People who don’t carry their bank cards with them

Cash use has increased since lockdowns; damned good thing too.
2000,000 people in this country don't have bank accounts, so keeping cash use common is vital for them......and useful, simple and convenient for the rest of us.

Yes, it’s a lot better now as the system checks that the details you entered are for the account name you’ve given, so far less likely to make a mistake!

I always take my phone out with , not for medical emergencies mind, and I also don't have phones in the bedroom at night

What about a donkey incase your car breaks down

Ummm, I have elderly and unwell parents, both of whom have had strokes before. One recently. If something happens to one of them, I'd like to know ASAP as I've a 3.5 hour drive to them, and knowing as soon as possible could be the difference between seeing them alive again or not.

when I purchased my first house I really missed cheques. Would have felt a lot better handing solicitor a cheque and letting them cash it rather than having to do transfer myself. Was so panicked at idea of putting in details wrong!

Well the expert is wrong, as you can cash a cheque without a bank account, but don’t let that affect your condescending, snidey tone.

There are many ways these days to send money via quick and easy online payments without sharing bank details. PayPal (via email address), your own bank (via telephone number) and I’ve no doubt loads more which I’ve never used or looked into. So yes, that “functionality” is absolutely available in the digital age.

My apologies, I thought you actually had a legitimate reason to want to use a cheque, but clearly it’s your tin foil hat talking, all makes sense now. Cheques are indeed obsolete other than for those who are scared to use their bank details. What do you think they’re going to do? Set up a direct debit?

Is that the case if the cheque isn't crossed? I thought it could be cashed over the counter.

Your lack of imagination isn't my problem.

And in the UK you have to pay a cheque into a bank account anyway.

However what you don't need to do is tell the person writing it your bank details.

Do you get it now. Or do I need to be more frank ?

I often don't take my phone with me when I go out, and my husband only got his first mobile phone three years ago. He managed to run a successful business and conduct his life without one, and still rarely uses it. We live in a real mobile reception black spot and have virtually no signal so when the wifi isn't working properly, which happens very often, our phones are completely useless at home.

Technically you can cash it without it going into an account, but you just wouldn’t would you? Unless you were trying to avoid an audit trail which is normally for something dodgy.

Either way, it still makes itself more inconvenient than handing someone cash, as you’d have to go to the issuer to actually get the money in your hand (and why would you bother when you can cash them on an app? 🤣) and still gives more audit trail than cash as well.

But you need a bank account to pay it into.

I just don't see what you're getting at at all.

I agree with you OP. I always carry a card in case contactless goes down. I also carry cash in case chip and pineapple stops working. I also carry gold bullion in case the the UK banking system collapses. I also carry diamonds in case the international banking system collapses.

Other than tax evasion I can’t see why you’d need to avoid a bank account. But you do you.

I know, those thoughts have never crossed my mind. In 25 years of owning a mobile, do you know how many times I've needed to call 999 on it?

Big fat zero.

Cheques allow you to send money to a person. Not an account. Nothing electronic allows that.

Oops! 😂

What a brilliant typo!

I still get laid by cheque each term by one of the schools I work for. It's a bit inconvenient but isn't a major issue. I wouldn't describe the school's bursar as being Neanderthal or a nutcase as taxguru so rudely described their client.

In what sense though? You haven’t explained (that I can see) what this functionality is? Making a statement then saying “if you can’t work it out then go away” just makes it sound like you’re doubling down on a non point.

I didn't say cheques were any faster or better than online payments.

I said that cheques provide a feature that has yet to be translated into online payments*. And unless and until that happens, for some applications, cheques are still the only solution. And if people can't imagine why, they probably aren't adding much to the debate.

*widely into online payments. There are mechanisms. but governments really don't like them.

I'd love to know when and how they're any better or more convenient than online banking, card acceptance, Faster Payments, etc etc.

In my business, we get one cheque per year from a neanderthal client who is a total nutcase. He's the only client who pays by cheque, and he's not even that old (middle aged), but just refuses to use online banking and wastes a lot of our time telling us (every sodding year) how he doesn't trust banks, doesn't trust computers, etc. I'm very tempted to tell him to sod off and find a different accountant to pester, and one day I will as he's draining.

I’m old enough to remember spending most of my lunch hour queuing in banks to pay credit card bills etc. Online banking is a boon.

Such as?

I hate cheques with a passion! I can see how they were useful as a means for people to transfer money to one another back in the days before online or telephone banking, but they’re slow, inconvenient and prone to fraud/bouncing, leaving people without the money they are owed.

Whenever I receive a cheque my heart sinks. Not as bad now they can be paid in online via the app, but when you had to take them to the back I just used to give them to my mum to pay in as I simply couldn’t get to a bank in their working hours!

Now, we can just transfer money via online services, pay by quick and easy methods like PayPal, use cards basically anywhere, I don’t see much of a place for cheques anymore for the everyday person.