May never need an ATM again

[disneysteve]

What takes 5 minutes about them? Enter your PIN, deposit, check, put check in. Done. 1-2 minutes tops.

That's true if you are depositing one check. When I go to the ATM, I typically have 10 or more checks to deposit. In the past, all 10 went into an envelope that I prepared at home. I inserted my card, entered my PIN, typed in the amount of the deposit, stuck in the envelope and got a receipt. Now, I need to wait while it processes each individual check. And there are still machines around that only accept one check at a time. I won't even use those if I've got more than one check.

I did learn that there is one annoying limitation to the mobile app. It says you can only deposit $5,000/month that way. I'm not sure why they have that limit but it means I can't use it to deposit my paychecks. Still, even if I can use it for all of the other checks, it will make things a lot easier.

[BuckyBadger]

I gotta ask, Steve -- why on earth do you have so many checks? Apart from a rebate check once in a while and around my birthday and Christmas, I almost never have checks to deposit... Even when I get paid back for things relating to group or work functions everyone just PayPals me.

You said paychecks -- do you not have a direct deposit option?

[disneysteve]

I gotta ask, Steve -- why on earth do you have so many checks? Apart from a rebate check once in a while and around my birthday and Christmas, I almost never have checks to deposit... Even when I get paid back for things relating to group or work functions everyone just PayPals me.

You said paychecks -- do you not have a direct deposit option?

They are checks from doing surveys. I do a lot of medical surveys (see my blog). For the month of August, I got about 18 checks. And no, I do not have direct deposit, so there's also a paycheck every 2 weeks and there were 3 paydays in August so a total of 21 checks for the month. Oh, I also had 2 or 3 reimbursement checks for things from our synagogue so all together about 24 checks in August.

I usually only go to the ATM every 2 weeks when I get a paycheck so on any given ATM visit, I have about 10 checks, maybe more.

[BuckyBadger]

They are checks from doing surveys. I do a lot of medical surveys (see my blog). For the month of August, I got about 18 checks. And no, I do not have direct deposit, so there's also a paycheck every 2 weeks and there were 3 paydays in August so a total of 21 checks for the month. Oh, I also had 2 or 3 reimbursement checks for things from our synagogue so all together about 24 checks in August.

I usually only go to the ATM every 2 weeks when I get a paycheck so on any given ATM visit, I have about 10 checks, maybe more.

Oh my! That does sound like a pain! I'd think the survey people would actually save money by depositing electronically. Although maybe they hope that a small percentage of the people to whom they mail checks will forget to cash them or lose them!

I love nothing more than my direct deposit. I have a tendency to misplace things (usually because I'm trying to come up with a creative location that is REALLY SAFE, in fact so safe that I can't remember it 24 hours later) and I would live in fear of losing my paychecks!

[disneysteve]

Oh my! That does sound like a pain! I'd think the survey people would actually save money by depositing electronically. Although maybe they hope that a small percentage of the people to whom they mail checks will forget to cash them or lose them!

A couple of the companies have switched over to sending prepaid Visa cards. It is probably cheaper for them but it's a pain the butt on my end having to keep track of all of the cards and the remaining balance on each of them. One company sends a new card for each payment. The other company sent a reloadable card and they just e-mail me when they've added money to it.

A couple of other companies pay me in Amazon gift cards so that's all handled by e-mail. That's okay but I end up with loads of Amazon credit. At any given time, I typically have $800-$1,000 sitting in my Amazon account. Given the choice, I'd rather get a check.

[kellogg9]

Now if credits cards can catch up to Canadians and offer pin #s and pay-pass style tapping to secure them and make it easier to buy things isntead of signing all the time that will be cool.

[disneysteve]

I realized there is one downside to using the app to deposit checks. When I deposit a stack of checks at the ATM, it all posts as a single transaction. With the app, each individual check posts as a separate transaction. So if I deposit 10 checks, that's 10 transactions to reconcile when the statement comes. I have a feeling my statement that was typically 1-2 pages will now be twice that long at least.