MSE News: Cheques to disappear by October 2018

paulwf

I think we all need to remember how quickly consumer technology can change, 10 years ago mobiles were just about becoming mainstream and internet usage was low. Now a very large proportion of the adult population have mobiles and we've moved from pay per minute dial up on huge base units to near unlimited truly mobile broadband with netbooks.

Chances are most of us will easily be connected to our bank by 2018 and they have also done some of the legwork by making BACS payments same day in a majority of cases. In the plumber scenario given above if you paid later that day they will still have the money in their account within 24 hours whereas a cheque they have to find time to bank then wait 5 working days to see if it will clear or not.

The culture in the UK will also need to shift but we'll soon get used to it. Anyone remember the fuss over chip and pin which now seems the most trivial of changes? I lived in Sweden for a while and I'm not sure but I don't think they had cheques, certainly handing out bank codes was quite common for personal payments...and that was 6 years ago!

Just about any small business can have internet banking if they want, and certainly by 2018 that will be a non issue. Even with societies that require 2 signatures it wouldn't be rocket science to put in place an online authorisation system where the second person had to check the payment before it was sent.

I can't remember the last time I wrote a personal cheque, in fact I don't even know where my cheque book is. Therefore with technological advances by 2018 I think I'll be able to cope. All it will take is people to get behind it and start the culture shift a couple of years before not totally ignore the change then be taken by surprise when cheques are "turned off".

Extant

BigBouncyBall wrote: »

elderly people don't get the concept of bank payments over the internet or mobile phone. my gran hasn't even got a computer let alone a mobile. How is she going to pay a plumber?

How often does your gran need a plumber?

Such occasional usage (once every few years if ever, unless your gran has some truly terrible pipes) by a person who may or may not be dead in 2018 doesn't justify the retention of an entire payment system.

More over, you are asking this question in the context of 2009, as has been said in this thread repeatedly. Nobody knows what payment systems will become available in the next few years that might make it easier for your gran. Even without that knowledge, she could still use telephone banking to arrange the payment which would arrive within minutes.

blueberrypie

BigBouncyBall wrote: »

internet banking is still rife with fraud, i've had problems 3 times. I've never had a cheque cause problems.

I've never once experienced fraud with internet banking, but I have had two cheques written to me bounce, and I've had a cheque-book stolen (from my car).

Extant

BigBouncyBall wrote: »

internet banking is still rife with fraud, i've had problems 3 times. I've never had a cheque cause problems.

Thanks for the anecdotal evidence.

The fact you've never had a problem means little. Cheque fraud costs about £30m a year.

Online banking is typically compromised through phishing and social engineering, not through problems with the bank's own security. What does that mean? It means it's easier to make it more secure for the future card readers, restricting access to certain devices, etc.

mama67

aldo wrote: »

Can't wait until cheques are gone, so old fashioned. Electronic banking is so much more efficient.

unless the company u want to pay doesnt offer this option,

I pay my weekly milk bill by chq, don't like leaving cash out when not at home.

I have asked the dairy company if I can pay weekly by online banking, the answer is no it has to be monthly direct debit or cash or cheque.

The direct debit is all very well but you wouldn't expect to get your groceries each week then pay with a monthly direct debit

Noble_Savage

mama67 wrote: »

unless the company u want to pay doesnt offer this option,

Well, they've now been given eight year's notice to offer alternative payment options. That seems fair.

I pay my weekly milk bill by chq, don't like leaving cash out when not at home.

I have asked the dairy company if I can pay weekly by online banking, the answer is no it has to be monthly direct debit or cash or cheque.

Like I said above, the company now has a very good reason to explore alternatives. Setting a deadline (albeit eight years off) should be enough incentive.

The direct debit is all very well but you wouldn't expect to get your groceries each week then pay with a monthly direct debit

Buying in person? Use a debit card. Getting it delivered? Pay over phone, online, or on delivery with a portable EPOS terminal.

Is it a typically British thing for people to be talking about the problems rather than the solutions? :rolleyes:

savagej

I have just had venitician blinds measured and fitted, I payed the deposit and final balance in my home using my credit card. The guy had a small chip and PIN machine that had a Vodafone SIM card in it to connect to the bank to authorise the transaction.

I imagine this will become much more common place.

As will children having cards of their own, we are already getting there. Okay, below a certain age they can't use them but with the march of technology there should be something available.

mama67

Noble_Savage wrote: »

Well, they've now been given eight year's notice to offer alternative payment options. That seems fair.



Like I said above, the company now has a very good reason to explore alternatives. Setting a deadline (albeit eight years off) should be enough incentive.



Buying in person? Use a debit card. Getting it delivered? Pay over phone, online, or on delivery with a portable EPOS terminal.

Is it a typically British thing for people to be talking about the problems rather than the solutions? :rolleyes:

i have just stated that couldn't pay online.

and what about thos people who can not have debit/credit cards.

my milk is delivered and those are the options available to me; cash, chq or d/d monthly after delivery has been received.

I do buy my groceries in person as I have to pay cash; that is my point for those who have no alternative but cash or chq then eliminating chqs is not a good idea. Getting groceries delivered means you have to have a card to make the payment with.

I have already stated that my milk company will not accept online payment and I don't know of any of the groceriey delivery supermarkets that accept online unless via a card.

keith969

This is all about banks trying to cut their costs and pass them on to someone else. In the same way as they are trying to get everyone to accept paperless statements while still sending you junk mail pushing their loans, making you phone their call centers on premium rate numbers instead of letting you call your local branch, etc etc.

While there may well be other ways to pay, cheques have their uses as others have pointed out - for clubs, schools, small traders etc. If banks do try and phase them out, their will be an opportunity for someone to set up a cheque based service and take the business that the banks do not want.

Noble_Savage

mama67 - did you actually read what I wrote? I'll say it again:

Well, they've now been given eight year's notice to offer alternative payment options. That seems fair.

The whole reason for setting a deadline is so that companies have a really good incentive to look at alternative ways of receiving payment. For some, that might mean doing something as relatively straightforward as opening up their systems to receive online payments. For others, that might mean developing new options we haven't even thought of yet. And those new options would, of course, have to take into account people who don't/won't use cards and can't bank online.

But if there was no deadline, if companies thought they'd be able to take cheques for evermore, there'd be no reason for them to change would there?

Why can't we see this as a great opportunity to develop real, workable solutions rather than stamping our feet and grouching about it?