The cheque - most annoying form of payment since cows?

PMKeates

PMKeates

PMKeates

Soldato
Joined
16 Jul 2004
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So I had to pay a cheque in to my account. First time.. maybe ever? I can't recall ever having to do it before.

Let's track the trail of events:

1. Third party decides to pay me money and writes the cheque.
2. They post the cheque to me.
3. Two days later I receive the cheque.
4. Next day I take the cheque to the bank.
5. I fill out a paying in slip.
6. I pay the cheque in.
7. I wait several days for it to clear.
8. I have the money.

Total time taken? Maybe 10 days in total, because of the weekend.

Yet I can make a BACS FPS transfer and put money in to most UK bank accounts within a minute. Craziness.

The cheque just seems like a massively inefficient payment mechanism, that can be easily abused, no-one likes nor trusts, and must cost a fortune with all the manual effort involved (when you sum the cost of the paper for the cheque, ink, time writing paying in slip, manual processing/checking time, fuel to move all this crap around etc.).

No wonder the cheque is going to disappear. It just seems like an excuse to delay payment as long as humanly possible. I think I'll point blank refuse to take cheque payments from now on!

I assume everyone else hates cheques?
 
I don't like getting them, but I can see why people may use them for cashflow purposes. It effectively delays the money coming out of your account, and is pretty secure on the whole for personal cheques. Business cheques are another matter.

Still, they are massively outdated and should be gotten rid of.
 
I hate postal orders more.

Will be rather annoyed if they phase out cheques. They're handy for paying the mechanic etc.
 
PMKeates said:
This is the only point I can see for their existence. In which case, the alternative is to just.. pay later? :p
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Ah but people can send a cheque instantly and know the money won't be out for a couple of days, whereas delaying an online payment, especially with FPS is pretty obvious if it's for a couple of days. It's sneaky but people don't get frustrated by it for some reason.

If I had a business I'd just plain not accept them.
 
alexhull24 said:
Ah but people can send a cheque instantly and know the money won't be out for a couple of days, whereas delaying an online payment, especially with FPS is pretty obvious if it's for a couple of days.
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But everyone knows the cheque is a fiddle for that anyway. We may as well be open and say "hey, I am going to pay you on X date". Rather than "Look I'm fantastic and paying you now... via a form of payment that will take 10 days to reach you"!
 
Banks hate cheques, shops hate cheques, most people hate cheques.

OAPs love cheques, they also hate change, so until enough of them die, they'll stay.
 
They are a cracking way to pay tradesmen, I really don't want to hand over a big wad of cash and like the security that a cheque can offer - and a proper receipt.
 
In other news, crossply tyres aren't as good as radial ones, cathode ray tube TVs aren't very good and valves aren't as good as transistors! :D
 
True, not how it happens though. Who's really honest in this world? There's so little trust now between consumer and companies it's untrue. People immediately think you're scamming them (both ways) if it even slightly goes awry.
 
alexhull24 said:
True, not how it happens though. Who's really honest in this world? There's so little trust now between consumer and companies it's untrue. People immediately think you're scamming them (both ways) if it even slightly goes awry.
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But in reality, what's a cheque worth?

1. Write cheque.
2. Phone bank "my cheque book has been stolen"
3. BOUNCE

As far as I'm concerned it's a piece of paper that you just have to cross your fingers with. I would never, ever accept a cheque from anyone that wasn't a huge company, a relative or a close friend.
 
i dont think any shops take cheques anymore - its been pretty much phased out due to cheque fraud. try using a cheque in asda, republic, primark, nando's, etc and see what happens.

so they are obsolete nowadays within the normal shopping enviroment, i cant even remember the last time i seen someone trying to use one.
 
PMKeates said:
But in reality, what's a cheque worth?

1. Write cheque.
2. Phone bank "my cheque book has been stolen"
3. BOUNCE

As far as I'm concerned it's a piece of paper that you just have to cross your fingers with.
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Indeed, it's not as safe in that respect, but you still have a right to chase up the payments and go to small claims and so on. Hardly convenient. It's almost the paypal of the tangible world.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
i dont think any shops take cheques anymore - its been pretty much phased out due to cheque fraud. try using a cheque in asda, republic, primark, nando's, etc and see what happens.

so they are obsolete nowadays within the normal shopping enviroment, i cant even remember the last time i seen someone trying to use one.
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I had to take one last week. It was a business cheque, and with the ease it was written with (compared to the grimace when people use their card) I'd say it was very much just to delay the money coming out. Especially since they had the debit card for the same account with them. Not looking forward to chasing that up if it bounces. I might suggest to my boss to just not accept them at all now.
 
As said, handy for paying tradesmen (the last three I used all took payment via cheque). Also handy for a business like the one I work for with an MD who mistrusts computers and insists on all suppliers being paid every month via a massive cheque run.

And on a personal note, I don't have internet banking after my bank sent me about 6 pin different pin numbers and security codes and a dongle it's quicker to write and cheque and post it!
 
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