All of us who stopped getting our checks from the bank probably have our own reasons for ditching the standard fare in favor of personalized stuff.  Even if you’d rather opt for the typical-looking bank checks without any fancy designs, it still makes better sense not to get them from your branch.
When did you stop using bank checks?  Depending on how long you’ve stopped and how many checks you issue every month, it usually represents a large amount of savings.  In fact, getting your checks directly from the printer probably …

If you don’t care much for the novelty of personalized checks, it may be premature to abandon it entirely.  After all, personal designer checks are finding increasing use as a way to make a difference in society.
Do you have personal beliefs that you want to further?  If you want to help spread the word in living green or organic gardening, for instance, you can use personal checks as a platform to broaden people’s awareness.  For instance, I’ve seen many checks during the last year printed with reminders about ecological issues.  …

With the growing concern over the environment, it’s not unusual for more and more people to demand recycled products over ones that require using up even more of our natural resources.  If they’re going to do the job just as well, anyway, why choose any other?
When you use recycled personalized checks, you save on innumerable amounts of natural resources, from the many trees that get cut down to all the water, electricity and chemicals that are used up in order to turn timber into a fresh clean sheet of paper.  …

Bank checks are so generic in their appearance that it’s often difficult to tell one apart from the other.  With standard patterns, backgrounds and colors, you might as well use a blank sheets of white paper – there’s so little to tell them apart.
Not that it’s bad, though.  Checks are intended for economic exchanges and don’t require much else to be legal drafts.  As such, many consumers take no issue with bank checks that you can’t tell apart from each other – they do what they’re supposed to, after all.
For …

Stock bank checks can do the job quite nicely on their own.  That’s what I always told folks who kept encouraging me to order my own set of custom-designed bank drafts.  Eventually, though, I saw the folly in that and now order a fresh batch almost every month.
Why bother with a personalized check?  Let me count the ways.
1. Ugly, bland and generally boring bank checks cost pretty much the same as a personalized check from an online printer. You don’t save any money when you go with the inferior product, …

Whether you believe in superstitions or not, good luck charms do make a nice theme for your personalized check designs.  More than being a cute accessory, it might leave you in a positive state of mind every time you draw from your checkbook .  If you play your cards right, it might even help bring good fortune your way.
Money. What better symbol of financial prosperity is there than pictures of bills?  At the least, it’s a fitting design – images of financial instrument on another financial instrument.  At best, …

I remember when I issued a photo check to pay my aunt for a loan.  The check had a  colorful picture of me, my wife and our three kids on the background.  She called me up and told me she didn’t want to encash the check because the picture of us looked so good.  I told her I’d send her a batch of checks in her name using the same design.  She loved it.
Designer checks can make memorable gifts.  As long as you keep it personal and meaningful to the …

Classic and formal designer checks usually work best for businesses, in contrast to the funky personal styles we often see offered by private order printers.  It tells those you’re issuing the checks to that you’re serious and that being perceived as a professional organization is an important concern.
While that may be true for traditional companies, many modern businesses can benefit from deviating a little off the well-traveled path.  If you run a fun business, like a magazine publication, a pet store or an event organizing service, using a more unconventional …

I wasn’t a big fan of personalized checks until a year ago.  While I’ve had some Disney checks and other similarly-designed instruments issued my way, I always found them a bit cheesy, if not inappropriate.
My wife, however, began to develop an affinity for them.  In fact, she ordered several booklets worth of checks with flowers, birds and various other “girly” stuff as its main design.  When they arrived at our house, I looked at her with the same quizzical expression I gave to people who issued their designer checks to …

Checks are so boring.  No matter who you’re banking with, the checks they have on stock look just like everybody else’s.  Of course, they’re financial instruments so they just need to be functional to do their job.Still, while they aren’t meant to entertain, bank checks don’t exactly need to be that sordid either.
That’s why I loved it when I discovered personal checks, which are essentially privately-printed legal bank drafts that can carry as much customization and personalization as you want.  If you’re bored with those sheets of paper that you …