MSE News: MPs call for return of cheque guarantee cards

A_Flock_Of_Sheep

I would support a tax on credit and debit cards. But i still use a lot of cash.

NFH

A_Flock_Of_Sheep wrote: »

I would support a tax on credit and debit cards.

Can you explain the rationale behind that?

JuicyJesus

NFH wrote: »

No, it's not as much as that! According to Wikipedia, it's €30/year on credit and charge card accounts and €5/year on combined cash/debit cards. I agree with you in opposing such a tax on cards, but what I hadn't realised is that Ireland has a €0.50 stamp duty on cheques. The latter is what we need in the UK.

Ah! I am mistaken, do apologise

I don't think SD on cheques is the way forward necessarily, but it is a good option. On the plus side it would wind up the Daily Mail

rb10

tagq2 wrote: »

Now transcribing a sequence of 14 unchecksummed numbers wrongly is very easy

This is completely irrelevant for bank sort codes and account numbers, since they do include a check sum (as I said in post 28 of this thread).

It is very difficult to get a bank account number wrong and for it to go into another live account.

With faster payments, if the account does not exist, the payment will be rejected immediately, and you'll be told about it straight away. It's far easier to put the wrong post code on a cheque in the post, and then the best case scenario is that it gets to you or the desired recipient about a week later. But most likely it just vanishes.

tagq2

rb10 wrote: »

This is completely irrelevant for bank sort codes and account numbers, since they do include a check sum (as I said in post 28 of this thread).

And I corrected you in post 30 before we even got to the topic of reference numbers.

It's far easier to put the wrong post code on a cheque in the post, and then the best case scenario is that it gets to you or the desired recipient about a week later. But most likely it just vanishes.

I know everyone likes bashing Royal Mail but it won't "most likely just vanish". The mistake will almost certainly be spotted by a real human who will correct the envelope and put it back into the system. But if it really does vanish, the money simply won't be debited - and for some accounts the bank will immediately cancel a lost cheque on demand without charge.