“Please make cheques payable to”

You need to check first if the number to call is their accounts section which usually opens earlier.

I frankly don't see what the drama is about.

Yes it used to be well known cashflow management a couple of days before pay day. You could buy food, pay for other essentials or cash a cheque safe in the knowledge that you would have been paid by the time the bank took the money.

However, I once got caught out by this during a period of extreme financial difficulty and I still don't know how it happened#. I posted a cheque by second class post to pay for council tax and the bank tried to take the money the very next day when of course it bounced and got me into all manner of trouble because they then moved on to the next step in their aggressive recovery tactics.

#well I do but I'm still annoyed about it because it meant that 1. a second class letter got to it's destination in one day and 2. the council must have had the same bank as me for the cheque to clear the same day, but I know that, if someone else had been posting me a cheque by second class post, it would have been at least a week before I could actually spend the money, instead of the next day.

Yes, I did that. 👍

Why? I was a medical secretary for years and only one of the consultants I worked for ran a limited company, and that was because his private practice was so large he employed other people. Most simply ran a separate normal current account for consultation fees. Usually it is a sideline to their NHS practice. The very first rule every bank tells you is not to give out your account details.

Thats another fair point. We have to ring the underwriter each year when our buildings insurance is due for renewal because of a historical claim for subsidence 30 years ago.

You've spent more time on MN opening a thread and whingeing than making a quick call and pay the invoice by card.

<shaking head>

This is def the best option

You've just reminded me that I was in university from 1999 to 2003 and because I was 17 when I started (Scotland) the bank wouldn't give me a cheque book (or debit card!) so I had to visit my bank to withdraw a stack of cash and then carry it across the city on public transport to the university accommodation office to pay my rent at the start of each term in my first year. We had to pay the whole term at once so it was probably about £600 at a time. I even had an interview with the bank manager to explain why I needed a cheque book and the risks in not giving me one, but he refused. Bloody Clydesdale Bank!

I’ve had this before, and thought the same. Call the secretary once to make payment, if they don’t answer, wait until they call you. They will.

Not RTFT but it does seem reasonably common in private healthcare to ask for a cheque or ring up and pay. I’d be fascinated to know how much PCIDSS training those taking payments over the phone have actually done or what level of PCI compliance the private hospitals are actually declaring. Ringing up to pay for anything over the phone is one of the least secure/most open to fraud methods there is!

I would say I've received one cheque and written one cheque in the last ten, maybe twenty, years. Having to write a cheque was a problem because I first had to order a cheque book from first direct, although I only wanted one. They couldn't do that, so I had to get a book. Paying in a cheque I received was easy but the process momentarily floored me because it demanded a picture of the back of the cheque, which was totally blank. Yes, you have to take a properly framed picture of the blank back of the cheque. Nonetheless it was cleared and in the account in two days.

I'd say cheques are rare, not antiquated. Paying over the phone, less usual but hardly unheard of. Saying these things are from the eighties is a bit clueless, frankly.

Well you don't like other people's opinions!

Did the dr. do what you wanted them to do? If so just stop making a mountain out of a molehill and pay them in the way they would like you to.

OP isn’t worked up either, but odd that you mentioned and entire generation when you only meant OP

I still send my Auntie a cheque for Christmas.
Cheques were brilliant when I was young and skint. They always took a lot longer to process before they actually took the money from your bank. It gave me breathing space at the end of the month.

It's common to use cheques in France.
It's so strange to me when I'm in a french supermarket and the customer in front gets their cheque book out.

Their payment choices are legal. Many business invoices still arrive via post.
Just choose the payment method that suits you best.
You can purchase cheques at banks and at the P.O. if that is the mode you wish to use.

At least their book keeping system doesn't over use water and power hungry data centres which are environmentally crazy.

Not at all. Out of that list only a disqualification means someone shouldn't be driving!

Not anyone.

OP.

We've used private healthcare for 40 years.
There is no consistency about payment.

It's not something I can get worked up about.

Maybe, just maybe OP you should consider the fact you were able to find a few quid for private care and not be waiting 6 months or a year for the NHS.

Rather than bleating about having to make a call to pay.

Do you really think anyone is getting tantrumy or worked up?

are you the drama queen generation maybe?

Maybe I’m a chilled type but I would simply leave the cafe or shop and come back later to pay

It is odd OP and very dated.

I need a new log book for my car and had to go into the post office … couldn’t do it online. Five weeks letter I received a letter that I now have to fill in and post back 🤷🏼‍♀️