I want to find a checkbook cover which will fit in a coat pocket, hold 
checks, have a separator for duplicate checks, and which has a holder 
for a pen.  I used to have one like that, but it was made of plastic 
and it fell apart over time.

I have just searched Office Max and Staples WWW sites.  I asked the UM 
Credit Union if they had such a product.  They don't, (rather their 
check company, Liberty Checks, doesn't) but they did think it was a 
great idea.

I also did a Google search but that didn't turn up what I'm looking for.

Does anyone have any ideas, other than attempting to make my own from a 
sheet of leather?  (Which I probably would not do well.)

143 responses total.

Have you checked eBay?

No.  Aren't they just for auctions?  I've never used eBay.

They are just for auctions- but they may have what you're looking for.

I looked; there were 8 or 9 checkbook covers for sale, but none 
appeared to have a pen holder while still fitting into a coat pocket.

Well, one thing's for sure, they certainly have new things there 
everyday.  It probably won't hurt to check there on occassion, at least 
while you still on the hunt for the checkbook cover.  I've never heard 
of that style of cb cover by the way.  

        Instead of being known as a checkbook cover, it might be
known as an organizer.  Try bringing your current example to 
Marshall Fields, ladies portable stuff carrier department and
ask if they have something similair.

I found a nice one like that (leather) at the UMD bookstore.  Only $15.

I've gotten my last two leather checkbook covers from art fairs.

Don't banks offer them anymore?

My leather checkbook cover does not have a penloop, but it has the other
features you mention.  Look over the personal organizers; you might find
something there.

re #9: I asked my bank, the UM Credit Union, but they don't have what I 
want.  I know they used to; my former one that wore out had a pen loop.

Clearly there's a business opportunity here for someone.  If you start 
a business making checkbook covers which hold a pen, I think it would 
be only reasonable for you to send one to me for giving you the idea.

Art Fair... I hope I don't have to go to that to find a checkbook 
cover, but I guess I will if I have to!  I might even go to the mall 
and search.

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Maybe you could find a cover you like, then have somebody add a pen loop. 

I keep a pen in my shirt pocket.

my own solution wouldn't help you.  I keep 3 or 4 separate pens in my 
purse.

"I keep a pen in my shirt pocket."  Ensconced, no doubt, in a certified
white plastic pocket protector (c).

I've never used one, although I saw one once, but never saw one used
by an engineer that I knew. I don't know how the story got started.

I keep a pen in my pocket.  Sometimes, I put it into my wallet.

Pens leak, fly out, get lost, etc.  If I can, I try not to carry them at
all.  If I must, they'll generally go point-down in a pants pocket, or
better yet, in the backpack.

STeve has a pen in his Swiss Army Knife.  It is always on his belt so he
always has a pen.

Pens are obsolete.  I have a Palm Pilot.

And you sign your signature how?

The party requiring my signature usually supplies a pen as well.

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The other day my boss was talking about how, in Finland, you can use 
your cell phone to pay for stuff and it will be billed to your phone 
account.  He says there are vending machines there that work on that 
principle.

Of course, in the U.S. any attempt to do something like that would be 
blocked by the many incompatible cell phone networks we have.  We 
probably should have set universal standards, like we did with 
television, instead of letting the market fight it out.

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Re 22:  I sign my name on the little touch-sensitive pad at the checkout,
which captures the image of my signature.

Interesting.  Scott and I seem to live on completely different planets.

Now we know what scott is - a pen moocher.

No.  For the pad, all he needs is the stylus from his palm pilot.

My experience with ball-point pens is that they nearly always leak if
stored point upward.  The exception is a few of the more expensive
designs, which have a special enclosed ink storage reservoir.  On most
pens, the ink reservoir is an open ended plastic tube.  If the pen is
stored point upward, or especially, if it's kept in a warm pocket (so
that the ink will be much less viscous), the ink will run downhill, out
the tube, and make a big mess.

Ohyes - it was remmers that is the pen moocher.  But scott hasn't
explained yet how HE signs documents. 

I always have three ball point pens in my shirt pocket (on to loan
to moochers and spare if another runs out - the only  problem is
getting the moochers to return a pen), and in many decades of this
practice I have NEVER had a ball point pen leak when the pen is
kept nib up, summer or winter.  

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I keep pens on my desk at work, on my desk and in the kitchen at home, and
in the car.  I find that in pretty much any other situation where I'm likely
to need a pen to sign something, one is provided.

The pens in the car seem to suffer a high mortality rate, though.

I can only conclude rcurl is hiding a portable anti-gravity generator in
his pocket, the laws physics are just plain weird around him, or he's
never encountered cheap bic pens.

All my pens are cheap BIC (type) pens. Well, actually, one is now a U of M
pen, one is an NSS pen, and one has a red antique key stamped on it, but
no other ID, and boy are they cheap.  (They are also all black, in case
that is a parameter of interest.....) 

Since I started working at home, I stopped carrying pens (and wearing 
watches).  Previously I always carried both.  In high school, Papermate 
Powerpoint pens, in college, Cross pens, as a professor, Uniball Micro 
pens.  I never had any problem with any of them leaking.  Except when I 
put the Uniball pens through the laundry, and even then they only 
occasionally leaked.  The Cross pens never leaked when laundered.  I 
don't know about the Powerpoint pens - my mom didn't launder pens as 
often as I do.

If Rane has spent all these years carrying Bic pens pointy side up, then
there's got to be some sort of major loophole to the force of gravity
that only operates in his immediate vicinity.

I wish....

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