Credit Card vs. Check on a major ($10K+) event.

[NRV Runner]

Our BnB is in a major college town and May graduation is a five-figure event over three days. We'll be renting out nine rooms. We plan to charge it at the start of the year (guests are aware of our policy). Credit card fees will be around $300-$400 for this. Thoughts on asking our guests to just send us a check instead (minus the deposit that we've already taken)? It would have plenty of time to clear.

 

[Morticia]

Get a check!
And, amazed you can generate that kind of income for graduation. Our rates go up by $10. Hotel rates quadruple and guests pay it. Not at a b&b, tho.

 

[GoodScout]

Agree. We strongly push for checks for wedding deposits when there's a long lead time.
If brides insist on credit card (they don't have all the money and are financing their wedding through first bank of visa, which is crazy) then we have to relent.

 

[gillumhouse]

CHECK!!!!! I require a non-refundable 25% deposit by CHECK for my elopements. Why? Because that check is in my bank account and it is NOT coming out if the wedding gets cancelled. This was instituted after an elopement was cancelled 3 weeks before when the groom demanded a pre-nup be signed. She told him get lost. Fortunately I had not ordered flowers yet so was not out anything more than anticipated revenue and a minister who also lost anticipated revenue.
Credit cards carry the possibility of a chargeback. Get CHECKS!!!

 

[Arks]

Yes, get a check. Plenty of time for it to clear the bank before the event.

 

[user 26]

Check, please! I hope this is in your policies already. Not just because of the fees but because they can later protest the charge and tie up your money. But also with whole house reservations, I had multiple people wanting to pay with multiple cards, a mess to sort out and people saying so and so said she paid for my room.

 

[Generic]

What's a cheque? Is it that antique thing that says _______19__ at the top?
I recently had to set up the payments for a loan and had to pull one of those out.
We actually rolled 5% into our prices for CC processing and then offer a discount of 5% for cash/debit. Processing debit here is just 7c per transaction. No one here uses cheques much anymore. But we do have a direct debit system that you can use to send cash direct from the bank.

 

[Arks]

Checks are a slowly disappearing here too. I really suspect that, at the root, it's more about saving processing expenses for the bank, rather than a benefit to the account holder. They'll probably eventually charge an extra fee to use a check.
It kind of reminds me of people who have stopped wearing a wristwatch, thinking it's simpler (it's not) to pull out a phone to see the time. Likewise, I've seen people spend 45 minutes clearing the leaves out of their yard with a leaf blower, when they could have done the job with a rake in just 15 minutes.
Bah. Humbug!

 

[gillumhouse]

Checks are a slowly disappearing here too. I really suspect that, at the root, it's more about saving processing expenses for the bank, rather than a benefit to the account holder. They'll probably eventually charge an extra fee to use a check.
It kind of reminds me of people who have stopped wearing a wristwatch, thinking it's simpler (it's not) to pull out a phone to see the time. Likewise, I've seen people spend 45 minutes clearing the leaves out of their yard with a leaf blower, when they could have done the job with a rake in just 15 minutes.
Bah. Humbug!.

Checks are a slowly disappearing here too. I really suspect that, at the root, it's more about saving processing expenses for the bank, rather than a benefit to the account holder. They'll probably eventually charge an extra fee to use a check.
It kind of reminds me of people who have stopped wearing a wristwatch, thinking it's simpler (it's not) to pull out a phone to see the time. Likewise, I've seen people spend 45 minutes clearing the leaves out of their yard with a leaf blower, when they could have done the job with a rake in just 15 minutes.
Bah. Humbug!

I will use checks as long as I possibly can. Using your phone to do banking opens one up to hackers easier than anything. Lose your phone and the bad guys have EVERYTHING. IF I have to move savings into checking, I go to the bank.

 

[GoodScout]

Checks are getting rare. We have lots of young couples sending us wedding deposits via Venmo (we discourage PayPal because of the fees). Only problem with Venmo is a $2k per week limit, so sometimes they have to send us multiple deposit payments.

 

[Arks]

Checks are a slowly disappearing here too. I really suspect that, at the root, it's more about saving processing expenses for the bank, rather than a benefit to the account holder. They'll probably eventually charge an extra fee to use a check.
It kind of reminds me of people who have stopped wearing a wristwatch, thinking it's simpler (it's not) to pull out a phone to see the time. Likewise, I've seen people spend 45 minutes clearing the leaves out of their yard with a leaf blower, when they could have done the job with a rake in just 15 minutes.
Bah. Humbug!.

Checks are a slowly disappearing here too. I really suspect that, at the root, it's more about saving processing expenses for the bank, rather than a benefit to the account holder. They'll probably eventually charge an extra fee to use a check.
It kind of reminds me of people who have stopped wearing a wristwatch, thinking it's simpler (it's not) to pull out a phone to see the time. Likewise, I've seen people spend 45 minutes clearing the leaves out of their yard with a leaf blower, when they could have done the job with a rake in just 15 minutes.
Bah. Humbug!

I will use checks as long as I possibly can. Using your phone to do banking opens one up to hackers easier than anything. Lose your phone and the bad guys have EVERYTHING. IF I have to move savings into checking, I go to the bank.
.

Lose your phone and the bad guys have EVERYTHING.

Always have your phone ask for a password or fingerprint every time the screen is turned on. Remember in 2016 when the FBI obtained a iPhone that belonged to a terrorist, and even THEY couldn't unlock it. At least, they SAID they couldn't. They tried to force Apple to unlock it for them and Apple refused.

 

[Tom]

Same here for graduation: check dated Jan 15, with reservation # on memo. We hold it until then and then it's non refundable (do that to put income in year of service). We make it very clear in phone and email. With CC, they can still charge back to cancel and it is almost impossible to get fixed. For this event, this much money, they can find a check.

 

[Generic]

Checks are a slowly disappearing here too. I really suspect that, at the root, it's more about saving processing expenses for the bank, rather than a benefit to the account holder. They'll probably eventually charge an extra fee to use a check.
It kind of reminds me of people who have stopped wearing a wristwatch, thinking it's simpler (it's not) to pull out a phone to see the time. Likewise, I've seen people spend 45 minutes clearing the leaves out of their yard with a leaf blower, when they could have done the job with a rake in just 15 minutes.
Bah. Humbug!.

Checks are a slowly disappearing here too. I really suspect that, at the root, it's more about saving processing expenses for the bank, rather than a benefit to the account holder. They'll probably eventually charge an extra fee to use a check.
It kind of reminds me of people who have stopped wearing a wristwatch, thinking it's simpler (it's not) to pull out a phone to see the time. Likewise, I've seen people spend 45 minutes clearing the leaves out of their yard with a leaf blower, when they could have done the job with a rake in just 15 minutes.
Bah. Humbug!

I will use checks as long as I possibly can. Using your phone to do banking opens one up to hackers easier than anything. Lose your phone and the bad guys have EVERYTHING. IF I have to move savings into checking, I go to the bank.
.

I've put up a few protections on my account, but I have been pressuring my bank for YEARS to get 2FA in place. They are finally putting some of that in place.
I have 2FA in place for my fb, ggl and amz accounts. Even my username and password isn't enough to get into my account.... you need a 6 digit number that my phone calculates every few minutes. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Authenticator for an explanation. It's based on a seed that you transfer once and is based on time.