Yup, you’re a real NFL football fan, not some casual bandwagoner. You already have a team jersey and a jacket, a poster of your favorite player on your wall, and maybe even an autographed picture or helmet.
Now, tired of writing personal checks on boring standard bank paper or worse yet, pastel colors with balloons or animals, you think it would be cool to have some that sport the logo and graphics of your favorite NFL team.
“Yesss! Finally, some checks that I can be proud to put my signature on…” you think to yourself. But chances are you won’t be so enthusiastic after conducting a Google search.
Why? Thanks (or no thanks) to licensing restrictions and who knows what else, there are only 6 official NFL team checks available from just two banks – Bank of America offers checks for the Carolina Panthers, Dallas Cowboys, New England Patriots, & the Washington Redskins, while U.S. Bank carries the Denver Broncos and Minnesota Vikings.
So if you’re not a fan of one of those six teams, it’s back to balloons and birds unless you…
Print Your Own Checks
If you want pay your rent with checks imprinted with the Green Bay Packers logo, you’re going to have to print them yourself. If that’s something you’re willing to consider, here are some things to think about first:
- Learning curve – it’s not all that complicated, but it’s important to be thoroughly familiar with both the software and hardware when printing checks since the information (such as your account number) needs to be 100% accurate and readable.
- Technical support – or lack of it. Computer and electronic products in this day & age tend to become obsolete rather quickly. Let’s say your printer is in need of a repair or update but that model is no longer manufactured. Without the proper tech support, replacement parts, or drivers, that slick new machine that you bought just 6 months ago may wind up as an expensive paperweight.
- Cost – the good news is that contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to have a laser printer to produce checks – a good ol’ inexpensive (but not just any) inkjet printer will do just fine. The bad news is that printing checks requires special paper, magnetic ink, & software with MIRC-compatible fonts, which means that the price of a check printer bundle can run as much as $300 more than that of a regular inkjet.
The cheapest deal I’ve seen so far for a package that is capable of printing customized bank-compliant checks with the NFL football graphics of your choice is the HP D2680MX Gold Bundle from VersaCheck ($199.99).
200 bucks seems like a bit much to print your own NFL checks, but if you already order custom checks than you do get to enjoy some savings in the long run. Plus, you can be as creative as you’d like when it comes to designing your own checks.
