January 2, 2019 / in Business Recommendations / by Jason Terry
It was hard for me to come up with an enticing title for this story. Business Checks and Remote Deposit Stamps aren’t sexy or exciting. At all. But they’re usually necessary to have when running a business. And you know I like to share these kinds of tips, so here we go!
The Blue Gurus checking account is at Core Bank. They’re a blogging client of mine and I prefer to do business with companies that are doing business with me. I made that change about a year ago, and needed to get business checks for the new account. In the previous two banking relationships, I ordered checks directly from the bank. And they were a bit pricey.
There are lots of reasons I like to bank with Core Bank, and one of them is that Tricia Luedke takes good care of me. (Check out her LinkedIn profile… I love the summary she wrote starting with “You can take the Girl out of the small town, but you can’t take the small town out of the Girl!”) When I asked Tricia to order me checks, she told me that an excellent place to get business checks is through Costco. I had no idea that Costco did checks!
I’m a big fan of Costco… so I was definitely willing to give them a shot. Here’s the link to check services on Costco.com. (A third party called Harland Clarke Check Printing actually handles the ordering and printing of the checks. So you will end up going to CostcoChecks.com if you decide to order checks.)
I ordered general purpose, 2-part business checks (in blue of course) and a binder to keep them organized. I was also able to add the Blue Gurus logo to the design. They were about half the cost of the checks I’d bought directly through previous banks! After using them for a year, I can tell you that they’re printed on good paper, the 2-part duplicate feature works great, and I will definitely reorder when the time comes.
If you remotely deposit checks for your business, you’re probably required to stamp them first. This is called “franking” the check. A typical stamp reads, “Pay to the order of <Bank> for Deposit Only.” It usually includes your company name and account number as well.
Some check scanners do this automatically as you scan them in. And if not, you have to do it manually with a stamp. In my case, I have to do it manually. These kinds of stamps ordered through a bank can cost between $40-$50. I’ve been using VistaPrint for self-inking stamps for years, and you can get them for less than $20.
You can order all kinds of stamps from VistaPrint, including self-inking stamps, pre-inked stamps, notary stamps, signature stamps, date stamps and replacement ink.
Thanks for reading! I hope you learned something useful… and I hope you’ll come back next week to read about Google Tasks!