Counter checks

Riverslim

Member
We called them counter checks - had banks logo but no personal name or account number. Anyone with an account at that bank could use them. I worked at a farm equipment dealer during the 70's and we must have had 30 or so blank counter checks on various banks in our part of the state for the convenience of our customers. Are these still used today? I haven't seen any.
 
When I was a kid people would write checks on anything, an envelope, paper bag, etc. Seems I remember some guy writing a check on an old wooden door, and the bank took it. I suppose they returned it to him after it was cancelled.
 
In my small town bank in a town of 500, they are still used. I know I've used them within the last 6 months. If I forget to order checks, run out, and need some, they are readily available.
 
Here they call them lobby checks. My main bank is local, founded in 1901 and main office is still in the same building....a few renovations ago, but not many. Branches are new, following the population explosion.
 
Didn't know any banks still had them. They were phased out by most when the account numbers on checks became readable electronically, and of course, counter checks couldn't, so it would bollix up the works.
 
I am echoing M Nut comments. Oddly enough, I am drasfting one right now to pay my income taxes as (like M Nut) I ran myself out of regular checks at an inopportune time and reorder of checks has not arrived yet.
 
The new version of them is buying online be typing your routing and account number and money automatically gone in seconds. I still remember them being used in the mid 1980's. Now the larest is credit cards are not going to require a signature..
 
I got one about 16-17 years ago for over $15,000 for a load of cattle. That one made me real nervous. A guy wanted a load of heifers,wanted me to find a trucker and pay the trucking. He hadn't paid me for them,said he'd send a check back with the trucker. I told Norm not to unload them until he had the check in his hand. He brought me back that check and I about threw up. It was good,but it sure didn't look very good.
 
Two years ago a guy paid me with a counter check. First one I've seen in years.

I don't think banks pay any attention to checks that they get. Earlier this year I didn't sign two checks. They went right through the bank.

Where I live most towns are under 500 population. Very few if any businesses take credit or debit cards.
 
Ya,I used a counter deposit slip Friday. I got to the bank to cash some checks and didn't have any more deposit slips in the check book.
 
Hydro ...... I can't remember the last time signing a credit card slip. Are you saying that you still sign when you buy something (and no PIN number)?
 
It?s common here in our rural area to have a sign that says no ch?ques, no bills over 20$ and 5% will be added to credit card purchases.
 
We used to carry a pad of them in wrecker for when someone had no cash or not enough, we would verify their name and have the fill out and sign one. They would return later to shop and pay bill and pick up the counter check they signed, didn't matter to us if they had anything in that bank or not!
 
When I started my checking & savings acct at the small farm back in our little town of 100 people in the late 1960's, well, maybe 105 people, The tellers told me to use counter checks, and don't put my name anywhere on my check book. If I lost my checkbook whoever found it knew how much money I had but no idea who I was, checkbook was worthless to them.

By the mid/late 1970's the grocery store wife and I had bought groceries at every week for 2+ years refused to take one of our counter checks. Embarassed the heck out of my Wife. We started buying groceries at a new grocery store and got printed checks ASAP AND the check card from the grocery store.

Only times I've ever had problems making checks I've written good is when I had paychecks bounce. I worked three weeks for a millwright company one winter, first paycheck was O-K, second check I thought was O-K, third week they paid us in cash. The day before the deadline to file suit for back wages I got the second check back from my bank, insufficient funds. I filed a claim and waited THREE years for my money. Then one dipstick I drove for about 1-1/2 years wrote me a rubber check. Last time I heard anything about him my buddy who was a Sherriff's Deputy walked him from the jail to the Court House in handcuffs to appear in court for writting bad checks. He spent several years in jail.
 
That"s from putting too much money in the bank- LOL. I haven"t seen counter checks for 40 years. Generic deposit slips are still available here.
 
In the mid 60's I worked in a retail lumber yard, town of less than 1000, had all kinds of counter checks for all banks in surrounding area, also had a pad of them that didn't have a bank name on you just wrote in your banks name.
Simple times.

Pete
 
Honest to God,believe me or not,I don't remember ever running out of deposit slips before I ran out of checks when I was milking cows. Three months after the dairy cattle went was the first time it happened. It's happened quite often since.
 
Yup. see'em in couple of banks. Shocked me at first. Hadn't seen'em in 30 years.
 

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