“Please make cheques payable to”

Paid now?

Pret is cashless.

I’ve never come across a shop that doesn't accept cash either but there are a number of takeaways near me that don't accept cards.

There are so many different ways to pay.

But only cheques allow you to pay a person, not an account.

If I ask you for a cheque, you know sod all about where I will pay it in.

It's usually from your own environment. Not feacal matter from where other people haven't washed their hands.

Mobile phones I think have more. Yet people use them to pay

As regards using cash - until late last year I worked on a till in a local supermarket. I was there for over ten years - during the entire time we were about 50/50 cash and card payment. It didn't noticeably change over the decade.

So I'm not sure there's a swing back to cash. Those who always use cash always used cash and the card users ditto. We would get more cash payments during holiday season because a lot of people would come here on holiday (we are a 'destination') and use cash to pay for everything - presumably to help budget. In the entire ten years I never had one single person either try to pay by cheque or even tell me that we 'should' take cheques.

I no longer have to use a card reader for new payees. I bank at Nationwide.

Maybe you could name the private hospital?

There are so many different ways to pay.

Some consultants want payment directly, via their PA.
Some hospitals belong to one of the national patient billing companies- you create an account and log-in every time you receive an invoice, paying by CC.
Some smaller hospitals work like the one you have experienced.
Some ask for payment on the day before you leave the building.

Personally, I find BACS a PITA unless it's a regular payment, as a new payment needs setting up online using a card reader to verify it etc and it's far quicker to pay by card.

The issue with emails can be security. many hospitals now have to set up encryption so you can log in to see either your results and pay invoices.
Not all smaller private hospitals will have done this- I assume.

Very old-fashioned.

I recently got compensation from Royal Mail for a parcel that went missing, and they sent me a cheque
It was only about £20, so by the time I'd got to the post office, relaxed in the queue, waited fucking aeons for them to find a paying-in envelope and got home again I was probably out of pocket (I'm freelance and tend to work on hourly paid projects, so time is literally money!).

Why are they using the phone - invented in the 1800s, instead of email, invented in the 1979s ?

Yes, but I live abroad and have overseas bank accounts and receive large sums of money in different currencies from different countries so this is how I deal with them.

I was just trying to help the previous poster I originally quoted. 😊

That’s good to hear. A few year’s ago I had to keep telling the guy on the phone at my local takeaway to not repeat back my card info as anyone in hearing distance could jot them down. He’d say ok , then carry on repeating them back 🤦‍♀️

It could be everything you've said. But the turn around from literally everyone paying with a phone or a card to see so many people paying by cash in the last couple of years is really noticeable.

Various reasons. Due to bank charges a lot of small businesses have started joining in with a campaign about preferring cash.

Also people budgeting, withdrawing spending money in cash as it seems more real and you can't go around tap, tap, tapping before waking up the next day and seeing a string of notifications from your banking app that you really did spend THAT MUCH last night.

I don't know if it is still the case, but a couple of years ago there was a Tiktok craze for performative envelope budgeting, where you withdrew all your money in cash and put it in pretty envelopes labelled rent, gas, groceries etc so you could make videos sliding your pretty fingernails across pastel coloured envelopes.

About cash money....

I live in Australia and in the past couple of years I've noticed how many people pay by cash. It's been obvious in the supermarket, the local pub and even my local coffee shop. Until not long ago, most people paid by phone or card.

We were on holidays last year and used to go to the same pub for dinner, great food and good prices. What surprised me was how many people in front of me were paying cash for their orders. It was so obvious I "mentioned" in passing to the cashier and she confirmed 50% of payments were cash, which was incredible. The town is a top holiday destination in Sydney with thousands of people visiting.

I don't know why, or pretend to know why it's happening. But I've been withdrawing cash and have a cushion just in case.

When companies or organisations take card details over the phone they usually make some IT adjustment, whereby they can't hear or see the numbers. They usually tell you that this will happen and when to start reading the number.

Yet your job involves making old fashioned phone calls (which I suspect the rest of us probably hate receiving).

I’m in my 60s and haven’t used cheques in years. I don’t like paying over the phone either as you have to give all your card details to a stranger. Online banking is by far my most preferred method, so I’m with you.