A replacement for cheques?

Biggles

I have been watching this debate on BBC Parliament too and find it interesting that, as far as I can see, every single member of the Select Committee seems to be against getting rid of cheques and Paul Smee, Chief Executive of the Payments Council, seems to be fighting a desperately hard lone battle in favour.

usedandabused

Biggles wrote: »

I have been watching this debate on BBC Parliament too and find it interesting that, as far as I can see, every single member of the Select Committee seems to be against getting rid of cheques and Paul Smee, Chief Executive of the Payments Council, seems to be fighting a desperately hard lone battle in favour.

most people advocating cheque's being withdrawn have no clue:

1) this will only benefit the banks/BS imho

2) people will only appreciate it when they are gone, like i realised!

glider3560

usedandabused wrote: »

i make a point of now paying with my cheque book now i have a cheque book account again, when i first had a proper current account, i took it for granted.
When i became subprime i lost it, that is when i realised there is a real need for cheque books, my aunt lives upon hers, now i'm operating norml accounts again i use my cheque for everything bar a few DD's for credit cards.

save my cheque book

Could you give us some example of how having a cheque book benefits you? I've used mine just 5 times in the last 2 years - all to one company, a local Chinese takeaway. I'm sure using the ATM at the bank next door won't be much extra hassle for me.

shaven-monkey

Processing cheques requires an employee to occasionally check a sample of cheques.
electronic transfers can be handled by our cybernetic masters.

No doubt Mr Mandleson will have a meeting with someone very very wealthy and then in a completely unrelated action push through legislation making it illegal to own a chequebook.

CLAPTON

it seems particularly inept and very high handed to suggest abolishing cheques before coming forward with a fully thought out proposal to replace them

a bit like phasing out VCRs before DVD or disc memory were invented.

after all there's still hundreds of million cheques being used each year

Biggles

shaven-monkey wrote: »

No doubt Mr Mandelson will have a meeting with someone very very wealthy and then in a completely unrelated action push through legislation making it illegal to own a chequebook.

He'll have to do it all by Thursday, then.
;-)

mummytotwo_3

I used to work for HSBC until June of last year, and yes banks are going to be withdrawing cheque books over the next few years. HSBC actually made their decision to discontinue chqs in 2007, so this is not new. I beleive from memory, the year 2012 was mentioned then. They say this is down to the environment and because of the evolution of the electronic banking ie internet banking. Writing your instructions on paper and handing them into your branch is fine - make sure you know your branch staff well, as you might be asked for ID to do this - same with any transaction that means you are paying money away from your account eg if you rang telephone banking you would need to confirm your identity before carrying out transactions.

usedandabused

glider3560 wrote: »

Could you give us some example of how having a cheque book benefits you? I've used mine just 5 times in the last 2 years - all to one company, a local Chinese takeaway. I'm sure using the ATM at the bank next door won't be much extra hassle for me.

pay my tab with a cheque at my local pub, do this monthly, pay the window cleaners monthly via cheque.

the builders doing my driveway, paying cheque, i would never hand over cash, cheque offers me some protection at least.

I donate yearly to my local boroughs disability carers, not much, £50 a year, pay by cheque, also am in the process of doing a part time home course, the additional books i need to purchase, and they prefer payment in cheque.

my mobile bill i send a cheque, even though i only get charged for what i use, no matter how small i send a cheque, same with my water rates, cheque always sent.

only thing i don't chance is credit card bils.

blue_mum

Listened to a ad on the radio a few days ago regarding using verified people to collect and dispose of household waste, one of the recommendations was to pay by cheque. Guess so the payment is traceble?

Thought to my self then, what are they going to do when cheques are now longer in use.

mjm3346

crispy_chris wrote: »

If theres no suitable replacement they wont be discontinued.

Debit cards, credit cards, bank transfers, direct debits, standing orders, postal orders, paypal and cash to name a few can replace cheques in one way or another. Cheque use is a fraction of what it was a few years ago and still falling.

Cheques do not have to be "officially" discontinued for them to disappear. All the major supermarkets along with most other shops no longer accept them, next step will be for banks to charge a handling fee for issuing cheque books and then for paying cheques in so even those prepared to pay for cheque books will find fewer people willing to accept them.

Cheques used in High Street shops and for online shopping accounted for 3% of the total spend in 2008