Do you have a cheque book?

I have a cheque book and use it for people/businesses that have made my life awkward! Or for paying large bills where I want the bank to be aware that the transaction has been deliberate.

Think you will find people were using cheques well into the 90s if not later.

We have a small motor trade related business and the only way to pay for annual renewal of trade plates is by cheque.

We pay for our coal by cheque in the UK and that’s it. Our coalman is a conspiracy theorist who believes that the contrails from aeroplanes contain poison and drugs being sprayed by the Government. Perhaps his mindset influences his choice of payment methods.

Where we live in France however a cheque is still the gold standard for paying for trades and services, largely because the rules around bouncing a cheque are so strict and the consequences for your access to regular banking services, never mind credit, if you do bounce a cheque are so severe.

Fewer and fewer shops here accept cheques nowadays but our local LeClerc does and there is no sinking feeling greater than when the little old lady at the front of the queue rummages through her handbag and produces her cheque book. Cue a ten minute wait while she writes it out longhand (all automated cheque printing having long been superseded by chip and pin machines), has to verify the amount several times and then has to write all the information out again in full in the record slip, and finally, only when the cheque is handed over, a supervisor is summoned to verify the identity of Madame la Cheque. Many older people here still trust cheques more than anything else.

I’ve got one somewhere, haven’t used it for years.

Here in Ireland we have Xmas savings called penny bank local committee arrange it. our savings are still paid every year by cheque
my mother in law is in her 80s and still uses cheques all the time
cheques usage on started to reduce in the early 2000s. I worked in retail then we still accepted cheques to a certain extent some social welfare payments were paid via cheque as well as health insurance refunds.

I have one somewhere, but haven’t used it in years.

Yes, I have a cheque book because I pay the hair salon, flour mill, chimney sweep and tree surgeon with cheques at their request. Their choice because bank processing costs are less. My standard bank account automatically sends me a new book when the current one is getting low.

Having said that, the hair salon and chimney sweep are moving to cash only in the new year because banks have started putting up the cost of processing cheques.

a government body asked me for a cheque, I had to order a cheque book to write one.

I have one. Use it very seldom

I do but I haven’t used it for many years. Had the same bank account for a long time.

I have a second current account that I regularly change provider of, depending on the free cash they're offering to switchers. It's currently TSB, so they'll send me one if I ask.

I'm tempted to do this @DVLEh but don't you have to close your other one and transfer all DDs and salary pay-in?

@DVLEh I had no idea about this, so will make sure to keep any current cheque books in case we need to pay one to the DVLA. Wtaf tho?

I do have one somewhere as it’s not the kind of thing you chuck I guess; not used it for many years tho. Used to pay the kids Scouts subs with it I think. I imagine even that will be BACs now (kids in their 20s now). I suppose I could put my hand on it if need be. But I am 61 and have had my First Direct current ac for about 30 years. My DC deffo don't have one.

We sometimes get a cheque eg as a refund from the railways I think? DD had to process one recently for some reason and the online method wouldn't accept it (the back of it was blank IIRC) so DH had to go to an actual bank with it.

age 53, I have 2 chequebooks, one for each bank account. I think they each go back to 2017 as had to write cheques for things in primary school before they adopted a payment system. I use the odd cheque now for charity draws etc.

My neighbour gives me cheques for shopping that I buy him and a few clients still pay me by cheque.

I have one but haven’t written one in ages. Husband also has one and again couldn’t tell you the last time he wrote a cheque. Both 40 and 41.

Yes. I keep it with the passports.

The good thing with a cheque iirc was that you could buy things a couple of days before payday as it took so many days to go through. I can remember doing this in my poorer youth.

I do. I used it for the first time in years a few weeks ago to pay for my son's provisional licence as he doesn't have one!

Seeing my parents’ cheque book, when it was usual to use them in shops, I remember asking what will happen about the printed “19” in the space where you write the date, in the year 2000. He assured me there would not be any cheques by then. I have written cheques since then, though it’s very rare now.

I have one for my French bank account, but not my UK ones. It's quite common to use cheques there, but my account manager told me they would like to phase them out. Banking there is a weird mix of modern app based, but also old fashioned branch based with a named person looking after you.

I do have a cheque book, but I haven’t written a cheque in more than a decade.

DF (85) is a regular cheque book user. Every birthday / Christmas card comes with a cheque (for which we are grateful).

probably due to the tech. Getting gov tech updated is harder than it seems

Probably, in a dusty drawer somewhere but not been used in years. MIL (86) is a regular cheque user!

We still have one solely for making payments to Government Agencies like the DVLA.

As you say OP the Civil Service needs to drag itself into the 21st century.