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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU To Ask If You Ever Write Cheques

113 replies

TheShellBeach · 02/12/2022 20:06

...............I actually started a thread on Twitter about this about six months ago, and discovered that loads of American people do still write cheques. I also discovered that a lot of US banks charge customers for using their debit cards.

Does anyone in the UK still use them? DH and I don't even have a chequebook, although we have a few elderly friends who do, and who are adamant that they'll carry on using them.

OP posts:
londonrach · 03/12/2022 07:22

Daily!

brainstories568 · 03/12/2022 07:48

My dad used to think cheques were fool proof. Then almost he got scammed to the tune of thousands when I was at uni (about 15 years ago) so even he stopped using them routinely. The scammers got hold of an actual cheque he'd written and doctored it somehow for a small amount which they got away with then tried a really big amount. Fortunately the bank cashier (in Bristol, hundreds of miles away from us) felt there was something odd about it so said she'd cashed it but phoned my dad (on the landline as he doesn't have a mobile even now) to confirm that he had actioned the cheque. Obviously he hasn't then they looked at loads of other transactions and realised they'd successfully done it to loads of other people without being caught so it ended up as the source of a massive fraud operation. It was a real eye opener even for me. No one in my family really wrote cheques after that and my dad started going to the physical bank but has recently got a bank card to use for his eBay purchases in recent years....

Tuilpmouse · 03/12/2022 10:17

londonrach · 03/12/2022 07:22

Daily!

Why do you write cheques daily?

Original poster
TheShellBeach · 03/12/2022 16:32

MarshaMelrose · 02/12/2022 23:13

Although a slightly different topic, I don't understand why some people go into the bank branch to pay their bills. A friend of mine (aged 48, so not that old) does this.

If it keeps branches open, I'm very glad they do.

But branches do not need to be kept open just for the few people who have decided not to move with the times.

OP posts:
Original poster
TheShellBeach · 03/12/2022 16:36

Tuilpmouse · 03/12/2022 10:17

Why do you write cheques daily?

Show quote history

I would be interested to know this, too.

OP posts:
DelurkingAJ · 03/12/2022 16:37

School photos (so twice a year) as it’s cash or a cheque and I’m not going to send a primary school child to school with £35 in cash.

RhinestoneCowgirl · 03/12/2022 16:41

I can't remember the last time I wrote a cheque, a few years ago probably.

I used to be the Chairperson of a small local charity and remember the absolute joy when we switched over to CAF bank and could do online banking with dual authority for payments. Before that my treasurer had to come round to visit me with the cheque book for me to counter sign.

prettybird · 03/12/2022 17:06

I had to write one to the DVLA recently to get a new VC5. Had to hunt out my cheque book Shock

Oblomov22 · 03/12/2022 17:08

Not for many years.

MarshaMelrose · 03/12/2022 18:28

TheShellBeach · 03/12/2022 16:32

But branches do not need to be kept open just for the few people who have decided not to move with the times.

Show quote history

I do phone and internet banking. I use debit card, credit card, phone payments, bank transfers, etc. Is that moving with the times enough? 🙄
But I still need to go into a branch for a variety of things. And I'm not alone. I now have to travel 40 minutes to go to a branch and when I get there, customers are queuing out onto the streets. Just because you haven't had cause to go into a branch doesn't mean there is no need for branches. What a small minded attitude.

misskatamari · 03/12/2022 18:30

I was just thinking about this last night! No I don’t, I don’t think I even have a cheque book anymore. I certainly haven’t encountered a cheque in years. The last one I had was some sort of rebate from somewhere (only about 15 quid). It arrived during covid and I didn’t cash it, and when I tried it was out of date anyway 🤷🏻‍♀️ I don’t even know where the nearest branch of my bank is now as they’re pretty much all shut

Original poster
TheShellBeach · 03/12/2022 18:48

MarshaMelrose · 03/12/2022 18:28

I do phone and internet banking. I use debit card, credit card, phone payments, bank transfers, etc. Is that moving with the times enough? 🙄
But I still need to go into a branch for a variety of things. And I'm not alone. I now have to travel 40 minutes to go to a branch and when I get there, customers are queuing out onto the streets. Just because you haven't had cause to go into a branch doesn't mean there is no need for branches. What a small minded attitude.

