Cheque Guarantee Cards

Mark_In_Hampshire

I only use cheques with companies that charge "payment processing fees", albeit I don't use any at the moment. If I'm going to be charged ridiculous amounts to pay, I might as well cost the company the maximum amount of money. Everyone else gets paid via BACS.

karatedragon

I read that not using cheques saves banks money because they do not need the staff to process them at a clearing house.

Is this true??

If it is then surely an honourable thing to do would be to use cheques to the max so that people get to keep their jobs?

heloid

karatedragon wrote: »

I read that not using cheques saves banks money because they do not need the staff to process them at a clearing house.

Is this true??

If it is then surely an honourable thing to do would be to use cheques to the max so that people get to keep their jobs?

And people wonder why the UK is falling behind the rest of the world in terms of wealth... The only way this country will move forward out of this recession is by creating REAL jobs that generate wealth, not antiquated paper shufflers...

I hear people when they say cheques are useful and they will be missed, but that's only because a good alternative hasn't been created yet. Someone will create one! They've got 8 years and payments systems are a lucrative market.

When it comes everyone will forget about cheques and how backwards they are in a digital world.

DizzleUK

By the time cheques are discontinued in 2018 just about everyone will have a computer with internet access- even more so than now.

How about this for a system for those who still want to send money to people without giving away access to bank accounts and bank transfers etc....

(Oh and the technology already exists for this).

When we want to pay someone where we would normally use a cheque, we could have a programme on our online banking/ smartphone/ local bank or post office, whereby a code is produced along the lines of XHUD4-QFYUG4-893SHG-XXXXX which stores info like amount to be paid and who to etc.

If you pay in a shop the code can be shown to the cashier and keyed in. If it is a gift for the grandchild it can be printed off and put in a birthday card and they can take it into the local post office and cashed. A simple PIN mechanism can be built in to add security so only the intended recipient can cash the code in. Codes can also be purchased from participating outlets like post offices or whatever.

It will probably never happn, but what do you think?

karatedragon

DizzleUK wrote: »

By the time cheques are discontinued in 2018 just about everyone will have a computer with internet access- even more so than now.

How about this for a system for those who still want to send money to people without giving away access to bank accounts and bank transfers etc....

(Oh and the technology already exists for this).

When we want to pay someone where we would normally use a cheque, we could have a programme on our online banking/ smartphone/ local bank or post office, whereby a code is produced along the lines of XHUD4-QFYUG4-893SHG-XXXXX which stores info like amount to be paid and who to etc.

If you pay in a shop the code can be shown to the cashier and keyed in. If it is a gift for the grandchild it can be printed off and put in a birthday card and they can take it into the local post office and cashed. A simple PIN mechanism can be built in to add security so only the intended recipient can cash the code in. Codes can also be purchased from participating outlets like post offices or whatever.

It will probably never happn, but what do you think?

I think the best thing is just go over to cash. Or better still stop spending money all together - The saying I employ is:

"You don't get rich by spending money".

DizzleUK

karatedragon wrote: »

I think the best thing is just go over to cash. Or better still stop spending money all together - The saying I employ is:

"You don't get rich by spending money".

I really don't like sending cash through the post, as much as the postmen do, especially the temps lol.

jamesd

EarthBoy wrote: »

Exactly the same argument applies to cheques. If fewer people use cheques, they become more expensive for banks to process, so they will increase the charges to businesses, who will stop taking cheques as they are too expensive.

That's speculation about the future, not reality today. The higher charges for taking cards are real extra costs that a merchant has to pay today if they want to take cards rather than putting a cheque in with their usual nightly cash deposit. Running costs of perhaps £1,000 a year aren't inexpensive for uncommon transactions.

I agree that in the future cheque processing may become more expensive but that's the future, not today or the next few years.

EarthBoy wrote: »

As far as I know they are. Which ones have said they aren't?

See the earlier discussion of the Leeds Building Society, the fifth largest BS in the country, though it's technically regulated as a mutual building society rather than as a bank.

username

karatedragon wrote: »

I think the best thing is just go over to cash.

Isn't going back to cash a step back though, in terms of security?

Cheques have their uses, but what i don't get is the "hate" for them.

I don't use cheques often but when I worked in a shop i'd rather take a cheque or a card, rather than someone paying for something £1+ with a shed load of coppers and assorted change from the depths of their handbag; simply because reconciling cards and cheques was much quicker, no counting piece by piece, no floating the till, no running to get change, no having to hear moans from people when i gave them pound coins instead of a fiver for change etc.

Although the sooner we get to the cash-less society, the better.

DizzleUK

username wrote: »

Isn't going back to cash a step back though, in terms of security?

Cheques have their uses, but what i don't get is the "hate" for them.

I don't use cheques often but when I worked in a shop i'd rather take a cheque or a card, rather than someone paying for something £1+ with a shed load of coppers and assorted change from the depths of their handbag; simply because reconciling cards and cheques was much quicker, no counting piece by piece, no floating the till, no running to get change, no having to hear moans from people when i gave them pound coins instead of a fiver for change etc.

Although the sooner we get to the cash-less society, the better.

Aint that the truth!

Also people trying to pay with a £20 or £50 note for that pack of chewing gum, being distrustful with them in case they're trying to cash in a fake, or just robbing the till of every bit of change in there.

Thankfully I don't work retail anymore!

EarthBoy

jamesd wrote: »

I agree that in the future cheque processing may become more expensive but that's the future, not today or the next few years.

Hardly a few years away. When the cheque guarantee card scheme ends next year it's likely to dramatically speed up the decline in cheque usage, making them increasingly uneconomical.

jamesd wrote: »

See the earlier discussion of the Leeds Building Society, ..

In case you haven't noticed, I not only saw the discussion on the Leeds Building Society, but contributed to it as well. This only tells us that the Leeds issue cheqe guarantee cards at the moment. They certainly haven't confirmed that that they will continue to issue them when the major banks withdraw the scheme next year.