Halifax Visa Debit card - cheque guarantee?

ShelfStacker_3

BarclaysManager wrote: »

How does HSBC do it, since you don't process work in branches?

I'm guessing that you credit a suspense account with the cash, and then send your BGCs off with one debit to said account?

My local HSBC seem to have little booklets with 22 trans codes on them or something.

Precisely so.

PROLIANT

Halifax have issued me with a Visa Debit minus the GC function, however I can still use it off-line i.e. Trains as they are moving down the line do not have an internet comm.’s link - wait, I am referring to the local trains not NXEC or Virgin Cross Country etc.
Tesco don't do an auth on anything below £20, card goes in and done in a few seconds, my big shop which is say £47 takes about 10 seconds to complete.

calibrax

Thanks for all the replies, like I said it doesn't really matter as I never use cheques, but it's nice to know I'm not the only one

The weird thing is, I have a Barclaycard Platinum Visa card (which is a credit card, defintely not a bank account) and it has a £100 cheque guarantee hologram on the back!

rb10

calibrax wrote: »

The weird thing is, I have a Barclaycard Platinum Visa card (which is a credit card, defintely not a bank account) and it has a £100 cheque guarantee hologram on the back!

Presumably so you can use credit card cheques with it. And so have the privilege of being charged an extortionate rate of interest.

savagej

You can guarantee any Barclays personal cheque with it provided the cheque has your name on it, or a business cheque as long as as you are a sole trader or non-limited liability partnership.

ShelfStacker_3

rb10 wrote: »

Presumably so you can use credit card cheques with it. And so have the privilege of being charged an extortionate rate of interest.

Not so. IIRC, Barclays didn't always give out cheque guarantee functions on their cards; they let Barclaycard do it, on the basis that anyone creditworthy enough for a credit card was good enough for a cheque guarantee function.

This is probably rubbish, but I remember reading it somewhere.

EDIT: Aha! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barclaycard

Barclays were the only major British clearing bank not to issue cheque guarantee cards, instead allowing its customers to guarantee cheques with their Barclaycard (on the basis that if a customer was creditworthy for a Barclaycard they were also good for issuing cheques). This practice ended in 1985 with the introduction of relaxed lending rules and the introduction of the debit card Barclays Connect.

rb10

Ok, but surely the key bit in your quote from wikipedia is "This practice ended in 1985...". Calibrax is talking about a credit card that s/he has now, in 2009.

ShelfStacker_3

rb10 wrote: »

Ok, but surely the key bit in your quote from wikipedia is "This practice ended in 1985...". Calibrax is talking about a credit card that s/he has now, in 2009.

Mm. And Platinum Visa cards are hardly given out to all and sundry. If I had a CG logo on my Barclaycard Initial, I'd agree with you. But really, you've got to be fairly creditworthy to get to that stage.

Extant

BarclayCard do not currently issue cheque guarantee cards at all.

If anything, it's a misprint.

sutton111

Barclaycard used to issue Cheque Guarantee cards though, when i worked at M&S when i was a student alot of people had Barclaycards with cheque guarantee hologram on them.