Save the Cheque!

BuddyBonthenet

ahai1 wrote: »

...
The craft thing. It is easy to keep track as people can ask for a referance let me give you an example. Accoount number, Payee, Sort code and Reference are what people need.

I think it is down to a lot of people not been willing to chnage and invent problems where there are not any...

Okay...so how would this work in practice?

Let's say I am the volunteer organiser of a craft event at my local school and the bank account cheques are made out to at the moment belongs to the school's PTA. I receive the cheques and make a note of the bookings and when all the places are filled I pass the cheques to the person who deals with the account to bank. If cheques were scrapped and the payment is made electronically, how do I keep track of the payments made without constantly bothering the person who runs the bank account or relying on them to let me know every time a payment for that particular event is credited to the bank account?

I'm not trying to invent problems or resist change. I am looking for practical alternatives for the occasions cheques are used for now.

dzug1

opinions4u wrote: »

The point I was trying to make was that if a bank can issue credit card cheques in this extremely cheap way, then the same could apply to current account cheques.

Is it THAT cheap a way though? They can afford to do it because when used (with a few exceptions) they have high charges.

INT1

opinions4u wrote: »

So you don't pay indirectly for:

- passbook fraud at a counter?
- card fraud at home and abroad?
- electronic transfer fraud?

Fraud will ALWAYS happen. The methods will just evolve as the means of committing it change.

Of course it will always happen, I referr to fraudster being the customer of the bank, electronic payment methods are far easier to track, trace and detect.
By reducing and removing cheque payments, less fraud to the company involved.
I notice new Debit cards being sent by banks in some cases aren't cheque guarantee cards now?

Every bank has a fraud budget, the lower the fraud budget/net loss to a company the more profit and better rates we can pass on to our customers.

INT1

Inactive wrote: »

We had better get rid of credit and debit cards as well as online transactions then, they are all subject to fraud.

See my above post, electronic payment methods are far easier to trace detect and stop!

opinions4u

aldo wrote: »

Of course it will always happen, I referr to fraudster being the customer of the bank, electronic payment methods are far easier to track, trace and detect.

That is nonsense. With a cheque you have a physical document that you can trace back to a method of deposit and potentially to CCTV pictures. Not to mention fingerprinting etc. Not to mention the time factor of the cheque clearing cycle slowing down the whole process.

With electronic transfers taking place (in many cases) immediately the money can be rapidly laundered until there is no obvious trace on it.

There are differences in detection methods, but one is not any easier than the other.

By reducing and removing cheque payments, less fraud to the company involved.

No, as I stated before, the fraud will simply move to other methods. Always has done, always will do. The criminal fraternity will always catch up.

I notice new Debit cards being sent by banks in some cases aren't cheque guarantee cards now?

Well that reduces the risk by £1,500 to £3,000 a cheque book.

Every bank has a fraud budget, the lower the fraud budget/net loss to a company the more profit and better rates we can pass on to our customers.

Actually the budget is irrelevant. The actual cost of the fraud is the reality. Yes, if the extent of fraud can be reduced shareholders and customers can benefit. But scrapping cheques simply from a fraud point of view will not make the slightest bit of difference to the overall size of fraud losses incurred by banks.

INT1

Will agree to disagree.
I don't want to divulge too much on here about clearing cycle fraud, you don't know who's reading this.

Inactive

aldo wrote: »

See my above post, electronic payment methods are far easier to trace detect and stop!

We only have your word for that, I would suspect that cheque fraud is only a minimal part of overall bank fraud, and as stated by op4u, would appear far easier to track.

There will always be fraud, whetever method of payment is used.

Mrs_Ryan

We often get cheap deals from the holiday company we use in the UK (a bit like Pontins/Butlins but cheaper) so often the whole balance of the holiday (deposit and full payment) is under £100 so the £100 thing wouldnt work in our favour, so I still prefer to use a cheque although this year I actually paid the deposit by Debit card online.
We are going on holiday to Ireland later this year so I might pay the deposit on my credit card - good point I hadnt thought of that.
On the left-handed cheque-book thing... I did have one, many years ago - my first cheque book when I was 16 with Natwest was a left-handed one, but when I got my student account in 1999 with HSBC they just looked at me funny when I asked did they do a left-handed chequebook!!!!!!

BuddyBonthenet

Mrs_Ryan wrote: »

We often get cheap deals from the holiday company we use in the UK (a bit like Pontins/Butlins but cheaper) so often the whole balance of the holiday (deposit and full payment) is under £100 so the £100 thing wouldnt work in our favour, so I still prefer to use a cheque although this year I actually paid the deposit by Debit card online.
We are going on holiday to Ireland later this year so I might pay the deposit on my credit card - good point I hadnt thought of that.
On the left-handed cheque-book thing... I did have one, many years ago - my first cheque book when I was 16 with Natwest was a left-handed one, but when I got my student account in 1999 with HSBC they just looked at me funny when I asked did they do a left-handed chequebook!!!!!!

I remember left handed cheque books! That is exactly the kind of customer service that isn't offered today. Now it is the broad brush approach imho.

INT1

BuddyBonthenet wrote: »

I remember left handed cheque books! That is exactly the kind of customer service that isn't offered today. Now it is the broad brush approach imho.

Yeah Natwest offered them, But I always complained to them that they didn't offer left handed paying in books