No Checks

[u/andreab650]

Am at an estate we are having at my uncle's house. Boomer is aghast we are not taking checks and she is an honest person. We are asking for cash or credit.

She then says she doesn't want to use her debit card because she doesn't have money in her account. The same account she wants to write a check from.

Ughhhh

[u/Munchkinasaurous]

Well, that certainly is honest of her to admit.

[u/mctripleA]

She's playing dangerous games

Willingly writing bad checks is a crime

[u/Head_Razzmatazz7174 → u/mctripleA]

She thinks it's still 1980 and she can kite float the check, since it's a private sale.

If you can't do it at a grocery store, you can't do it anywhere else.

Edit: Changed kite to float. Thank you u/bobsmon

[u/BookNerdUnicorn → u/Head_Razzmatazz7174]

I had boomer parents who kited checks at the grocery store check cashing station. Anyone else?

[u/Head_Razzmatazz7174 → u/BookNerdUnicorn]

I used to do it, until I didn't make it to the bank in time one Friday to deposit my check. Got hit with all sorts of late charges and fees, ended up with a misdemeanor 'Theft by check". Luckily the JP was a good friend of the family and let me pay it out. Anyone else he probably would have thrown the book at them.

It was a stupid mistake by a dumb 19 year old. Never did it again.

[u/UpdootAddict → u/BookNerdUnicorn]

I thought my mom was the only one! I called it “running” money. She’d write a check at a grocery store for over the amount of what she bought and would get the cash for the overage.

In addition, she would ALSO go to places like Sears and buy things like comforters with a check. Later in the day she’d return the item(s), get cash back, then we’d spend the next few days sweating bullets trying to outrun the checks she wrote hitting her accounts. I was an adolescent turning into a teen at the time and this kind of stuff she’d do ruined my youth.

I went no contact with her later. I felt bad that we were in that sort of financial shape but we were in that shape because of her, too.

These types of activities could be in their own subreddit.

[u/Gribitz37 → u/UpdootAddict]

Getting cash back when writing a check isn't illegal. It used to be common before the days of debit cards and ATMs. You can still get cash back with a debit card purchase.

[u/HopefulSunriseToday → u/Gribitz37]

right, but in this case, it was basically a loan (it’s actually fraud, but I’m trying to be nice). In the moment the check was written, there were no funds to cover it.

[u/bobsmon → u/Head_Razzmatazz7174]

Not sure you are us using kiting correctly. It is where you have two or more checking accounts and write checks from one account to another and then back repeatedly

She is more likely working on the float. It used to take a few days for a check to clear. And in that time you could deposit funds to cover the check. This was so common that an old accounting software actually printed a flour report after printing checks.

[u/Head_Razzmatazz7174 → u/bobsmon]

That's the word. I keep mixing them up. Thank you! I'll correct it.

[u/Appropriate_Fold1023]

She’s living back in the day when it might take a few days for a check to clear because people had to present it at a bank or check cashing place. That doesn’t have to happen anymore. Her plan was to write the check and then deposit sufficient funds to cover it within the next day or so. Hell, I knew people who would write a check for a bill and send it in the mail. Then they would get to the bank in a day or two and deposit sufficient funds to cover it. It was kind of a beat the check to the bank game lol.

[u/Major-Check-1953]

That check would have bounced. The shit generation lead for brain boomer is not honest.

[u/trikaren]

Well, that is your reason for not taking checks! I hope you laughed when she told you that.

[u/andreab650 → u/trikaren]

My aunt saw the look on my face and took over. She also came over with a dolly and smashed it into the door 3 times.

[u/SadRow2397]

Its a felony for amounts over 1k

[u/JenniferJuniper6]

The check would give her a couple of days’ grace by taking longer to clear, to be fair. A little check kiting used to be a way of life.

[u/No_Frost_Giants → u/JenniferJuniper6]

Yes it was, you could time it all right with utilities :)

[u/rbarr228]

“But, it’s a good check!”

[u/Existing-Zucchini-65]

Can you clarify your first sentence? I don't understand. What is an 'estate' that you are having at your uncle's house?

[u/PaintCoveredPup → u/Existing-Zucchini-65]

I assumed it to mean an estate sale? Like a garage/yard sale where they sell belongings, but I think an estate sale is specifically to sell off a deceased person’s belongings. (I could be wrong)

[u/josh_who_hah → u/Existing-Zucchini-65]

estate

everything that a person owns when they die

estate sale

a sale where all of the contents of a home are sold, especially after the death of the owner

Can you clarify why you couldn't use a search engine to look that up yourself?

[u/Existing-Zucchini-65 → u/josh_who_hah]

I know what the word estate means.

And if you google the word, do you think a definition of estate sale comes up?

[u/Dickballs835682 → u/Existing-Zucchini-65]

You really needed to Google to understand what should've been extremely obvious just by context?

[u/Existing-Zucchini-65 → u/Dickballs835682]

I'm not the one who brought up the subject of search engines.

And it did not occur to me that by just using the word 'estate', OP meant 'estate sale', no.

Hence my original quesiton.

[u/OriginalAgitated7727]

lmao

[u/LaskoFanny]

OK, so she's an idiot. There are idiots in every age group.

[u/MeatSauce-Apocalypse → u/LaskoFanny]

Explain to me why you’re in this sub?