Are the banks phasing out the cheque?

[steve@nouvatan]

I heard a rumour today that the cheque book will soon be a thing of the past,We had a big one bounce the other day 5 days after it was banked.
We checked our available balance and the balance were the same so i assumed the cheque had cleared and despatched a kit and 4 litres of solution that evening at close of business the online account had the cheque returned CUI
I spoke to Natwest and the girl i spoke to said there are plans to stop issuing cheque books as there are now cards that customers can pay there balances on too, and use on line or in shops regardless of there credit history
I have had a search online to see if this is well known and did nt come up with much
The cheque is a bit of a dinosaur in my opinion and we have never used our company cheque book as we pay everyone direct from our account
The customer who bounced the cheque was waiting for another cheque to clear!! and timed it wrong and has told us to re represent the cheque
personally I think the cheque should be consigned to history !! any one else have an opinion :idea:

 

[chocolatepickle]

I use my cheque book to make orders for things from our 'bookman' at work, i only work part time so i leave a cheque for him with no risk of anyone pinching it and without having to leave my card details for all to take a look at. I have just been sent a new one as it had ran out. I also used it to pay the remainder of the balance of my creative course so I didn't have to carry lots of cash with me on the day. I'm sure I use it for other things too...just cant think right now!

 

[naturalnails]

I have clients who pay me by cheque because they never carry cash - I dont take cards as I am a one man band and it is way too expensive to get a machine - IMO there will always be a need for cheques.

 

[ukfaye]

Same here for mobile work, cheques are used all the time, half my clients pay by cheque. It would limit options of payment for me.
Also for paying for things like school trips, dinner money etc, its good so cash isn't put in an envelope.x

 

[kezza*]

Hi ya
I heard a while ago that they plan to stop doing cheques,,,,I lot of places eg tesco's no longer take cheques. I take cash or cheque and I find not many people pay by cheque.

 

[angelina221]

I don't accept cheques but i accept cards and most people pay by card anyway. In fact i've never had anyone ask me if they can pay by cheque.
I would be lost without my business chequebook though!
Banks tend not to give small business card facilities until they have been trading for 2 years so i pay for everything by cheque as i like to keep my business separate from my personal banking.
As soon as i pay a cheque into my business account (i do get cheques from my hydrocleanse clinic), it shows up in the balance even though the cheque hasn't cleared so you need to be careful!

 

[Vetty]

Same here for mobile work, cheques are used all the time, half my clients pay by cheque. It would limit options of payment for me.
Also for paying for things like school trips, dinner money etc, its good so cash isn't put in an envelope.x

Same for me, I need cheques both coming in and going out!

 

[jes]

I wonder if the rumour about the end of cheque books has come from the story about the end of cheque guarantee cards? Cheque guarantee cards to be scrapped - Which? News

FWIW, I am very, very, reluctant to take personal cheques and I certainly won't when there's no guarantee card

 

[steve@nouvatan]

I wonder if the rumour about the end of cheque books has come from the story about the end of cheque guarantee cards? Cheque guarantee cards to be scrapped - Which? News

FWIW, I am very, very, reluctant to take personal cheques and I certainly won't when there's no guarantee card

Well that was an interesting read! without a gaurantee card we would all have to wait until cheques had cleared or just trust people
we do accept cheques and with existing customers we give them the stock same day, as they trust us to provide good solution, so we trust them that there is money in there bank accounts lol
If the banks could make a cheque appear red in your statement untill it cleared and then it went black it would be so much easier,and how hard would it be to add a card reader to a mobile phone/hand held pc so we could all pay each other direct the cheques are one question but another could be IS THERE ANY NEED FOR CASH !!
mmm new thread i think

 

[fozzyo]

Personal cheques are definitely being phased out ... more and more shops are refusing to accept them.

Business to Business cheques are going to be a lot harder to phase out. My husband runs a greetings card and gifts company, the amount of shops who insist on paying by cheque constantly astounds me. And there are some small chain shops who pay by cheque, would be interesting to see if they accept them in store though.

Mat

 

[bombini]

I think that the banks would probably like to phase them out but not so sure about some businesses.

I believe everyone has a preference for how they pay for things mine is card and my partners is cash.

For my partners business he takes cheque only. He is a tennis coach at various clubs and schools and can be paying in up to 50 cheques a week sometimes.

A few of my clients pay by cheque but most of them are cash now.

I remember years ago I sold a phone on ebay and 7 working days after cashing the cheque it suddenly bounced, Id had it confirmed that it cleared after 3 or 4 days then all of a sudden it reversed. I panicked as the phone had been sent and when I spoke to the bank they told me that a cheque can be reversed at anytime ?! Ive always found that a bit odd as what is the point in waiting for it to clear if it can still be reversed after. Luckily I got the phone back in the end.

 

[steve@nouvatan]

Personal cheques are definitely being phased out ... more and more shops are refusing to accept them.

Business to Business cheques are going to be a lot harder to phase out. My husband runs a greetings card and gifts company, the amount of shops who insist on paying by cheque constantly astounds me. And there are some small chain shops who pay by cheque, would be interesting to see if they accept them in store though.

Mat

I think its probabaly a cash flow thing with some companies it gives them a few days to hope another cheque clears ect, :irked:
we pay everyone bank transfer and the money is available immediatley to them and I would like it the same way back to us
The cheque clearing time is just a way for the banks to hold onto your money in the old days before computers i could understand the 3 working day rule but not Now :irked:

 

[Ruth Mills]

In my case, cheques are good because I don't have to pay any bank charges to pay them in to my business account. Likewise with online bank transfers (i.e. BACS).

But things like Paypal tend to rip you off with expensive charges (which I would have to charge VAT on top of as well), so I avoid taking Paypal like the plague, unless it's for personal stuff that I am selling on eBay (who are in cahoots with PayPal anyway)...

 

[naturalnails]

I think this may be going back to the days before debit cards - a cheque guarantee card is different to a debit card.

 

[fozzyo]

In most cases the guarantee card is also a debit card. It really annoys me to see people paying by cheque in the shop rather then by the card!

 

[persianista]

I use business cheques a lot. Much better for record keeping