Most of us write so few checks now that we forget what they cost until the last one is gone. Then the landlord wants a paper check, or the kid’s soccer league won’t take Venmo, and you click “reorder checks” inside your banking app without looking at the price.
That click is one of the most overpriced purchases in everyday banking. Your bank will happily sell you checks at several times what the exact same product costs elsewhere, and a lot of people pay it because the bank’s button is right there.
What banks charge compared with everyone else
Bankrate priced out check orders and found that banks tend to charge standard checking customers somewhere between 40 and 66 cents per single check. Third-party printers, by comparison, generally charge 5 to 24 cents per check for standard designs with security features. Duplicate checks (the kind with a carbon copy underneath) run roughly 43 to 75 cents each from banks versus 8 to 31 cents from outside printers.
The specific examples are even more lopsided. In Bankrate’s price comparison, two boxes of 80 single checks ordered through Chase’s vendor cost $60, which works out to about 38 cents a check. Sam’s Club charged $20.39 for two boxes of 200 checks, about 5 cents apiece. Walmart was $21.99 for two boxes of 120, roughly 9 cents a check, and Costco came in at $19.52 for two boxes of 120.
Do the math on 400 checks. At the Chase rate you’d pay around $150. At Sam’s Club you pay about $20. That’s more than $130 for pieces of paper that do the same job.
Why the checks are basically the same product
This is what makes the markup sting. Your bank usually doesn’t print checks. It sends the order to a large check printer, often Deluxe or Harland Clarke, and adds its own margin. When you order from a warehouse club or an online printer, you’re mostly cutting out that middle step.
The numbers that make a check work are your routing number and account number, printed along the bottom in magnetic ink. Any legitimate printer puts those on the check the same way your bank’s vendor does. The bank that holds your money processes the check, not the company that printed it.
Where the cheap checks are
Warehouse clubs are the price leaders if you’re already a member. Sam’s Club and Costco both sell checks in bulk, and The Penny Hoarder notes that Costco’s checks are printed through a partnership with Harland Clarke and that its high-security line includes more than 25 security features. If you don’t have a membership, don’t buy one just for checks. It won’t pay off.
Walmart is the easy pick for everyone else. The Penny Hoarder’s 2026 roundup lists a box of 120 Walmart checks for $12.75, about 11 cents a check, with free standard shipping. The same roundup found Super Value Checks selling an 80-check box for $3.95, the cheapest per-check price it saw, though that one charges $3.99 for basic shipping.
Before you order anything, check whether your bank gives checks away. Bankrate found that some online banks and credit unions, including Ally Bank, Navy Federal Credit Union and USAA, don’t charge for check orders at all. Customers with premium checking tiers can also qualify for free standard checks at some big banks; Bankrate’s examples were Chase Sapphire Checking and Bank of America’s Advantage Relationship Banking. If you’re already paying for (or qualifying for) one of those accounts, use the perk.
Keep the cost down when you order
Price climbs quickly once you start adding extras. Plain single checks in a basic design are the cheapest thing on any printer’s site. Cartoon characters, custom photos, duplicate copies and fancy checkbook covers all push the price up, and so does rush shipping. Unless you’ve got a check you need to write this week, take the free standard shipping. The Penny Hoarder says to expect two to three weeks for delivery, so reorder when you’re down to your last 15 or 20 checks instead of your last one.
Buying in bulk lowers the per-check price, but think about how many you’ll actually use. Federal Reserve payments research shows Americans wrote about 11 billion checks in 2021, down from more than 40 billion a year around 2000, a decline described in The Conversation. If you write one or two checks a month, a single box could last you years. A 16-box bulk order might outlive the address printed on it.
One more trick: when you fill out the order, start the new check numbers where your old book left off. It keeps your records clean and makes it easier to spot a missing check.
Don’t cut corners on security
Cheap shouldn’t mean flimsy. Check fraud tied to mail theft has become a real problem. A public service announcement from the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said reports of suspicious activity related to check fraud nearly doubled from 2021 to 2023. Thieves steal checks out of mailboxes, “wash” the ink off with chemicals, and rewrite the payee and amount.
The FBI recommends checks with built-in security features such as microprinting, holograms, heat-sensitive ink, watermarks and chemically reactive paper. The good news for your budget is that plenty of low-cost options include some of these. Bankrate points out that Costco, Walmart and Sam’s Club sell checks with hologram foil bars and heat-reactive ink.
To make sure a printer meets industry standards, look for a small padlock icon printed on the check, usually near the amount box. That icon means the check meets the security requirements of the Check Payment Systems Association, a trade group that certifies check printers. It’s also smart to look up an unfamiliar printer with the Better Business Bureau before you hand over your account and routing numbers.
And however cheap your checks are, don’t leave them sitting in your mailbox with the flag up. Drop outgoing checks inside the post office.
Maybe you don’t need to buy checks at all
The cheapest box of checks is the one you never order. Before reordering, look at what you actually write checks for. Many banks offer online bill pay, and when a payee can’t accept electronic payments, the bank’s system mails a paper check for you. Your landlord or utility might also have a portal that pulls directly from your checking account.
For the occasional odd payment that truly needs paper, like a security deposit or a closing cost, you’ll often need a cashier’s check anyway, which you get from the bank on the spot rather than from your checkbook.
Keep a small stash of personal checks for the payments that still require them. For everything else, electronic options are free and don’t pass through a mailbox.
Where to put the money you save
Saving $40 on a check order won’t change your life, and we won’t pretend otherwise. But this is a typical bank fee: small, easy to ignore, and paid over and over because nobody compares prices. The same habit that catches it will also catch a monthly maintenance fee or a paper statement charge.
When you skip your bank’s check order, move the difference into your high-yield savings account the same day. It’s a tiny deposit, but it’s money that would otherwise have gone to your bank’s check vendor.
