Free Personal Checks, down with service fees

So in general you have to preregister for all bike races, otherwise they'll fill up and if you show up on race day you won't be able to race. Of course if you're a woman, or you're old, your race won't fill up. Nonetheless, it's good to preregister. There are two ways to do this. The first is the old fashioned way, send in a check. The second way is to use a site called bikereg.com which accepts a credit card and charges you a couple extra dollars for the service fee.

I hate paying the service fee, so I always do it the old fashioned way. However, I recently wrote my last check, so I checked the prices for new ones on my bank, bankofamerica's website. 10 dollars for 50 checks-20 cents per check. At that price it almost becomes worth it to go pay the service fee as you get instantaneous confirmation. However, I figured I could go to the bank and get some starter checks for free, which the bike race organisers would accept since they have no choice as they didn't put no starter checks on their flyers. However, this morning I was informed no such checks are available, but one can use the free online bill pay feature to have the bank print a check and send it through the mail to whatever race you're interested in doing. I still need to spend postage on the rider release form, but I consider it a victory for the old fashioned way and a defeat to bikereg's exorbitant service fees, which I hate.

Coincidentially, I happened to read Frank Abignail's book, The Art of Stealing, (he is also the protagonist of Catch me if you Can), and check fraud is quite easy to commit. Anyone can order checks from many different vendors with your account info on them and have them shipped to their address, not the address written on the checks. They need only a good look at one of your checks. They can then cash these checks at will on your dime. I suppose not having any checks at all thwarts this tactic.