Why do checks cost so much?

Everybody wants to get the most bang for their buck so to speak. With costs rising, it is more important than ever to find ways to save some of our hard-earned money without compromising value. Ever-tightening budgets leave little wiggle room for unnecessary expenses and motivate us to find the best deals. We clip coupons, join rewards programs, and buy generic rather than name brand to save a dollar here and a dollar there. This kind of hypervigilant monitoring of expenses makes consumers more aware of areas where the price seems to outweigh the value. One of these areas that seem to stand out for many is the cost of checks. Many consumers just like you wonder why it costs so much to buy checks from the bank or that you print at home using an accounting program.

Banks

Ordering checks directly from your financial institution are fast and convenient. As with most things nowadays, you are going to pay top dollar for that convenience and ease. While your bank may seem like the most logical place to get your checks from, they are, in fact, the last place that you should order through.

Why? In the simplest terms, they are not in the business of printing checks. Banks are focused on savings and checking accounts, loans, credit cards, and online banking.

Banks do not print checks themselves. They send your check order to a traditional large-scale printer. That company needs to make a profit off of your order, and the bank feels that they need to make a profit for the time spent acting as an intermediary between you and the printer.

That means that your checks are marked up twice before they reach you. If each party uses the basic marketing concept of a 40 percent markup, that adds up quick!

Moreover, banks do not want you to write checks. Processing checks are becoming increasingly more expensive for banks and they would rather customers use other methods to process payments. High check prices serve to push consumers like you to rely more upon electronic transfers than written checks.

Software Companies

If you use computer software like Quicken or QuickBooks to print your checks, you can buy checks through the software company. However, like banks, they send their orders out to those same large printers. Which means that you are still paying two markups – one from the printer and one from the software company – every time you order your checks.

New Generation Check Printers

To address this imbalance in value and cost, a new generation of check printing companies have grown in North America. ASAP Checks is one of those printers.

We offer the ability to order checks online through a process that is secure, fast, easy, and entirely middleman free!

Unlike public companies, ASAP Checks has minimal overhead and passes that savings on to their customers. In fact, our average savings – when compared to traditional check printers, accounting software companies, and the typical big bank – are as high as 85 percent. To be more exact, the average savings is as much as:

• 77 percent on business checks
• 84 percent on personal checks
• 85 percent on computer checks

Everybody likes to save money, and in today’s economy, it is more important than ever before. By focusing on what really matters to our customers – a secure product, lower costs, timely effective customer service, and better value – ASAP Checks delivers a quality product at a fraction of the cost.