Show quote history

What do you need to go to the branch for, out of interest?

OP posts:
MarshaMelrose · 03/12/2022 19:07

What do you need to go to the branch for, out of interest?

Recently I went to the bank for...
Having building work done so needed to withdraw cash over an extended period of time.
Sort out fathers estate - needed to see documents. And not just once.
LPA.
To see an adviser
Put get someone added onto an account
Sort out an error on my account. Phone banking couldn't do it.
Paid in old notes - no deposit place in my town. Post office wouldn't accept.

I have no idea what everyone else was there for.

PaperMonster · 03/12/2022 19:08

I write one monthly.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 03/12/2022 21:53

Only for the fish man who comes to the door.

Very occasionally to the window cleaner if we don’t have cash, but he usually just says settle up next time.

Lincslady53 · 03/12/2022 22:28

We had a minor change to our will, which we did ourselves and wanted to store it with the probate service. Looked at the gov.uk website, very straight forward put will in sealed envelope, fill in a form with our details and who the executor is, stick form on envelope attach a cheque for £20 and send. Our bank does not use cheques and no other options given. Phoned the helpline which was answered after 29 minutes. The very nice assistant said they get asked this a lot, and we should send a postal order instead. I have never written to my mp before, but this time I sent her an email suggesting they add 'or postal order' to the website or set up an online payment system. A few weeks later. I got a very nice letter from the Minister of Justice saying the website has been amended and they are looking to use an online system. Result. That was the first time I i have used a postal order in 50 years, since I got my first bank account, and I haven't used a cheque from my personal or business account for 10 years or so.

Lincslady53 · 03/12/2022 22:37

user1497787065 · 03/12/2022 05:40

I write one per year to a government department which for this particular service will
Only accept a cheque or a postal order!

Each year when the form arrives the first thing I do is look to see if the payment options have changed. It seems archaic for a government department.

Email your mp. It is ridiculous that so many gov offices insist on cheques.

VestaTilley · 03/12/2022 22:40

I used mine fairly regularly up until about five years ago I’d say. I’m in my mid thirties, if that makes a difference.

user564576 · 03/12/2022 22:42

Americans are surprisingly behind on banking, chip and pin being more universally in place is still relatively recent!

I've not written a cheque in years.

user564576 · 03/12/2022 22:44

(But still receive a few a year, thankfully can deposit through banking app...then wait days for it to clear....)

CourtneeLuv · 03/12/2022 23:04

I haven't used them since about 2002/2003.

Rollin · 03/12/2022 23:07

God no! I pay for most stuff with my phone or watch.
Can’t remember when I last used a cheque.
USA MIL does though. She pays all her bills with cheques, despite having credit cards.

GhoulWithADragonTattoo · 04/12/2022 02:43

I paid one to the Passport Office this year.. Guides last year only take cheques and before Covid I used to pay guitar lessons and tennis lessons but they have moved to bank transfer now.

O/T I was waiting to use a ticket machine at the train station. A young women ahead of me tried to pay on her phone and told me machine wasn't. I felt old to use my credit card but it definitely was working for more more old fashioned methods!

youcantry · 04/12/2022 02:59

I haven't got a cheque book. Bank used to post me one periodically then stopped. I think I last wrote one out when my son was in primary school so about 7 years ago.

CirreltheSquirrel · 04/12/2022 06:48

At a work social a few years ago we had one of those scavenger hunt things where they call out an item and the first table to take one up to the front wins. One item was cheque book and everyone was amazed when I whipped one out of my bag. I think I'd just organised quite an old school race where the easiest way to do prizes was to write cheques rather than carrying a big pile of cash and then finding the winners had gone home before the presentation. Even those events tend to now do bank transfers after the event rather than a cheque so I use mine less and less (and don't carry it round any more!)