I don’t think anyone is arguing against having a checking account.
I’m pretty sure you need a checking account to use venmo…
Yes, you can put money into a venmo account but I don’t know how you’d do that without a checking account.
Dos - I’m sure you live in an amazing community and have an amazing - free and high yield - checking account at a bank that sends checks out at no extra charge. 
For the rest of us, other options work just fine.
Another vote here for Fidelity Investments. Free checking, free checks, no minimum, easy-to-use app for depositing checks, all ATM fees reimbursed. Very easily linked to my account, for sending money and monitoring spending. Only two disadvantages: 18 yr old and up only, and you cannot deposit cash, even at a Fidelity branch. If my kids have cash, they aren’t depositing it anyway. Fidelity also has offices in a lot of metro areas
Oldest daughter went to South Africa last year. Used her Fidelity card without any ATM fees.
It’s a very large bank, @BunsenBurner, so it’s probably available to a chunk of the country. And I don’t think it is a service that is rare or unique to them. It’s cheaper for the bank to handle it this way as part of their electronic banking business than it is to handle self-written checks through the banking system, otherwise they wouldn’t offer it as a service. Just mentioning as another way of doing banking since that’s what this thread is about, correct? I really don’t think it is unusual.
Sure it is not unusual. And your contractors never use mechanics’ liens. Just passing that info to any millennials reading - if your payment is not on their terms, they have legal options to be spiteful.
I just had to share this – we have a credit card that has the kids names on it. My younger one in college has it for emergencies and uses it sparingly. His older brother is out of college and working (2 jobs no less!). But the older one had a money crunch where he was paying overlap rent at two places for one month and had to produce first, last, and security deposit at his new apartment. So to be charitable, I lent him the credit card again a few weeks ago. Today I asked for it back, pointing out that he had gone to some restaurants with it. One in particular I mentioned he said proudly, “My friends paid me back for that one!” (He is known to feel awkward about asking people who owe him money to pay him back.) I pointed out that they had not paid ME back! I think in the future I need to share my Venmo account name with his friends!
MODERATOR’S NOTE: Please knock off the arguing. I had to delete quite a few posts.
LBowie mentions his kids’ names are on a credit card. I have done the same with my oldest 2 Ds. It is a good way to help build their credit. We had difficulty finding good cards in their own names when they turned 18, other than the ones with $300 limit and a $79 annual fee.
Just saying. Kid managed to live in 3 foreign countries for a total of more than 3 years and travel to close to 15 other countries without a credit card. When she finally settled in the US, her bank happily issued her a credit card. So if your kid does not have a credit card at 18, it is not the end of the world.
I’ve run into problems with the mobile deposit by phone. I just discovered the feature several months ago. BUT… Bank of America has some kind of limit on mobile picture deposits. After about the third deposit it says I have reached my limit for the month. Why the heck is there a limit??? It just doesn’t make any sense
My D uses Venmo for everything. I cannot even begin to figure it out and I don’t pass money around to personal friends so I wouldn’t know what I need it for. They all pass money around to pay each other back for restaurant meals or roommate expenses.
^ It looks like BoA has a limit.
My CU doesn’t have a limit and Ally’s is 50k a day or 250k in 30 days. I think that’s pretty reasonable
PNC’s is 1k a day or 3k a month. Both of which are absolutely ridiculous. It’s one of the big reasons I left them.
Our CU will send out paper checks via the online bill pay. I don’t think it’s that unusual a feature.
We do still have checkbooks but they are very rarely used. When D was still in high school I paid her piano teacher by check. Since then I think I’ve written maybe 4 checks.
Doesn’t anybody else write checks to include in a wedding card? I generally give a gift off the registry for showers and write a check for the wedding. I know that D and SIL got a lot of checks when they got married a couple months ago. We seem to be in a heavy wedding period of life because I’ve written a lot of checks this year for a lot of weddings. It would seem awkward to have the bank mail a check to them the way they do to various vendors.
We use a personal check,when sending for a wedding present.
I do give a lot of personal checks, written on my checkbook for gifts–birthday, wedding, even condolences. It’s quite common in HI. It is convenient to be able to write checks as desired. Maybe I’m showing my age but I honestly don’t care. Whatever works. Our kids don’t use as many checks as I do.
As I said, I have a checkbook because of our stupid water bill. But if I didn’t, I would probably just get a cashiers check from Ally. No big deal.