“Please make cheques payable to”

[asatelliteisnttoofarright]

I went for a private healthcare appointment recently and just got the invoice in the post.

It says that the preferred payment method is a cheque! I’m in my 20s and have never written a cheque before. AIBU to think they need to update their payment terms?

People in their 20s just hate having to make phone calls or indeed have any incidental social contact with people. COVID did it. That's why you think it's weird.

No, I literally work a job where I make phone calls all day and love it.

My issue is that it means that I have to hope someone will be actually able to answer the phone and take payment at 10:30 today, or somehow find a cheque!

Again - my issue isn’t the fact I have to make a phone call. My job is to make phone calls. I love it.

My issue is that it’s so inconvenient! I have to hope that someone answers the phone promptly today, or it gets delayed by another two days. It’s just not useful in a 9-5 society.

It’s becoming less common but there are still quite a few times I’ve had to “read out the long card number” over the phone.

My daughter got a six thousand pound tax rebate two years ago from HMRC. By cheque. Too large to pay over the app (I don't know whether they've changed this since as I've not had another cheque that big!) and we live somewhere where banks are like hens teeth.

It took a ridiculous amount of organisation to get that money put into her account, Some places are still operating as if it's the 1980s. I'm due a tax rebate from HMRC next year and I'm looking forward to seeing how it arrives, particularly since they have my bank details already...

There are many reasons why a company might need you to call in. Fraud prevention, minimisation of mistakes by the customer especially in an organisation where some people self fund and some people are paid by insurance pay outs, cyber crime and most importantly admin. It creates a lot of extra admin linking payments to invoices via bank transfer and the organisation's software may be set up to link invoices directly to card payments where it won't be to bank transfers.

It’s unusual I’ll give you that but I’m suspecting that as a surgeon most of his clients are older perhaps, I’ve not had a chequebook in many years, but paying over the phone isn’t uncommon, I typically pay my insurance that way

I love cheque books! My parents still occasionally give my cheques. They are in their 80s though.

I have a chequebook and have used precisely one cheque since I got it in 2011. I enjoyed it. We have one we need to cash on the fridge but no idea how to do it because there are no actual banks near us that we are members of.

This is a weak excuse. It’s just as much admin to assign a cheque to the right account, or to take a card payment over the phone.

I pay my water bill over the phone (automated system) using a bank card, four times a year.

I wouldn't describe it as "antiquated". It takes a couple of minutes and is perfectly efficient.

Not everyone can use BACS so I'm relieved that at least some organisations use other methods. I have problems with strings of numbers.

Having to make a phone call to pay a bill is definitely ridiculous.

I agree! My husband had to issue a cheque recently, had no idea where his chequebook was, so I hunted mine out, and saw it was issued in 2006!! I’d only written a few cheques from it. I agree, both methods seem outdated.

I struggle to spend cash these days, last week I went into 4 different shops and none of them took cash!

Also, I’m 41 and have never had a cheque book but my mum used to write them for me to pay for things like school trips etc.

I agree with you Op, I think the payment options offered are really quite outdated!

Look up on your banks website and there will be step by step instructions on how to upload a photo of your cheque. It's very easy to do, and no visit to the bank.

Maybe. But calling and paying by card would have been quicker than writing and posting on this thread. Agree with your point about cheques, though.

You could make the process a whole lot less painful and time-consuming by just making the payment (over the phone, which you say you love using) and not wasting half an hour blogging about how not all of the world works as you would like it to.

"il faut cultiver notre jardin"

as Voltaire said back in 1759 ... the whole novel is a good life lesson

Excuse for what exactly? Not doing things as you like them to be done?

It is our postal service that is the issue plus they took a couple of weeks to issue them in the first place.

I pay my window cleaner by cheque if I don't happen to have cash, he doesn't use any other method for payment. Also when my household bin was being cleaned, he always asked for yearly cheque to be sent. No other way of paying him.

I also recently paid for some blinds in the house to a one-man band fitter, he also asked for a cheque.

Cheques are a pain for my business as you can’t pay in higher than £3000, card payments are also a pain as you lose 1% +20p which adds up on big invoices.

Bank transfer is fee and easy, very strange.

Spoken by someone who has never worked in accounts receiveable. Random sums of money landing in a bank account and you have no idea what invoice it's for and who sent it.

Just phone and pay. And if you feel so strongly about it being inconvenient, don't use that company again.

They don’t open until 9am, which is when I start work.

So I need to wait until my break, hope they’re open and available, and if not, it waits until Monday.

It doesn’t open until 9am. What am I meant to do? Force them to open now?