# Any advice on cheque printing?



## GratuitousApplesauce (Jan 29, 2004)

Anyone here print their own cheques? What do you use?

I need a new batch of cheques for a new business venture and it really burns my biscuits that the bank wants to hose me for ink on paper. I'd rather write my cheques out on napkins by hand than give those buggers any more inflated profits. I did a little searching on the web, but I haven't found much that relates to Mac software and cheque printing (as opposed to check printing) in Canada.


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## RevMatt (Sep 10, 2005)

I recommend joining Citizen's Bank and getting free cheques


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## GratuitousApplesauce (Jan 29, 2004)

RevMatt said:


> I recommend joining Citizen's Bank and getting free cheques


Can't do that for several reasons right now. I'm using a business account anyway and I doubt if Citizen's Bank is giving away free cheques on business accounts. Most banks are charging double or triple the amount for cheques than they charge for personal accounts.

I plan to change banks in the near future, which is also part of the reason I don't want to pay for a whack of cheques. The old one's I have for my current business account, were never used much and have an old address on them. I believe they cost me around $70 bucks at the time and I used maybe 5 or 6 of them.


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## RevMatt (Sep 10, 2005)

Ah, fair enough. I don't know much about business cheques, but the charity account I ran once was allowed to get cheques free if we took them unprinted. Is that an option for you?


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## MLeh (Dec 23, 2005)

Personalised cheques need to have the account number printed in special magnetic ink on the bottom of them, so you can't print your own. If you're only using 5 or 6 cheques a year, go to the bank and ask for 'counter cheques'. You will have to write in your account number (and the bank will have to process them by hand, not by machine). Counter cheques are free.


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## jasonwood (Oct 19, 2003)

I got my business cheques from Nebs.

http://www.nebs.ca/canEcat/products/categories/cheques.jsp


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## GratuitousApplesauce (Jan 29, 2004)

MLeh said:


> Personalised cheques need to have the account number printed in special magnetic ink on the bottom of them, so you can't print your own.


I came across commentary on the 'net that the banks were moving or have moved away from magnetic ink and are using optical character recognition. Apparently the new cheque standard the banks are adopting in 2007 is because of this.

If you can't print your own cheques then why are there lists of software programs that do this? Is this US only? I couldn't find out if there are any Canadian versions of these programs for the Mac, though.

Strictly speaking, I had always thought a cheque was a legal document that could be written out by hand if necessary. The standardized forms are simply a convenience for the bank to save their costs in processing thousands of cheques. Is this not so? The fact that they want to charge me serious money to make their processing costs less is a little galling to me. But I guess that's one more little way they insure that their multi-billion dollar profits keep rolling in on schedule.


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## Kami (Jul 29, 2002)

You can get magnetic ink and perforated cheque paper in a kit at your local Office Depot. I don't know how well this works. You also haveto buy the kit (cartridge) that matches your ink jet printer


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## GratuitousApplesauce (Jan 29, 2004)

Oh I guess the post I was replying to was already removed. EhMac promptness, eh?
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[email protected] said:


> I got cheque printing from a company called [company name removed]. They are located in Mississauga Ontario, but will ship anywhere. Great prices.


Hey [email protected], what makes your company better than the thousand or so print shops in Canada that can do the same thing? The long-dead thread's question from 3 years ago was on printing one's own cheques using their own printer.

Sorry if you are just a new member who joined ehMac because you were passionate about a particular printing company, but your post looks suspiciously like advertising spam. If it's not and you've truly joined ehMac to continue to participate in the forums, I apologize and eagerly await your next 30 posts.

EDIT: Removed the spam links and company name. We (the mods) try to remove spam as fast as possible.


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## Sonal (Oct 2, 2003)

GratuitousApplesauce said:


> Strictly speaking, I had always thought a cheque was a legal document that could be written out by hand if necessary. The standardized forms are simply a convenience for the bank to save their costs in processing thousands of cheques. Is this not so? The fact that they want to charge me serious money to make their processing costs less is a little galling to me. But I guess that's one more little way they insure that their multi-billion dollar profits keep rolling in on schedule.


Used to be so, but a number of things have changed in the name of automation. (Or so they say.)

In any case, I get mine at our local print shop/mailbox people. (Wouldn't do you much good, since you are not in Toronto.) But ask around... a lot of the little print shop can order cheques for you at more reasonable prices.


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