by Reality EXPENSIVE Checks » Fri Apr 13, 2012 6:42 pm
Since I'm "Reality CHECK" I wanted to speak about the checks you would buy in the store if you print your own checks.
With the implementation of the Federal Reserve's "Check 21" rule, banks are allowed to transmit the image of the incoming check to the drawing bank instead of actually returning the item. This is of course, a degree of magnitude cheaper than shipping cancelled checks* back, since an e-mailed image should cost no more than about 1/2c, counting for operator overhead.
What this means is the numbers at the bottom of a check merely have to be an OCR font similar to what a bank's system expects, it no longer has to be printed using MICR, and so you don't have to use magnetic ink at the bottom.
You can buy colored paper in about 24 pound weight - a little thicker than usual paper - for perhaps $12 a ream (500 sheets). Black check stock is $38 a ream (and I discovered I was correct, CHECK stock is 24 pound paper). And this is simply blank stock with one item marked with check lines. It doesn't have your address or account information printed on it. But it's priced 3 times what any other package of colored 24# paper.
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What do they call abortions in Czechslovakia? Cancelled Czechs.
Since I'm "Reality CHECK" I wanted to speak about the checks you would buy in the store if you print your own checks.
With the implementation of the Federal Reserve's "Check 21" rule, banks are allowed to transmit the image of the incoming check to the drawing bank instead of actually returning the item. This is of course, a degree of magnitude cheaper than shipping cancelled checks* back, since an e-mailed image should cost no more than about 1/2c, counting for operator overhead.
What this means is the numbers at the bottom of a check merely have to be an OCR font similar to what a bank's system expects, it no longer has to be printed using MICR, and so you don't have to use magnetic ink at the bottom.
You can buy colored paper in about 24 pound weight - a little thicker than usual paper - for perhaps $12 a ream (500 sheets). Black check stock is $38 a ream (and I discovered I was correct, CHECK stock is 24 pound paper). And this is simply blank stock with one item marked with check lines. It doesn't have your address or account information printed on it. But it's priced 3 times what any other package of colored 24# paper.
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What do they call abortions in Czechslovakia? Cancelled Czechs.