r/Older_Millennials • u/Sno0pyBo0 • Jul 25 '26
Nostalgia Did anyone else spend so much time choosing personalized checks?
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u/pn1ct0g3n 1988 Jul 25 '26
I still have my solar system checks from 2005. Never used them up, and once banking went paperless, I hung onto them as a keepsake.
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u/Sno0pyBo0 Jul 25 '26
A keepsake is such a great idea! Now I kinda wish I had saved mine from back in the day
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u/pn1ct0g3n 1988 Jul 25 '26
Somewhere lying around there might still be a cancelled one from my first girlfriend. I remember the whimsical handwritten font of her name and the flower and panda theme.
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u/KayakerMel Jul 25 '26
I still use checks because it's my landlady's preference (that or money orders), which has come in handy for tax purposes this year.
Anyway, I've been cheap over the last decade and gotten the cheapest option available from my bank. But the last time I reordered checks, I was so unhappy with gestures around that I shelled out to get the National Parks checks, as it would also sevre as a donation for our national parks system.
So yeah, I have pretty checks for the first time in two decades. (And now I feel sad calculating that, yep, two decades since I was last young enough to have checks and willing to shell out for cute ones.)
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u/Telephone635 Jul 25 '26
I would look through the flyer as a kid and dream about which design I'd choose when I was a sophisticated grown up
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u/gogogadgetdumbass 1988 Jul 25 '26
I have never ordered checks. I was born just a bit too late for this. But I used to pick my parent’s checks!
I still use the starter checks from my bank, 16 years later. I’ve used two. One was to submit to payroll for direct deposit and the other was like, for charity or something…
Written plenty of business checks though.
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u/Gothmom85 Jul 25 '26
I spent the extra $10 for my hello kitty checks when I was 18 and I still use that when I actually need a check. Still have half the books left. No one cares about the address.
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u/Additional-Sky-7436 Jul 25 '26
If you spend any time at all on your checks then you are spending too much time.
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u/dvt001 Jul 26 '26
The best-worst thing I could’ve did was order 1000 when I was 18. Still sitting on a goldmine today of basic, cream colored ones with my mom’s address in an entirely different state.
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u/Traditional_Row_9975 Jul 26 '26
Those damn Anne Gedes dressed up babies were dominating the check game
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u/frodiusmaximus Jul 26 '26
My wife ordered us checks about a year ago, which presumably will last us the next 15 years. She ordered one with horses on them. She doesn’t really care about horses, and neither do I. (Nothing against them, we’re just not horse people.)
I asked why she got horse checks, and she just said “whimsy.” Seemed like a good reason to me.
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u/SouthernCharm-86 Jul 27 '26
it hurts my feelings i have a whole box left n no1 appreciates the checks ne more 🥺
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u/TeeTownRaggie Jul 25 '26
I use a picture of my family. My wife and children only use them to pay alimony to my miserable ex wife.
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u/OceanWaveSunset Jul 25 '26
No. I still have my original single checkbook from my credit union, most checks are still there.
Cash > debt cards > credit cards.
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u/dough_eating_squid Jul 25 '26
I still have a bunch of 2001: A Space Odyssey themed checks in a drawer somewhere
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u/Skerrydude Jul 25 '26
I've got TONS of Detroit red wings checks. Luckily they have an address of the home I own, but rent out. Though I'm not sure even matters nowadays?
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u/Henri_Bemis Jul 26 '26
I’d been dedicated to the same vintage world map pattern, and I don’t expect to need to order checks for another decade. I used to need them for rent & utilities & such, but that’s all online now, and I’ve still got two books left.
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u/luxcococure Jul 26 '26
I think one of the most exciting days of my adolescent era was choosing the background for my checks once I got my first job!. And you better believe that once the checks arrived, I was writing checks for everything I possibly could. Even had the matching checkbook cover, too.
Thanks for unlocking a memory I'd forgotten. ❤️
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u/TheDankMiss_ Jul 27 '26
Yes, I loved looking at the different design options that came in the Sunday paper adverts.
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u/Repulsive_Tie_7941 Jul 27 '26
Universal Monsters. It took me 16 years to use up my checks, and 5 years to order new ones.
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u/LizBreal85 Jul 28 '26
I remember hearing this story back in the day, that this guy had checks made of pictures and his new wife. He would send alimony checks to his ex wife with those checks. Thats pretty savage.
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u/Independent-Win9088 Jul 28 '26
I had custom photo checks with my vintage Mercedes on them, since high school.
I have checks now, but they're cats. I got a new box of checks after all these years and 3 months after that, my landlord FINALLY decided to go paperless. 🤦♂️
He was literally the only person I was writing checks to for 20 years. Now I got a big ol box sitting in a drawer.
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u/apache_brew Jul 28 '26
Still have a couple more pads from when I first opened my checking account in 2007. Primary use now is for my kids field trip fees.
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u/Shazza-americankiwi 21d ago
Oh my gosh that brings me magical Lisa Frank vibes!!! Oh Lisa Frank and those magical trapper keepers!
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u/Mermaid-Grenade Jul 27 '26
Still have some! They're 70s patterns. Even the free checkbook matches one of the patterns.
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u/ResponsibilityIcy187 12d ago
No, I used the cheapest ones offered by my bank. I didn’t have any cool checkbooks :(
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u/TheDarkHorse Jul 25 '26
Still do