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Quick answer: Cheap online checks from OnlineCheckWriter.com start at $0.80 per check plus a $5 monthly base fee, with no minimum order. For a seasonal business like a Boise landscaping and nursery operation, the real savings usually isn’t a lower price per check than a big box from the bank, it’s not getting stuck with hundreds of checks you only needed for one season.
Key Takeaways
Is Printing Your Own Checks Actually Cheaper Than Ordering a Box?
It depends on how many checks you write and how steady that number stays month to month. A big box of pre-printed checks from a bank or checkbook vendor often has a lower cost per check once you’re using every one, but you pay for the whole box up front, whether your business writes that many checks or not. A landscaping and nursery business in Boise, Idaho doesn’t write a flat number of checks every month. Crew payroll can jump from three checks a week in January to fifteen in June, and a box sized for peak season sits half-used the rest of the year.
Online checks flip that math. OnlineCheckWriter.com’s disclosed pricing is $0.80 per check plus a flat $5 a month, with no minimum order. You pay for what you print that month, not what you guessed you’d need three months ago.
What Does a Boise Landscaping Business Actually Pay Per Month?
Using only the pricing OnlineCheckWriter.com publishes, here’s an example of what a seasonal check volume could look like across a year, printed on demand instead of ordered in bulk. This is an illustrative example, not measured data from a real customer, your own volume and cost will vary:
| Checks/week | Checks/month | Per-check cost | + base fee | Monthly total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slow season (Nov–Feb) | ~3 | ~12 | $9.60 | $5 | $14.60 |
| Peak season (Mar–Oct) | ~15 | ~60 | $48.00 | $5 | $53.00 |
A bank checkbook is typically charged for the whole box regardless of season, so a box sized for peak crew payroll sits half-used every winter, and running out mid-summer means waiting on a mailed reorder while Friday payroll is due.
What Do I Need Before I Can Print My Own Checks?
Printing your own business checks isn’t just paper and any printer you have in the office. Three things have to be right, or your bank can reject the check:
- Blank check stock, not pre-printed checkbook paper, but compliant blank stock designed for check printing.
- A laser printer loaded with MICR toner, this is required. A standard inkjet printer, or a laser printer with ordinary non-magnetic toner, cannot produce a bank-readable MICR line. Load your laser printer with magnetic (MICR) toner and standard blank check stock, and the software formats the MICR line correctly.
- Your routing and account number, entered once into your check-printing software and reused on every check tied to that account.
If you’d rather skip printing altogether, OnlineCheckWriter.com will mail the check for you for $1.25 per check, still no minimum order, and no printer to maintain.
Is There a Minimum Order or a Contract?
No. That’s the part that matters most for a seasonal business. A checkbook order from the bank is usually sold in a fixed quantity, you buy the box, whether you use 40 checks or 400 out of it. Online checks are billed per check you actually print or mail that month, on top of the flat $5 monthly base, with no long-term contract required.
How Do I Start Printing Cheap Online Checks?
- Create an OnlineCheckWriter.com account and connect your business bank account.
- Choose a check layout and add your business logo, if you want your checks branded.
- Load blank check stock into your laser printer loaded with MICR toner.
- Enter the payee and amount, preview the check, and print it, or choose USPS mailing for $1.25 per check instead.
- Keep a running log of what you’ve printed each pay period so seasonal swings in crew size are easy to track at tax time.
Stop Buying Checks You Might Not Use
Print exactly the checks your crew and suppliers need this month, whether that’s three or thirty. No box to buy up front, no minimum order, starting at $0.80 a check.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are online checks really cheaper than a bank checkbook?
It depends on your volume. A checkbook can have a lower per-check price once every check in the box is used, but you pay for the full box up front. Printing on demand at $0.80 a check plus a $5 monthly base means a seasonal business only pays for what it actually writes.
Do I need a special printer?
You need a laser printer loaded with magnetic (MICR) toner, since the routing and account number line has to be magnetically readable for a bank’s equipment. A standard inkjet printer cannot produce a compliant MICR line.
What if I don’t want to buy a laser printer at all?
You can skip printing altogether and have the check mailed for $1.25 per check, still with no minimum order.
Is there a minimum number of checks I have to order?
No. You print or mail one check at a time if that’s all you need, and pay the $5 monthly base plus the per-check rate for whatever you actually use.
Will my bank accept a check I printed myself?
Printed on compliant blank check stock with a correctly formatted MICR line, a self-printed check carries the same fields a bank expects on any check. Final acceptance is still up to your bank’s own review process.
How does this help with a seasonal crew?
A landscaping crew that grows in spring and shrinks in winter writes a different number of checks every month. Paying per check instead of buying a fixed box means the cost tracks your actual payroll instead of a guess made months earlier.
Can I connect this to QuickBooks or another accounting tool?
Yes. OnlineCheckWriter.com connects with accounting software including QuickBooks, so your printed checks can match your existing books instead of being entered twice.
What happens if I stop printing checks for a few months?
The $5 monthly base still applies, but you’re not paying for checks you didn’t print, unlike a pre-bought box that sits unused during your off-season.
A landscaping and nursery business in Boise doesn’t run the same check volume in January as it does in June, and the cheapest option on paper isn’t always the cheapest one in practice once a half-used box of pre-printed checks is sitting in a drawer every winter. Printing on demand, at a published per-check price with no minimum order, means the cost moves with your crew size instead of against it. See how blank check stock printing works, and pair it with positive pay fraud protection if you’re moving more checks through a growing crew.
Print Only What This Season Needs
Set up your check layout once, then print or mail exactly as many checks as your crew and suppliers need this month, nothing bought in advance, nothing sitting unused.
OnlineCheckWriter.com – Powered by Zil Money, is a financial technology company and not a bank. Banking services are provided by our partner bank, Member FDIC. FDIC insurance applies only to eligible products associated with those that have funds held in accounts at the partner bank, subject to applicable limits and requirements.