When ones runs a business, it is ALWAYS bewst to have WRITTEN records of your financial transactions.
As a life-long bookkeeper, I can tell you that trying to find record of payment for something when all you have is a transaction number & a crazy-to-decipher abbreviation, it can be a nightmare. One of my clients used his debit card alot. I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to ID some of his purchases. IF & WHEN the 1099 crap starts—I truly don’t know how I can keep track of every gas station & Home Depot he goes into.
I won’t bank on-line, nor will I work for anyone who does, particularly deposits.
I cannot tell you how many times in the past 45 years that I had to prove something was paid to a vendor by showing a COPY of the FRONT & BACK sides of the check in question.
One event was triggered around an embezzlement. Our payment to the vendor of over $3000 wasn’t shown in their records-—but our check had been deposited.
I am very uncomfortable not getting my cancelled checks back, only a copy of the front of the check. That does not give me the clear picture of the endorsement.
Banks will provide such back of the check endorsement-—at $50 per hour, only within 90 days. Sometimes an embezzlement takes a long time to discover. Getting those check copies after 90 days could be a nightmare, also.
That is just not fair.
I agree. I hate that, and I hate that they did it without getting the customers' permission first. At least the check images come in the statement now. When they started it, you could only get the images by doing something proactively -- downloading each and every check image online, or requesting them from the bank. Who's going to assume those new costs? Plus, now your fate is in someone else's hands. What if their servers crash and lose the images and you need it later? What if it's the bank you're having a dispute with? How sure are you that they'll be honest in the use of their equipment and data to protect you from THEMSELVES? We've all seen how police car videos always seem to malfunction in exactly the cases where the civilian is alleging police misconduct. The means to protect you should be in YOUR hands and no others.
On my bank's online system, I can click on a check and get an image of both the front and back. Perhaps you should check out other banks?