So cheques will not be needed at all by 2018??? So how will I then pay for...

[Miggsie]

the plumber
the washing machine repair man

...I suppose as businesses they will have to carry around a little card reader?

What about:

my cleaner
school meals
DD dance school
DD's french teacher

will they all have to register for card readers?

Will I have to carry loads of cash around to pay them?

Several million cheques are still written each year...it's hardly a minority interest service is it?

With my cynical hat on I think it is more to do with the banks wanting to sack the staff who currently sit and process cheques.

Oh, and every time you use a card reader, don't the banks get 10p or something???!!!

see cheques to be ended: here

I didn't think about the lack of signal for mobile phones round here either.

I am waiting to see what will be put in place for small voluntary groups such as my art club, and the choir I belong to.

At the moment, cheques are integral to what I do as treasurer, and I do worry about what is going to happen in the future. I wouldn't be comfortable being treasurer if I was the sole signatory/authorising person on the account, for example. I recently sold a painting at our annual exhibition, where buyers bought the paintings from the art club, and I then paid the artists (minus the commission to the club). My cheque was signed by the other two signatories to the account, so the transaction was obviously above-board - I don't see how I could have paid myself if I were the sole authorising person.

I'm torn here. I live in Belgium, where they don't have cheques - everything is done by cash, homebanking (electronic banking), or by paying bills at the bank via the cashier or the bill machine. There is space on the electronic transfer forms to indicate what it is for. When I get my car serviced, I wait for the bill to arrive in the post and pay it electronically. However, this works because they know where I live, as everyone has to be registered with their local town hall, and the police come and check to see if you live where you say you live.

I use cheques in the UK to pay for work on my property where they don't accept internet bank transfers; to give gifts to my niece and nephews (I don't like sending cash through the post); to square up with mil if she has got something that I've asked her to get when I'm in UK to see her.

This also hasn't been thought through in terms of large tax bills for HMRC such as inheritance tax. As it is not possible to transfer more than £10,000 in a day electronically because of the money laundering rules, what will happen if you have a large IHT bill to settle? I'm damned if I'll pay extra for a special bank transfer to happen. I'm sure HMRC will be happy with the rise in the black economy because of this measure and the subsequent dip in the tax take.

I'm in Belgium too. I do most stuff through home banking, thought the banks have terminals and human beings if you don't have a computer. The only bother I have is with the school - they don't have an account so I have to pay for school dinners/after school club every month in cash. It's a large amount to sent a 5 yo in with!

I run a charitable company and more than 75% of our income is by cheque. We have negotiated free banking with our lovely business manager but when I asked about getting set up to take electronic payments it would mean paying a monthly rental charge for the terminal along with a 3%-5% charge for every transaction and because we charge for our services in advance the bank would hold the money for 3 months to allow for any refunds that would need to be made.

So we would have to put up our charges to cover the additional costs, which would kill off half of our custom, and we'd be buggered up with cash flow if we had a 3 month lag on the payments.

So, unless they come up with something better it'll be cash only for us .