why do cheques take so long?

agrinnall

derrick, you need to accept that the weight of evidence provided by JJ, noh, antrobus and o4u (sorry if I missed anyone - whoops, rb10 snuck in while I was composing my post) is against you and accept that your understanding is incorrect.

I am unaware of any bank that offers personal customers any alternative for payments above that bank's FPS limit other than CHAPS, but I suppose it is just about possible that they could instead treat the payment as a BACS DC - however, if they did that it would take 3 days but the debit wouldn't occur until day 3.

It is very unlikely that the banks will be prepared to spend any money on making cheque clearing any quicker than it is now, why would they want to when the only reason cheques have been retained is because they were forced to keep them?

JuicyJesus

agrinnall wrote: »

I am unaware of any bank that offers personal customers any alternative for payments above that bank's FPS limit other than CHAPS, but I suppose it is just about possible that they could instead treat the payment as a BACS DC - however, if they did that it would take 3 days but the debit wouldn't occur until day 3.

Lloyds apparently allows customers to elect to send payments by BACS, however they don't promote the service and I don't think they'd do it any more since it isn't PSD compliant.

It is very unlikely that the banks will be prepared to spend any money on making cheque clearing any quicker than it is now, why would they want to when the only reason cheques have been retained is because they were forced to keep them?

They weren't even forced to keep them, but certain MPs raised a stink and the Payments Council made a U-turn. Wrongly, in my view; cheques are a huge fraud risk and massively outdated in this day and age, although getting rid of the fraud magnet guarantee scheme was a good compromise.

Hominu

Yes, cheques are a huge fraud risk and massively outdated, but in some cases where you don't know or don't want to know the recipients bank details, they are perfect.

And then you have the government - I got a £10 cheque (refund) from HMRC this morning. Not sure if I want to frame it or bank it.

Strangely enough, I got email spam last week from some pretending to be from the HMRC asking for my bank details. At least I hope it was spam, and it wasn't them actually asking!

JuicyJesus

Hominu wrote: »

Yes, cheques are a huge fraud risk and massively outdated, but in some cases where you don't know or don't want to know the recipients bank details, they are perfect.

Technology marches on, though - services like Barclays' PingIt and PayPal have all but solved that issue, and with smartphones becoming more and more common they'll see greater adoption.

And then you have the government - I got a £10 cheque (refund) from HMRC this morning. Not sure if I want to frame it or bank it.

Strangely enough, I got email spam last week from some pretending to be from the HMRC asking for my bank details. At least I hope it was spam, and it wasn't them actually asking!

Definitely a scam, HMRC are very behind the times as your £10 cheque indicates