Its strange to learn that you can buy a bank’s cheques from 3rd parties. Do the cheques come with your account numbers printed on them? The image seems to indicate so.

The only problem I’ve run into is that some banks (most) demand your physical address, which I feel is none of their business in spite of the Patriot Act or anything else. The problem with this is that even if you give them a different mailing address, they will invariably send something important like a credit card to your physical address. After you’ve told them not to. This is a severe security risk. I put in a forwarding address change EVERY YEAR from my home to the UPS Store, to try to keep myself safe from mail/identity theft.

Only my credit union did not demand my home address, and therefore they do not put me at risk.

You can write a check on a napkin, or a watermelon, or a cow and it’s legal. It’s up to the individual bank as to whether they’ll accept it but it’s federally legal tender as long as it has the date, account number, routing number, amount and signature.

I move almost every year which makes ordering checks a nightmare. I print my own checks at home with my laser printer. Saves money and hassle and if a check that doesn’t look like my custom checks is cashed, I will know in a second that it wasn’t written by me.

The software is very simple to use. I print 20 checks at a time to have on hand. The nice thing is that I can print small quantities and make adjustments as I need. For example, when I move, I can print checks with my new address (I remember throwing out about 500 unused checks at my last move). It’s also useful if you have more than one checking account.