“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?

My home insurance you can’t get on line you have to call (NFU Mutual)

I don’t think it’s weird at all TBH
There’s prob a lot of elderly people using this type of service who still like a paper copy of things so invoice /cheque etc
You could probably have asked for an email at the time and easily use an alternative method of payment.
Bank transfers whilst fine can also be subject to scamming - as can email interception so sending an invoice in the post to a verified address on file and receiving a cheque or payment over the phone seems sensible in some ways!

The consultants are likely self-employed rather than employees hence the invoice from them rather than the practice/surgery whatever

but yeah, I’ve not used my chequebook since 2011!

Not necessarily.

My family and I have used private medical care for 40 years.
Every hospital is different.

It's really not a big deal.

Yes. All done automatically online.

I see a consultant at a private hospital every year and his only payment options are by phone or cheque, but I can pay online for the hospital tests. I still use a couple of cheques a year and have recently made two payments to my solicitor by cheque. I recently spent an hour with an adviser in my bank and closed three accounts which had very small balances, and asked for the money to be transferred to my current account. Three weeks later, I received three separate letters from the bank, each with a separate cheque for the closing balance from each account. One cheque was for £2.74, one was for £4.28, and the third was for 1p 😆😆.

How can I call when they don’t open till 9?

How is it 'perfectly efficient' compared with direct debit where it all happens automatically.

I've never not paid a water bill by direct debit or had any need to contact my water company apart from the 3 occasions when I've moved house and I've had my own home for over 30 years. So in that time, that's 120 phone calls that you've made which haven't been necessary.

OP I agree that payment by cheque these days is very unusual and it sounds like the it's because the arrangement is direct with a private consultant who's working at the hospital. So either they just haven't updated their payment methods, or it could possibly be a security measure - it's a known fraud to intercept emails discussing invoices for services and send fake 'our bank details have changed' emails tricking people into sending money to fraudsters.

DP is self employed (labour only contractor). He does dozens of jobs for a handful of clients every year and everything is done by bank transfer. Except one client that he does the occasional job for who insist on him sending an invoice by post and a separate invoice to another address for his expenses, which is very weird and he gets two cheques, but he can generally pay these in via the app. I've told him he should add the cost of 2 stamps to his expenses invoice.

Me too... My chequebook case shows my age though...😅

Haven't written one for four years apparently!

This really is the snowflake generation.

Spoilt, tantrummy, getting worked up because some system isn't just to their liking.

Just make the call and stop making a mountain out of molehill.

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 🤷🏼‍♀️

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

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

are you the drama queen generation maybe?

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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’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.

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!

This is def the best option