Cute Kitties or NASCAR?

Ah, the pure terror of totally free choice! Sometimes it's difficult to make a decent decision when you have too many choices available (how else can we explain the popularity of harvest gold appliances in the 1970s?). Well, batten down your hatches, because checks are one of those things that offer you such an insane freedom of choice that there's just about nothing that you can't choose, at least within the bounds of reasonable taste. And you can bet that a few personal check designs will skate right over that line, too.

The good thing is, most of these are cheap checks -- so if Bart Simpson suddenly starts to pall, you can trade him in for Batman for a reasonable price. And if you despair of finding the perfect design, you can always create your own. Many check vendors will let you submit a photo that they can convert into a background for your next set of checks. Your grandkids, your '64½ Mustang, your house, Comet Kohoutek -- whatever you most value or think is beautiful is fair game.

Of course if you're looking for business checks, you most likely needn't worry about a special design. Just pick something staid and sober, order Quicken business checks or Quickbooks business checks (depending on the software you use), and you're on your way.

Once you've made that choice, you've got others. What kind of checks do you want? You've got the option of the popular side tear checks or top-stub checks. Side tear checks are easy to use, but often aren't as easy to keep track of as top-stubs. Then you have to decide whether you want one-part checks -- great for those of us who always remember to record who they wrote a check to and for how much -- or two-part duplicate checks, which come complete with a carbonless copy, for all the rest of us.

On to What to Look for in Check Security, If That's Your Thing .. Back