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...

"I can't see my dd's ballet teacher for example paying that much a month to hire a machine."

Why would she need to? How many people couldn't pay her online? Unless she's teaching ballet to the over-80s, all the sentimental claptrap about the old folk doesn't apply, and I suspect that the set of people who both pay for their children to have ballet lessons and cannot afford a computer is essentially empty.

"I am a music teacher and most of my pupils pay by cheque (term's fees in advance). I don't want to hand my bank details out"

And yet you think your customers should give you cheques which, oddly enough, contain their bank details. Presumably as you don't want to give your bank details out, you never write cheques?

She has enough trouble getting parents to pay her by cash or cheque, at least by cheque she can collar them and remind them it is overdue. ONline relies on the parents remembering to do it when they get home, putting it off then before you know it the fees have gone unpaid.

Also when you have been teachng all ngiht the last thing youwant to do is to have to go through your bank account reconciling a hundred different payments.

I personally don't have onlinebanking, its too much hassle.

Whatever. We have two music teachers who do all their payment online, and indeed prefer it to cheques as they don't need to visit the bank to pay them in. I suspect that in ten years' time, asking people to write cheques will draw a look of incredulity akin to saying you don't have an email address. Does anyone under thirty (ie, under 40 in ten years) have a cheque book? With regard to "at least by cheque she can collar them and remind them it is overdue", there are people who carry cheque books? Really?

"You say your mother in law is now being taught to use a digital recorder rather than a video recorder. See, she can learn to use modern technology."
Erm. I didn't. I said we are trying to get her to use it, but she won't. She says she is too old to learn new things. She is in the early stages of senile dementia BTW.

aloiseb, what tokyo said is true. I recently asked my bank for advice on this matter as a customer wanted to set up a direct payment to my bank. I knew I wouldn't need to give out any extra info than would appear on my cheque but from all the hysteria on the net I was scared. I was reassured.

As I said before, I run a small business and pay 69p per cheque that I pay in.

Extortionate and crippling unless I pass that cost on to my clients.

What is this Federation of Small Businesses of which you speak Defyingravity?

"I personally don't have onlinebanking, its too much hassle."

That's your choice. You can't expect people to go out of their way to help you in it, though. My OH has a friend (forties) who endlessly complains that she would like to buy things from Amazon but can't because (a) she doesn't like computers and (b) only pays for things with cash and cheques. To which the answer is, tough. Christ knows how she pays in supermarkets: cash, I guess.

My nan can use a microwave which can probably fly her to Pluto if she works it out, she can't work out her dishwasher. It's all about wanting to know I think.

If I have to speak to someone, write something or go somewhere to complete a transaction, someone, somewhere could be doing something better.

floweryblue
I think you are right. Mind you MIL nearly set the house on fire with her microwave. The smoke alarm alerted her (thank goodness).

Seriously though, she is becoming frighteningly forgetful thses days.

"Seriously though, she is becoming frighteningly forgetful thses days."

So whether it's cash, cheques or whatever, it's all going to be a problem. Hardly a basis for policy. Indeed, one could argue that making it harder for people with early dementia to write cheques will stop them being fleeced by door to door rogues.

Mrs Mellow, I am finding paying the business bills (approx 100 different people/month) increasingly difficult.

Lots of my suppliers are now saying cheques are not OK, they want bank transfer.

But my accountant who works on paper wants things done the way he wants, and I also find it a right PITA to not do it the way we have for years. I have the capacity to change my working practice, my dad (accountant, aged 65) really struggles with the changes.

And from next year we have to do VAT online!

With no funding from HMRC, what a bloody cheek, collect taxes for us for free and we have now decided YOU have to spend money to change the way you work, oh, and could you manage an extra 2.5%

"Mrs Mellow, I am finding paying the business bills (approx 100 different people/month) increasingly difficult.

Lots of my suppliers are now saying cheques are not OK, they want bank transfer."

So if cheques are so good and online transfer is so bad for business, whyever would they do that?

"But my accountant who works on paper wants things done the way he wants"

Other accountants are, I suspect, available. If he works on paper, given (as you point out) VAT is all online as of next year, he's out of a job in twelve months, isn't he?

