Cheques To Be Paid In Via Smartphone

stclair

As the title suggests:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25495962

Buzby

Just playing catchup with US banks, who have offered this for the last 8 years. It was suppressed here as the banks hoped to kill off cheques last year - now that has been abandoned, they're reluctantly being forced to do it.

EarthBoy

I think the US still uses cheques a lot more than we do, so they probably have need for this system. Here, it's unlikely to breathe new life into a dying method of payment.

JuicyJesus

Two words: fraud magnet.

Archi_Bald

It's obviously an improvement if the clearance is 2 days rather than 6, but why should Business owners be any more interested in cheques than they are now? With cards or faster payment, they can get their money the same day, and it most probably costs them less in charges. So anything but cheque is good for cashflow, and good for revenue. Add to that that there is no longer any guarantee that the cheque will actually be paid, and I doubt that this guarantee will be re-introduced. So what is the attraction for businesses?

Looking at it from consumer point of view: I reckon that a lot of those who still like to use cheques probably don't even have, or want, a smartphone, let alone a banking app on their smartphone.

I agree with Earthboy, it's a dying method of payment.

Still, it sounds like an electioneering slogan "we reduced the cheque processing time from 6 to 2 days", alongside "we introduced 7 day bank switching".

Goldiegirl

JuicyJesus wrote: »

Two words: fraud magnet.

I quite agree.

The little bank that I work for checks most cheques under ultra violet light, to look for fraudulent alterations - not to mention just inspecting the cheque to make sure it's genuine, for example looking for perforations on the left hand edge of the cheque.

I don't see how that could be done with a scanned image.

pmduk

Archi_Bald wrote: »

Looking at it from consumer point of view: I reckon that a lot of those who still like to use cheques probably don't even have, or want, a smartphone, let alone a banking app on their smartphone.

I agree with Earthboy, it's a dying method of payment.

Whilst that was my first thought, the people choosing to write cheques are frequently not the people receiving them who are those most likely to benefit from the change.

It still isn't likely to increase the use of this dying method of payment.

Macca83_2

If a faster payment can arrive almost instantly, I don't understand why the clearance time for cheques can't be quicker. To me that sounds like a far more sensible idea than faffing about with your smart phone and taking pictures. How can a smart phone detect if a cheque has been washed or if the quality is poor?

KxMx

While accepting that the US uses a higher volume of cheques; I think some of the nay-sayers here need to consider the US has had this system for 8 years, and i'm sure some of the issues people have flagged as cons to the system are dealt with/ solutions found.

chambta

Aren't banks designing apps that allow the likes of 'Pay Your Contacts' that work in a similar way? Seems an odd development to me.

stclair

chambta wrote: »

Aren't banks designing apps that allow the likes of 'Pay Your Contacts' that work in a similar way? Seems an odd development to me.

Yeah it appears so:

http://www.paymentscouncil.org.uk/current_projects/mobile_payments/