Cheques move a step closer to extinction

never-in-doubt wrote: »

LOL, well that's good of you isn't it? If you don't like what you're reading them don't come and post on this thread!

Careful NID, or Jambosans will try to close the thread again..:rotfl:

I just paid my window cleaner with a cheque....slap on the wrist for that....no doubt.:D

I think cheques do have a finite remaining lifespan, but I also think that banks have some work to do in replacing their current function.

It is true that their original function as a mainstream method of payment is dying in transactions with big organisations, but the reality is that for person to person transactions (including sole trader type businesses) there aren't really any adequate safeguarded alternatives to a guaranteed cheque, if on practical or financial grounds you cannot use a card terminal to take instant payment. Take the bloke that comes round to fix the washing machine - is he going to pitch up at your house with a card terminal and plug it into your phone line? No, so the alternatives to a cheque that are left to him are either taking cash or asking you to do an electronic transfer. The first is fine for the tradesmen but is a retrograde step - banks and government want to reduce cash transactions due to cost and tax evasion. It also means the paying party has to keep larger sums of cash on their person which is risky. The second alternative means that the tradesman ends up leaving the job not knowing whether he has been paid for it or not - inevitably some people won't pay and he will then end up chasing for payment ultimately having to add cost to everyone else's bills. Bank transfers are not the solution to this type of transaction and the banks have to produce that solution.

If cheques are to go, we need an alternative person to person means of transferring funds which is secure (both in the sense of not requiring personal data to be handed out and in the sense of the recipient knowing he has definitely got the money), instant and low cost (or free). At the moment nothing is available to achieve that and before the banks start planning the wake for the demise of cheques they need to come up with this. Whether that is some kind of mobile phone based system I don't know (it wouldn't surprise me if that could be part of it) but simply rolling down the doors on the cheque can't happen until its remaining functions are replaced.

Oh yes - Faster Payments - that'll be the scheme the banks only agreed to as a sop to the regulators and 12 months after it was supposed to be implemented is still limping through various phases - even now Nationwide still takes 3 days to process my payment to my credit card (I only use it now for the odd continuous authority item I've forgotten to move!).

Still maybe if the Payments Council stick to its guns and don't let any bank phase out cheques until they all sort their lives and systems out for a workable alternative, it will force banks to do it properly unlike Farceter Payments!

WestonDave wrote: »

Still maybe if the Payments Council stick to its guns and don't let any bank phase out cheques until they all sort their lives and systems out for a workable alternative, it will force banks to do it properly unlike Farceter Payments!

Somewhat optimistic, but I agree, I cannot think of any suitable alternative to the existing cheque system to be honest.

The " Payments Council " looks very loaded in the banks/institutions favour in my opinion.

I have noticed that the kennels where I leave my dogs when I am away has stopped taking debit or credit cards (due to the charges I think) and you have to pay by cash or cheque. There is no other option.