Direct Deposit: Fill & Download for Free

Sorry for going anonymous on thus one - it's one of those “to protect the guilty” situations.At the company I used to work for, on and off for six years, the boss was really big on direct deposit. He pushed everyone onto direct deposit with lots of great reasons.“If I'm traveling when payroll comes out, there won't be anyone around to sign checks. You'll have to wait until I get back to get paid.” “Direct deposit hits your bank account at midnight on the morning of pay day, so you'll get your money faster than if I sign the check that afternoon.” He had a great sales pitch to make sure everyone was set up on direct deposit.I was on direct deposit for years, but at some point I changed banks and just never got around to submitting the info for my new account.But here's the thing. Direct deposit can work both ways.An employee had stolen from the company, so the boss had the HR manager pull the last two checks out of the guy's account - a month's worth of pay. I thought that was a bit harsh, but hey, that employee was a crook and got what he deserved.Then one of the girls in data entry had a family emergency. She had to quit her job with no notice and move back East to take care of her mom. “Well, she didn't give proper notice…”, so he ordered HR to pull out her last check.I thought that was a pretty crappy move - and so did the HR manager - so she refused to do it. The boss fired her and, you guessed it, pulled a month's worth of pay back out of her account.Needless to say, there was no way in hell I was going on direct deposit after that. I was running a business on the side, and had plans of my own to leave the company eventually.Every now and then the boss would stop by my office “hey, I noticed you hadn't gotten back on direct deposit yet… …you know the money hits your account a lot earlier… “I made up excuses, changed the subject, avoided eye contact… …he was on to me.I had been up front with my employer, that I was running a small business in my free time. They said they were fine with it, but I knew it was a bit of a gamble.So the day finally came. I was told by my boss “you can do this, or you can do that, but you can't do both.” I was fired! It was my turn!About a week later I get a call from the manager at my old bank branch. “I just got the strangest call, someone tried to reverse a direct deposit from over a year ago…”Sure enough, my old boss had gone all the way back to my last direct deposit - into an account that was long closed - and tried to take back my money.I don't know if I was lucky or smart, but he was basically just using the reverse direct deposits to “get even” with people he didn't like. He had no legal basis for taking the money, since it was paid two weeks after it was earned. But he knew the havoc he'd cause by making the account go negative, and was banking on the fact that the (now broke) former employee wouldn't be able to hire a lawyer to get the money back.

Tenant owes you $1000 in rent. They aren’t paying on time. You send them a eviction notice to pay $1000 plus late fee or quit and move out with a deadline some fixed number of days after issuing your notice.Tenant direct deposits $200 into your account. Now your notice to pay is incorrect. You have to reissue it for $800 plus the late fee and restart the due date counting. And so it goes.This game can go on for a while.Far better to receive that $200 payment via check or cash, immediately return it, and remind them the due date and their eviction is now even closer.We have rentals in Berkeley California and others have learned the hard way that direct deposit (ACH push) can have drawbacks.On the flip side, if you get permission to do an ACH pull (auto-pay) that means you control when and how much is transferred from them to you. Insufficient funds to pull their payment into your account starts the eviction process.Most folks don’t have the capability to do an ACH pull. Mostly only big service providers (mortgages, utilities, medical, etc) are allowed to pull from customer accounts.

Have a checking account in your name only. Arrange direct deposit if you can do so.At eighteen, she’s not entitled to your checks. She is, however, entitled to ask some compensation for feeding you, rent, etc.So tell her what you plan on doing with your checks, and work with her to come up with a plan for compensation that works for you.