Save the Cheque!

Lokolo

The only cheque I have had to make is to my uncle who got me a cheapdeal on the net, I asked for his account details so I could BACS it over, he just said send a cheque

Also I don't really ask for anythign for birthday or xmas to tend to get cheques then.

Extant

Milarky wrote: »

Don't you think they could probably now 'afford' to do something about a 350 year old 'problem' - the cheapskates?

Yes, the banks could easily afford to do something about the issue. Hell, we could probably issue cheques on gold leafed paper, too.

But the fact that the funds might be available does not automatically make it sound business sense. Cheques now account for less than 10% of all the non-cash payments in the UK, with usage declining further and further every year.

Why invest massive amounts in a dying system when you could invest that same money in a new system and provide better functionality? Such investment isn't going to make cheques any more popular than they already are. This isn't really a trend that can be reversed.

Paper based payments are fundamentally slow and costly. In a country with as much of an electronic financial backbone as the UK, they make no sense.

Milarky

Whatever happened to bank 'giros' (i.e. electronic settlement of 'pieces of paper') circa 1968?

Extant

Milarky wrote: »

Whatever happened to bank 'giros' (i.e. electronic settlement of 'pieces of paper') circa 1968?

What exactly do you mean?

ahai1

What I meant was that in the future as new cards get issued HSBC are no longer going to be issue cheque guarantee cards.

Also cheques slow up the process of opening an account let me give you an example as soon as I get approval from Norwich and Peterborough about the E saver I sent money BACS at a set time and date so I knew when and where it was going. I am getting a fixed bond from Birmingham Midshires and I have no actual time frame of when the money is going to be taken out as they required a cheque. For some people who are not good with money cheques make budget planning difficult as they don't have an idea when the money is going to be taken out.

Milarky

BarclaysManager wrote: »

What exactly do you mean?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girobank

BuddyBonthenet

I use cheques to when I'm booking a table at craft fairs and events - usually about £10/15. Often these events are run by one or two people to raise money for local charities, schools, churches, etc.

How would those of you who want to scrap cheques suggest I do this if there were no more cheques?

Milarky

ahai1 wrote: »

What I meant was that in the future as new cards get issued HSBC are no longer going to be issue cheque guarantee cards..

Ditto LSTB now, and NatWest I think...

This is a personal Bête noire for me. That banks issue cheque books with debit cards omitting the cheque guarantee function is totally self-serving. They then reject the odd £20 or £30 cheque written (probably fraudulently) taken by merchants because - they assume (wrongly) that a debit card has in-built CG functions. This is completely wrong. Anyone whom the banks thinks is unsuitable for CG on their debit card should be not be issued a chequebook. If they were sincere about preventing fraud (as opposed to just covering themselves against loss) they wouldn't give chequebooks to such people.

Oh, but then they couldn't discontinue issue of CG cards quietly en masse could they? Oh, now I see! The banks want to have their cake (elliminate cheque use/acceptance) and eat it (do so, but at the expense of their customers) Nice one!

withnell

If you want to transfer from an interest paying current account to another account, a cheque will mean your money is not earning interest for a shorter period than for a BACs transfer!

Extant

Milarky wrote: »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girobank

Yes, but what exactly are you referring to with this? That article doesn't go very in-depth to processes.

In terms of electronic settlement, all transfers of funds are now settled electronically. The paper use in the system is more to do with bulk clearing (physical "proof" of a payment and destination details) or payment authorization (checking signatures, scanning the images for corporate customers, etc).

There is very little point to all of it, as the exact same functionality is available at significantly cheaper costs through other means.

Is that what you meant? The only other thing I can think of is American style cheque usage, where the cheque can be confirmed, debited, etc at the POS, without the retailer even keeping the cheque. But if you wanted to do that, why not save a tree and just use a debit card?