I was an authorized user on my mom's account for years because she traveled a lot and I would pick up her mail and pay her bills for her. My name was not on her account but I could sign her checks. I would not have tried it at a store, because they would have no way of knowing I was on the account, but as far as bills paid through the mail I never had a problem. If the bank had a question, then all they had to do was pull the signature card. These days, everything is processed electronically anyway and real people hardly see the checks.

Chatted with DH this morning, and I'm going to order checks with both our names, and actually pay to have them expidited. I usually search out codes, so I can get them for pretty cheap - cheaper than what he pays through the bank! I've never ordered checks from the bank LOL, only from the online check places.

It's a big change for us right now. He has to trust me to make the financial decisions while he's gone and I have to patient while he tries to tell me what to do, and me tell him that I will do it a different way. For instance, he OFTEN does checks/debit over the phone to pay bills. I never do - I hate it. I love paying everything online. He won't touch a computer. I like to schedule and figure ahead of time what bills get paid at what part of the month. He pays whatever he thinks of, and get panicked when the first comes - mortgage and loan payments. I like to split the big ones up - pay the loans two weeks early, and pay the mortgage on time so they are staggered, that way I can pay a "big" payment and some little payments each time.

Thank god we have great communication, and now that we have to talk about it, we can do it easily. We never talked much before, because there was really not much need - they got done and that was that. I know it's a big change for him, and I'm glad he's trying so hard to not fret, though I bet he is LOL. I think he forgets that I was in charge of all the bills in my first marriage, and of course the whole time I've not been married, I've paid my own bills. I'm also an excel freak, so yesterday spent time making a page for his account, and adding his bills to my payment schedule etc.

Thanks a TON for the help!

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Okay I rarely even USE checks anymore but here is what we do ...

~ Start your check numbers with AT LEAST 1XXX - yes, 4 digits. You can start your check numbers anywhere you want. It doesn't matter to the bank.

~ DO NOT put your full name on the check. Put just your last name if you want. Put your initial and your last name if you want. Put DW Booker1 or DH Booker2, if you want. However, I avoid printing my full name on the check because, if they are stolen, the thief will have a harder time figuring out our real first name. They also have no idea how I sign my name. So, if my name starts with an M and M Cookie is on the check, the thief doesn't know if they should sign Mary Cookie or Martha Cookie or what!

~ Even if you both write checks with the same check number, the bank doesn't care. They just put a little asterisk next to the check number on your statement.

~ Yes, you can have a big spread in check numbers. Our handwritten checks start with 2XXX but our on-line issued checks start with 5XXX. That bank doesn't care.

~ I sign hubby's name all the time but on bank accounts and credit cards, I just sign mine. As long as he doesn't report me as a thief, the transaction goes through. I've learned that for most transactions under a certain dollar amount (a thousand or more) the financial institution doesn't even look at the payee or signature. They just transact it and, if it is wrong, they let the consumer bring it to their attention.

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."

Not all banks allow that.

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Let us be silent that we may hear the whisper of God. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

LOL! What are they going to do? Not cash the checks?

Once I used a new checker printer to order a more checks for my account. I mixed up where my old checks left off and ended up over-lapping the use of my old checks and my new checks. Both books had the same number series! (This is back in the days when we hand wrote checks to pay all the bills so we went through checks quicky.)

Besides, counter checks don't even have a number on them. The big number in the upper right hand corner doesn't mean anything to the bank. The little number that are stacked on top of each other like a fraction is what they look at.

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."

That is exactly what would happen at our bank. They will not cash two checks with the same number.

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Let us be silent that we may hear the whisper of God. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Doesn't your bank have online bill pay? Just pay it online and you don't have to worry about checks.

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Doing online for everything I can, but we are still on payments for med bills from having the kiddo, and those particular bills don't have online payments

I write about 5 checks a month Everything else, I do online! The med bills should be completely paid up next week though. Then it's socking as much to the propane to stock up for winter, and they need checks. Garbage people take checks too.

If everyone did online bill pay, I'd be thrilled

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Check to see if your bank offers online billpay. I don't go to every different site to pay my bills - I do them all through my bank's site for free. If the person I want to pay doesn't have online billpay, my bank prints and mails a check - it doesn't even have to be to a business. When I was in direct sales I had a customer from out of town who would order from me, and I would ship her the stuff - all of her checks to me came directly from her bank - and within two days of her telling me she set up the payment.

That's what we do. I pay DD's piano teacher and send donations to our church through the bank's on-line bill pay. They just send a check. I'm serious, I rarely use a checkbook anymore.

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."