where people get into trouble. We don't go wild spending all sorts of money and, for larger periodic payments like timeshare MF's, insurance, car tags et.... I have a savings account set up. At the begining of the year, I calculate the tab for all the periodic payments, divide that by the number of paychecks in the year and have that amount direct deposited into that savings account. When those bills come due, we pay them using the CC. At the end of the month that money is transfered to the checking account and the CC bill is paid as one payment for the periodic payments and all our monthly expenditures.

Dave Ramsey would need a cigarette after he read this. Actually I do too, and I haven't smoked in 27 years.

 

[dougp26364]

Dave Ramsey would need a cigarette after he read this. Actually I do too, and I haven't smoked in 27 years.

So far I've paid for two flights to Hawaii and the better part of one Caribbean cruise on Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Sea's using this method. Right now I have 104,000 FF miles on United with plans to use those miles to return to Hawaii in 2013.

But like I said, the trick is to pay that CC off every month. I know far to many people who get the idea they're actually paying for something when they use plastic money. They forget the item isn't paid for until the CC bill is paid in full. That 14 to 18% interest will eat up any reward profits extremly fast if you let a balance sit on a card.

 

[pwrshift]

I've been slow to accept online banking and still use cheques...keeping Canada Post in business. Online scares the hell out of me for anything other than just checking balances...and my accounts do not permit online payments to anyone. Old school, eh?

Brian

 

[Talent312]

I've been slow to accept online banking and still use cheques...keeping Canada Post in business. Online scares the hell out of me for anything other than just checking balances...and my accounts do not permit online payments to anyone. Old school, eh?

Even though you write paper checks...
Chances are that the merchant deposits them electronically (my CU accepts scanned PDF's), and the merchant's bank clears them electronically. Your bank may not get your paper check but rather facsimile, which is what you see. IOW, its likely that your checking is more electronic than you care to think about.

 

[Mel]

I am tired of lecturing them. They're adults, and the learned how to manage (or not) money from their parents, and are unwilling to go to the trouble of writing things down to avoid these stupid charges. I'll bet in my whole 55 years I've maybe paid $20 in late fees or penalties. I just refuse. It's an easy thing to avoid if you have a modicum of discipline. Their lives are chaos, and keeping a checkbook register is just not something they are willing to make time for.

The injustice is unbelievable. I get free airline tickets and/or cash from my credit card company because of all the points I rack up annually. I don't pay my credit card company a dime, ever. They pay ridiculous interest rates and late fees and get nothing from their credit card companies except nasty phone calls and letters.

Do any of them live in Connecticut? I think I've seen them at my office during tax season!

I have several clients who I have counseled over the years, and have changed their behaviors, but they're only a small percentage. Even those who are not living paycheck to paycheck still do stupid things. There are those who used to pay 36% APR to get their tax refunds the day after they filed (as a loan against the refund) - the only reason they're not doing that anymore is because we don't offer loans any more (some competitors still do). They get huge refunds because it's the only way they know how to "save." But it's spent within a month of getting it, so it's not really saving. Half of my clients don't even have bank accounts - let alone keep registers! They rail about the fees the banks charge (probably mostly the fees you're talking about), yet turn around and pay a pawn shop 2% to cash their paycheck evey week, and pay for money orders every time they have to pay a bill. Personal finance should be a required couse in middle school - catch them before high school when many of them drop out, or just don't pay attention.

 

[persia]

What really pisses me off is when people stand at the cash register watching the checkout person and then when the final total comes they start looking for a way to pay. They check their cash, they check their cards, they rumble around in their purses (women) and they almost inevitably end up writing a check. Is it really a surprise that you have to pay for something at the checkout counter? Hello. Do they think the checkout person is going to say "you win! Everything is free today!"

We are the ones holding up the line while your ice cream melts. I do trust the computers to do the calculations correctly, I don't trust the person behind the scanner to scan the items correctly or care enough to make sure my coupons scanned. I also don't trust that the prices for the UPCs were entered correctly. So you have to watch what is scanned as many times you will end up paying more for the items than you were supposed to.

 

[Denise]

Old School....paper checks, paper register balanced with my paper statement. I leave a paper trail a mile wide. It works for me.