Abolition of cheques - Payments Council is a QUANGO

Katie-Kat-Kins

Mark_In_Hampshire wrote: »

BACS transfer as a faster payment is probably the closest alternative right now. It's usually cheaper for the payee to accept as well, if a business who pays transaction fees.

If you have a newish mobile then you can send those live using your web browser / internet banking and the other person can confirm receipt. immediately in the same way.

So in the case of B & Bs etc. you can send the money in advance before you leave.

As another poster said, by the time cheques vanish altogether there will be easy alternatives.

I run my own small business and stopped accepting cheques this year, they're just not worth the effort to deal with (having to go to the bank and pay them in) and I pay everyone and everything via BACS now anyway.

It really isn't that straight forward. We recently had trouble with the post and asked another small business (a single outlet shop) to send us a payment by BACS online rather than posting a cheque as they usually do but their bank account would not allow them to do this, they had to pay by cheque.

If cheques were abolished I guess we would have to drive there monthly to collect a cash payment!

Mark_In_Hampshire

I've lost count of the number of customers over the years who have said "We can only send cheques, our bank doesn't do transfers" as if we're stuck in the 1970s.

What they actually mean is "We prefer to send cheques, as it gives us an extra week's free credit, even longer when the postal system is playing up". It's just a lie; even if they haven't registered for online banking (these people are in business and they don't have online banking??!!) they can instruct payment over the phone.

I simply don't take cheques and if someone sent me one, I'd post it back to them and remind them of my Ts and Cs which do make it entirely clear that I accept BACS and cash only and which I take care to point out to the customer at the outset.

I considered continuing to accept cheques subject to a charge of one hour's labour to go to the bank and back plus passing on the bank's special presentation fee to clear it quickly. That would have meant a charge of about £85 to accept a cheque. It was eaiser and makes more sense for everyone just to "ban" them.

Mind you that's consulting which tends to feature large one off payments and is all business-to-business.

Katie-Kat-Kins

But accepting cash is about as expensive if you include time taken going to the bank etc and that is what most businesses will do as an alternative. The downside will be that businesses will also find it easier to "fiddle" their books than it was with cheques.

[Deleted User]

The reason why I'd still pay tradesmen by cheque is because there are still too many fly-by-nighters about who will take cash only and pocket it without even giving a proper receipt. I'd happily pay by BACS too if I'm satisfied it's going into a business account.

NotAFraudster

Mark_In_Hampshire wrote: »

I've lost count of the number of customers over the years who have said "We can only send cheques, our bank doesn't do transfers" as if we're stuck in the 1970s.

What they actually mean is "We prefer to send cheques, as it gives us an extra week's free credit, even longer when the postal system is playing up". It's just a lie; even if they haven't registered for online banking (these people are in business and they don't have online banking??!!) they can instruct payment over the phone.

Many bank branches don't do free bank transfers. If you're a personal customer, and you go into NatWest or Lloyds, the only options you'll be given are either go on the phone or pay £30 for CHAPS, which seems incredibly stupid to me. This is not to say that I think cheques should stay (christ no) only that banks need to get their !!!!!! in gear about it, and/or that more people need to get over their fear of using phone banking or whatever.

You would, for what it's worth, be utterly terrified by the number of businesses who won't go anywhere near Internet banking, even if it would demonstrably save them money.

The future, most likely, will be PayPal. Bank account agnostic, as cheques are; just send the money to an email address and the person at the other end picks it up and does what they wish with it. Simple. Even mobile now - my BlackBerry has a PayPal app, and any phone that can use WAP can probably use it too.

virgin_moneysaver

NotAFraudster wrote: »

Many bank branches don't do free bank transfers. If you're a personal customer, and you go into NatWest or Lloyds, the only options you'll be given are either go on the phone or pay £30 for CHAPS, which seems incredibly stupid to me. This is not to say that I think cheques should stay (christ no) only that banks need to get their !!!!!! in gear about it, and/or that more people need to get over their fear of using phone banking or whatever.

You would, for what it's worth, be utterly terrified by the number of businesses who won't go anywhere near Internet banking, even if it would demonstrably save them money.

The future, most likely, will be PayPal. Bank account agnostic, as cheques are; just send the money to an email address and the person at the other end picks it up and does what they wish with it. Simple. Even mobile now - my BlackBerry has a PayPal app, and any phone that can use WAP can probably use it too.

that is incorrect, natwest were one of the 1st banks to operate the faster payment scheme

EarthBoy

NotAFraudster wrote: »

Many bank branches don't do free bank transfers. .

All the ones I know of do BACS and faster payments for free for personal customers, although I agree that you might not be able to do them over the counter (you can with Nationwide, though). I don't know if banks charge business customers or not, but many business accounts charge for cheques anyway, so what's the difference?

NotAFraudster wrote: »

If you're a personal customer, and you go into NatWest or Lloyds, the only options you'll be given are either go on the phone... .

Then get on the phone. With Nationwide you can also make payments via the cash machine if you have already set up the details at the branch or over the internet. Halifax also used to offer this service, although I believe they have now discontinued it.

NotAFraudster wrote: »

You would, for what it's worth, be utterly terrified by the number of businesses who won't go anywhere near Internet banking, even if it would demonstrably save them money.

The future, most likely, will be PayPal...... .

But you need the internet to pay via PayPal. You can't use PayPal in branch, or even over the phone. And PayPal charge business customers.

NotAFraudster

virgin_moneysaver wrote: »

that is incorrect, natwest were one of the 1st banks to operate the faster payment scheme

Yes, that's true, but doing it over the counter with them is from what I've heard a no-no.

virgin_moneysaver

NotAFraudster wrote: »

Yes, that's true, but doing it over the counter with them is from what I've heard a no-no.

the only way to do it is over the counter because the FP system is transacted via the chip & pin terminals at the branch