End of cheque guarantee system

CLAPTON

rb10 wrote: »

Maybe so ... but that's a completely different argument as to whether the banks should be getting rid of cheques.

indeed so but then it was in response to a question about cash and not cheques but the issues of sensible handling of human errors is similar

olly300

Clapton the reason why there aren't adequate alternatives is because people in the UK still insist on using cheques.

In Germany, some other countries in Europe and developing countries they don't have cheques but they still manage to transfer money between individuals and organisations.

In Europe they tend to go into the bank to transfer money to individuals and companies if they don't have online banking.

In developing countries they use mobile phones to make payments.

We could use both systems very easily as the technologies have been proven to work well and lots of people even if they are older have mobile phones, but because people insist on using cheques the systems are not being developed in the UK.

BTW I noticed that my local council allows parents to pay their school dinners for their child online via the council website.

jennifernil

Personally, I am fine with getting rid of cheques, I rarely use them.

But I am also the treasurer for our Guide Hall, we use quite a few cheques and 2 signatures are of course needed.
We do pay as much as possible by DDs and internet payments, but I recently had an occasion where nothing but a cheque would do.

We had a blocked drain and had to call out a local firm to deal with it, they required payment on the spot. We do not have a debit card on our account, or any credit card, but I was able to give them a cheque.

How would this work if we had no cheques?

Primrose

jennifernil wrote: »

Personally, I am fine with getting rid of cheques, I rarely use them.

But I am also the treasurer for our Guide Hall, we use quite a few cheques and 2 signatures are of course needed.
We do pay as much as possible by DDs and internet payments, but I recently had an occasion where nothing but a cheque would do.

We had a blocked drain and had to call out a local firm to deal with it, they required payment on the spot. We do not have a debit card on our account, or any credit card, but I was able to give them a cheque.

How would this work if we had no cheques?

I think the Cheque Payments Council are currently working with small businesses and charities to see what alternatives can be developed before the proposed abolition of cheques in 2018. I believe they hope to come up with acceptable alternatives by 2016, but I still think a lot of older people might be very suspicious of being forced into using plastic or even worse, online banking.

CLAPTON

olly300 wrote: »

Clapton the reason why there aren't adequate alternatives is because people in the UK still insist on using cheques.

In Germany, some other countries in Europe and developing countries they don't have cheques but they still manage to transfer money between individuals and organisations.

In Europe they tend to go into the bank to transfer money to individuals and companies if they don't have online banking.

In developing countries they use mobile phones to make payments.

We could use both systems very easily as the technologies have been proven to work well and lots of people even if they are older have mobile phones, but because people insist on using cheques the systems are not being developed in the UK.

BTW I noticed that my local council allows parents to pay their school dinners for their child online via the council website.

thanks for the input

I wasn't aware that Germany doesn't have cheques.

Do you think it would be cheaper for banks if we all went into the bank to do a transfer compared to writing a cheque.. 1,200,000,000 cheques used last year

Mobile phones may well be a useful technology... do you know how it works and how much people are charged for using that method?

CLAPTON

pmduk wrote: »

Surely all the die-hards who aren't prepared to give up cheques could switch to using postal orders. Yes, they're expensive, but so is the cost of handling cheques.

postal orders are cheques

rb10

jennifernil wrote: »

But I am also the treasurer for our Guide Hall, we use quite a few cheques and 2 signatures are of course needed.
We do pay as much as possible by DDs and internet payments, but I recently had an occasion where nothing but a cheque would do.

We had a blocked drain and had to call out a local firm to deal with it, they required payment on the spot. We do not have a debit card on our account, or any credit card, but I was able to give them a cheque.

How would this work if we had no cheques?

Two options:

1) Tradesmen have to adapt, and accept that they may need to leave an invoice for later payment.

2) It comes down to you to pay on your personal debit/credit card, and claim back from the Guide unit. (I always work in this way - put it on the credit card and claim back, so that I have the money before the credit card DD is taken. However, I appreciate that this isn't a feasible situation for many people).

Of course, it would be lovely if the banks could issue us with dual-authorisation debit cards (requiring two separate PINs to be entered).

glider3560

CLAPTON wrote: »

postal orders are cheques

With a barcode that allows them to be cashed at a Post Office ... thus removing the need for them to pass through the banking system.

olly300

CLAPTON wrote: »

Mobile phones may well be a useful technology... do you know how it works and how much people are charged for using that method?

I would have to do a web search as I read about it a few years ago then saw it on BBC business news late last year.

Edit - found these companies:
http://www.paymo.com/
http://www.onebip.com/index.html (Fees are too high)

News stories -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11793290
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-11670524 - last story reminded me of the difficulty I had trying to sign up for mobile payments with a council in London to pay for parking. In this case the payments where put on your mobile phone bill. The system was terrible- it had a convoluted registration process where the operator kept asking you these stupid questions - in the end I found a meter that worked.

jennifernil

rb10 wrote: »

Two options:

1) Tradesmen have to adapt, and accept that they may need to leave an invoice for later payment.

2) It comes down to you to pay on your personal debit/credit card, and claim back from the Guide unit. (I always work in this way - put it on the credit card and claim back, so that I have the money before the credit card DD is taken. However, I appreciate that this isn't a feasible situation for many people).

Of course, it would be lovely if the banks could issue us with dual-authorisation debit cards (requiring two separate PINs to be entered).

Yes, quite a few tradesmen need to adapt and accept other forms of payment.

In this case it was actually only cash or cheque that was acceptable now that I reflect on it, otherwise I would have paid with my own CC.

As I had no idea how much it would cost, a cheque was the only way.

How would "dual-authorisation debit cards" work?