"my dad (accountant, aged 65) really struggles with the changes."

So what? There have been other, major changes to accountancy over the past 40 years, and at any time a fair number of accountants will have been 65. By that logic, there can never be any changes on the grounds that some accountants can't cope (it's 1972, we have to defer decimalisation because of elderly accountants who can't cope without shillings).

My dad, not computer literate, does the accounts for our 28 year old family business, he is still perfectly able to produce a set of accounts, he just has no idea how to present them on-line, he only works within our business. I am sure he is not unique.

"My dad, not computer literate, does the accounts for our 28 year old family business, he is still perfectly able to produce a set of accounts, he just has no idea how to present them on-line, he only works within our business. I am sure he is not unique."

Well, it looks like either he'll have to learn, or you'll need to find a new accountant, or you'll need to wind up. Companies House filings will be on-line only within a few years. VAT filings are as of next year. Income tax filing will be within a couple of years.

Seriously, though, did it not occur to him at 45 or 55 that these computer thingies might turn out to be quite handy?

tokyo

Please can you cut a bit of slack. Not everyone is the same. Some people take longer to adjust to changes.

It's a good job we aren't all like you as the world would be a difficult place if we were all as high and mighty and "always right".

mrsmellow- change your bank. I have a small business and pay no fees for anything (Santander)

A professional who can't or won't use standard tools if their profession and/or those tools mandated by their client, they do nor deserve to work.

"pay no fees for anything (Santander)"

yeah but with the worst customer service in the world

I might well change saintly. Had a conversation on the phone with my account manager the other day where I told him I was about to do exactly that.

I had free banking for 18 months, now I have to pay charges, even though my little business is being grown slowly slowly, with the plan to expand it when the children are older. My bank has no long term vision... grrr. The solution they offered me was to close my account, and open me a new one (with the free 18 months again). I'm just baffled that that is cost efficient for them (with all the paper work, bumf etc that accompanies a new account. They gave me a DVD, for gods sake, when I opened with them last time.

They have this hold on me though... only bank for miles around. Would be a pain to have to trek into the big town nearby, with expensive parking too, each time I need to visit them.

They have a good wodge of my money held on account. I am a very very low risk customer. Why can't they just deal with my cheques for free? T'would make me a very smiley happy mellowdrummer...

I am sure that over the 10 or so years until they do end of abolishing cheques they will find ways of making alternative methods of payments easier.

However, people have raised valid concerns that need to be addressed - like dual signatories on charity accounts. my aunt in SOuth Africa gets a text any time a withdrawal is attempted to be made on an account she is a trustee of - she has to text back to confirm. That is one possible solution.

However, I do laugh at the idea that it would only be couple of minutes to do on-line banking. It shows how people now assume "always on" digital media. If your computer is switched off and you run Windows it'll take at least that long to power up (one of the many reasons why dh keeps on trying to convert me to a Mac) before you even start the process of trying to log into personal banking.

Also not everywhere has reasonable bandwidth to do on-line transactions. My dad lives close to Glasgow yet is lucky to get 256k. He has taken it up with metronet (and them with BT) but it is literally a function of the physical distance from the exchange (ADSL bandwdith declines the further it travels along copper) - which makes on-lije bankig very slwo for him and it frequntly fails becasue "the servers is taking too long to respond". SOme people still can't get broadband at all.

prettybird - I can do online banking on my phone. That's always on.

For people who can't get broadband - travelling to somewhere they can is no worse than travelling to the bank. They can probably do it over the phone anyway.

I don't have a phone that I can do on-line banking on. I used an old PAYG phone and use less than £10 a month (which means that we the Tesco top-up, I am continually adding to the balance as I never use up the "free" £20 I get per top-up).

That just illustrates the assumption that we all should have digital media that is always on .

Personally, I don't want to be accessbile at all times

BTW - I am not a miserable old luddite - I work in the telecoms industry and understand about bandwidth, the growth of digital media (a great way for telcos to make money) and mobile coverage in remote areas (I was involved in putting in some of that coverage - but know that it is still patchy).