to be annoyed by banks saying I don't need a cheque booik any more?

[camicaze]

What IS all this about cheques being abolished and surely its unreasonable? Is it just me that still gets through quite a few cheques? School dinners, nursery fees, Brownie subs, clubs, party deposits - the list is endless.
I am particularly annoyed at how slow my bank are to replace a used cheque book as if I need to be eduacated that debit cards exist...

YANBU - it's not always possible to get a receipt when you've paid a deposit or something with cash.

I have one still ..... I'm just not sure where it is?

Mostly use them for payments to the school & after-school activities. We can now pay for Cubs by electronic transfer though so I'm sure more & more organisations will be going over to that system...

"Lots of tradesman I deal with dont even know what an online payment is!"

Twenty years ago they didn't know what a mobile phone or a website was. They learnt. It's as though people want the world to change at a pace no faster than generations, so that they never have to change their habits once they've left school.

There are any number of solutions to making small payments. Electronic wallets. Oyster-style stored value cards (a few places in London are experimenting with taking Oyster for drinks and newspapers; in Tokyo, the Suica card is a universal means of payment for everything in and around stations).

Suppose your bank gave you a small device that accepted payment, there and then, from a card that contained stored value (like Oyster)? Why wouldn't that replace most cheque usage?

Since 1 September I have used:

11x cheques for ds residential school trip
4x cheques for dds school trip
4x further cheques for ds start of academic year
2x music tuition cheques
1x birthday cheque for distant relative
2x cheques for after school activities
plus fortnightly 'top-up' cheque for ds's school canteen smartcard

That's near a bookful
I would LOVE electronic transfer for schools. I do get the small organisations/music teachers/clubs preferring cheques though

From an administrative point of view, cheques are a sight easier to manage than cash so I can see why schools and other organisations like to keep using them and avoiding paying the transaction fees for credit cards.

I haven't used a cheque book for nearly a decade (live abroad). Never need one. Payments go through within a couple of hours.

If I want to send godchildren money, I can pay it directly in to their savings accounts or send them a token from Amazon or similar.

I'm a tradesperson and most of my customers pay me by cheque,and I'm very happy to accept them.I use cheques for ebay [don't like Paypal],to pay for dinner money,Brownies,riding lessons,school trips.I'd be lost without cheques.

I too use a fair amount of cheques - tradesment, farrier, school fees, school trips, lunch money etc etc. Not sure what I would do without one.

swimming lessons, music lessons, school trips, special school lunch, I go through phases of writing a lot of cheques. I would prefer to send a cheque into school than £60 cash!

I like my chequebook, use it for milkman, things at school, piano lessons etc. I also like being paid by cheque for work I do, money that just arrives in my account doesn't always get logged by me and so is hard to sort out for the VAT and tax man. When a cheque arrives I can note it down and I know where I am.

I run children's activity groups too. Many of my parents pay half termly, and they all prefer paying by cheque. It's a real pain, as the bank charge me 69p per cheque that I pay in now. We're rural, and there's just not the option for people to pop to a cash machine on their way over. And as much as I encourage electronic transfers, nobody ever seems to get around to it - they just turn up the next week with their cheque books. Soon I will have to start charging people the extra 69p when they use a cheque, which seems so mean spirited, but it adds up to a quite substantial amount over time, particularly when I have a very low profit margin anyway.

To all of you who do not use cheques, how do you pay your builders?

Would you pay a builder who has completed £3-7,000 worth of work in cash?

Life would be much simpler if the various financial bodies didn't charge us for the use of their facilities. I mean more people would be happy to take credit cards if they didn't have to pay the transaction fee; here in Australia the transaction fee is more and more frequently passed on to the customer as well. I don't even have a current account here because they all charge to have one; and the savings account I have charges me to use my card as a debit card! The only way to avoid charges is to pay everything by cash - and then I can only take cash out of the right machine or I get charged again! Bastards.

I've written one cheque in my life.

It was about 7yrs ago - and I can't actually remember what it was for now

I gave up paying school cash as it never ended up where it should- probably child orientated (I woudl drop with secretary office but lots of kids go in and out) but has become unaffordable.

people like cubs etc don't take switch, and whilst many DC's might be reliable mine are a bit disorganised (the Cub, ds2, has dyspraxia in fairness).

So cheques are V V V handy for that sort of thing IMO.

Also use them for CM, better than a wad of cash surely?

new2cm - builder provides bank account details - I go to bank and pay bill electronically by tapping a few figures and numbers in to screen (no specific charge for each transaction - just usual overall bank account admin charges) and he receives money a couple of hours later on.

well if I was at home when the builder wanted his payment - I'd log onto my online banking, do the transfer and he'd know the money would be there in a few hours - and I'd know the money had gone

Unlike a cheque where the builder doesn't know if it'll bounce or not, and I wouldn't know whether he was going to bank it tomorrow or 6 months down the line.

But you can't expect voluntary groups like Cubs to just accept online banking: volunteers rightly should call the shots there.

They trialled the smart card in Swindon in 1997 but I can't find much on trial outcomes.

LOL at whoever mentioned a bank attempting to be green by restricting the issue of chequebooks.
I seem to have stockpiled several books for an account I never use, but have none for our main current account. I called Nationwide the bank to ask for one, and a few days later two arrived for the obsolete account. I called again to correct them, and received a further book for the same account. Third call, for ONE chequebook for the ONE current account. Four arrived! Yes, four.
So I'm sorted for ever.

I am a tradesperson too and I HATE cheques - just pay it in my bloody account. My bank will text me to let me know a credit has arrived. I do NOT wish to spend an hour of my time in the bloody bank.

If you don't intend to pay me then me taking away a cheque that you will stop or bounce will cost me a fortune in charges and I'll still have to persue you for the money. I'll take my chances, bill you and wait for the money.

You can transfer up to £10,000 per day from most banks who are part of the faster payment scheme (LloydsTSB business are still not DAMHIKT) I'm sure even if you wanted to pay more than that over a few days it is still much quicker than waiting for a cheque to clear.

I would have thought online banking would be easier for the volunteers to administer.

I'm sure many time wasting trips to the bank could be avoided if they had one.

Most normal accounts can easily be set up to be viewed/administered online, and it stops lots of wasted trips out.

Imagine being able to log onto you iphone/laptop/pc over a cup of coffee in the evening and see that johnny, sammy and tommy mum's have paid their subs - instead of having to spend 1/2hr+ trekking to the bank to put the money in.

exactly Sarthrell - surely customers are either honest - and will pay even if you don't actually get the "cash" on the day.......or they're not and will find a way to try and avoid paying (by stopping a cheque for example)