How should I pay tradesmen over £5000?

moneyistooshorttomention

You know "time passes more slowly" when some of what you are busily ripping out of the house was already old-fashioned at the time it was put into the house (shortly after it had been built).:rotfl:

Or you see a photo of women ready to set off for an outing together and you are surprised to see the date on it is 20 years later than you had thought it was (judging by how the women were dressed). Admitted that was pre-Internet days...so am guessing that wouldnt happen any longer...

lstar337

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Answer to that being - anyone who has read many articles about hackers creating problems with internet banking AND who lives miles from a bank.

Yep, because nobody has ever had an issue with a cheque. Just ask Frank Abagnale.

Davesnave

As an aside, I have payment details in front of me from a company which has been trading for 40 years over the whole of the west country, and their payment instructions are for me to give their foreman either cash or a cheque on completion of the job.

Considering their bills are usually over £10k, there is no way I would do the former. I intend to challenge the cheque as the only alternative, as I have a credit card which would comfortably cover my likely bill and also give me Section 75 protection.

As things are going, however, the prospect of payment is some way off yet!

ThinkingOutLoud_2

Davesnave wrote: »

As an aside, I have payment details in front of me from a company which has been trading for 40 years over the whole of the west country, and their payment instructions are for me to give their foreman either cash or a cheque on completion of the job.

It is interesting so they will wait days to se if the money comes - bank the cheque, wait, does it bounce, shows on their account and charged per cheque by their bank. OR receive a BACS they can verify the money is there, same day, if not pretty immediately.
But they do rely on you doing the transfer, I guess...hence they like to walk away with a cheque.

Davesnave wrote: »

Considering their bills are usually over £10k, there is no way I would do the former..

I hope you are having a lot of work done for the repeated tens of thousands!

Davesnave wrote: »

I intend to challenge the cheque as the only alternative, as I have a credit card which would comfortably cover my likely bill and also give me Section 75 protection.

Good luck with that. Depending on their deal on card fees, you would expect them to lose 1.5-3% of the payment - so at least £100-300. So expect your quotes to go up by this factor - they will price it in. But, I doubt they take cards for this and other related reasons.

maisie_cat

All my customers pay me by bank transfer, the only time I get a cheque is from my 80 year old FIL, on my birthday, and they usually time out before I get a chance to pay them in.

DigForVictory

When we got the roof done, we paid by bank transfer, but we had the surveyor checking at each stage.

It cost a bit more, but we had the surveyor's professional indemnity cover (as well as the usual puny retention) and general peace of mind.

No reason why your parents shouldn't pay by bank subject to you conveying the surveyor's OK.

Le_Kirk

Why do some people (posters on this thread) stand in a bank for hours to pay in a cheque? Just pop it in the post with a paying in slip! Or, in some banks now there is a feature on the ATM that allows you to pay in cheques.

Regarding bank transfers that you instigate on-line, make a test transaction first of £5 or so and ask the intended recipient if they have received it before making the main transfer.

Also recently in money pages of national newspapers (no it wasn't the Mail) was a story of someone who intercepted a cheque and changed his name by deed poll just to bank the cheque!

Rain_Shadow

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I've got a cheque that I've been waiting to pay into my bank account for literally weeks - as I've not had occasion to visit that town since getting it. If I'm in a hurry for the money tied up in that cheque - then I'll just have to send it by post back to my home branch of my bank. Tradesmen could deal with any cheques they receive by sending off an envelope full of that weeks worth to their bank. Tradesmen invariably have own transport - but many customers dont.

Seriously. Don't you have post in Wales?


I have a client whose bank accounts are in Ireland. Trust me when I receive a cheque for them I don't wait until I'm next going to Belfast. I walk 1 minute to the post box at the end of the road.

System

Tbh, when I get a cheque I want to make sure it gets in the bank asap - living in a rural area you can't really rely on post getting anywhere quickly! And it's as long a trip to the post office (nearest postbox) as to the bank, although the local branch is a mobile van
Internet and telephone banking are definitely my preferred way of paying/getting paid

Davesnave

ThinkingOutLoud wrote: »

I hope you are having a lot of work done for the repeated tens of thousands!

Good luck with that. Depending on their deal on card fees, you would expect them to lose 1.5-3% of the payment - so at least £100-300. So expect your quotes to go up by this factor - they will price it in. But, I doubt they take cards for this and other related reasons.

It's the nature of the business that their bills are typically £10k +

I'm only paying once, and then under protest, or perhaps not as much as that, or perhaps nothing, depending on how things go....

And I agree that paying by credit card would be cheeky without appropriate recompense for the charges, which I might not be averse to, but why not by BACS?