Cheque Books.

Many of the tradesmen who carry out work for me, choose payment by cheque. Still write them but not as many as I used to. Still get new cheque books automatically when I near the end of current one. If they stopped payment by cheque I would be lost!

This is a really interesting thread.

I looked at the heading in amazement and wondered for a moment what year it is!

Danish banks stopped issuing cheque books in the 1980s, though you can still get a bank to issue a banker's cheque, but you might well find that no bank will accept it.

When we bought a motor boat in the Netherlands in 2013, our Danish bank was willing to issue a banker's cheque, but no Dutch bank would accept one. As you could only withdraw a maximum of 1500 euros a day on a visa or mastercard, we finished up by asking our bank to transfer the price of the vessel to the bank account of the notary who was finalizing the sales' agreement.

I hope others who don't live in the UK will comment too. I would really like to know if there are other countries who still have cheque books.

While we are on the subject, Sweden no longer issues coins or paper money - I am not sure how that is working out, though. It was brought in to try to stop people moonlighting, but does not seem to have solved the problem.

I use cheques to pay my hairdresser who does not use the Payment Handset (or whatever they are called). Occasionally we have to use a cheque to pay the person who comes to mend something in the house, most recently a plumber.

The only way I can pay an amount from my Nationwide Savings Account into my current a/c is by way of a cheque that they issue to me, then I take it to the bank. Seems rather mad these days! I also, by one publisher, get paid by cheque though I suppose I could just give them details and they'd do a BACS. Only cheques I write are to the cattery when I take her in for the odd few days if I'm going away. Man there says he doesn't want a card machine as the bank charges too much for them.

I agree with MamaCaz. There's a poetry magazine I subscribe to where the editor wants payment by cheque. Won't use email either.
I don't mind sending a cheque but receiving one is a real pain. The local branch of our bank has shut and I don't want to travel ten miles to the next one just to cash a cheque for a small amount. I'm told the post office will cash cheques -is this correct?

I live in "Firstport" retirement housing. If I hire the guest room for a friend, or at another site for myself they insist on payment by cheque. Even the Post Office can accept online payments now, although they still charge a "cheque handling" fee.

Lilylaundry

MamaCaz. That was an unnecessary put down for my husband and me. We are amongst the ‘rather mature’ small business owners but, contrary to your nasty statement about us not embracing new technology, we have a web site, which we update regularly. We accept cash, cheques, bank transfers, PayPal transfers etc., but what we don’t have is a card machine since most of our customers prefer cash, cheque or bank transfer. Perhaps it would be wise of you to think before being nasty in future. People who are ‘rather mature’ are neither idiots or backwards looking.

I am sorry you have taken my comment personally, but I think you reaction to it is over the top.

I gave our own experience of when we - OH and I - most commonly need to write cheques, and that experience is that, as I wrote, "it is most frequently to small, longstanding businesses run by rather mature people who haven't embraced technology, continuing to accept only cash or cheques".

That is our personal experience, so what is wrong in my saying that?

Nowhere did I say, or imply, that you are fall into that cateegory. - you clearly do not, since you accept a wide range of payment methods, so how exactly am I meant to have been nasty to you?

Nor did I say that all, or even a lot of people who are elderly are idiots or backward looking.
I didn't suggest that any group of people are idiots, and I don't think it either.

I stand by what I said, which was that some elderly people in business have not embraced technology, so yes, those particular people are, perhaps not backwards-looking, to use your words, but simply not moving forwards at the same pace as other businesses.

I think your attack on me, and saying I am nasty, is far nastier than anything I wrote!

I pay the window cleaner by cheque, so I can keep track of when he comes. I also send cheques to young family members who don’t have bank accounts. I’d hate to see them phased out.

All you need for paypal is their email address, you don't need to know any bank details

Sueki44

I pay the window cleaner by cheque, so I can keep track of when he comes. I also send cheques to young family members who don’t have bank accounts. I’d hate to see them phased out.

How does someone with no bank account cash a cheque?

Yes I still use cheques, but no longer as much. I pay workmen doing jobs at my home with cheques and Credit Card bills. I would hate not to have them available.

GrannyGear

I agree with MamaCaz. There's a poetry magazine I subscribe to where the editor wants payment by cheque. Won't use email either.
I don't mind sending a cheque but receiving one is a real pain. The local branch of our bank has shut and I don't want to travel ten miles to the next one just to cash a cheque for a small amount. I'm told the post office will cash cheques -is this correct?

If you have a banking app on your phone you can send a photo of the cheque - saves travelling 10 miles!

I rarely use my chequebook, but we use it for payments where we need to send a cheque with a payment form in order to get a receipt.
Some tradesķmen now ask for payments via apps or their own payment machines when they have finished a job, but I don't like doing this for people I don't know, who knows what info they can save for later fraudulent use?
Cheques are also useful for sending cash gifts at Christmas, though I must admit that I often risk sending cash now.

Sorry, I should have said that the cheque is made payable to Mum….but the physical cheque goes in the card addressed to the young person.

I only use cheques these days for charity donations. The Christmas ones have just started coming and I find it easy to keep them all in one drawer and write the cheques all on the same day. It's one of my Christmas traditions which I used to do with my mother. She's gone now but I like to think she knows I'm still doing it.

My FIL gives us cheques as presents. The last few years they haven’t got paid in as our local town has closed all its banks so it’s a special trip to another town. Thankfully my DH now has POA and has set up online banking for him and manages all his finances. We now just take the cheques, shred them and do a bank transfer. That way everyone is happy.

I can’t remember the last time I wrote a cheque, I pay my cleaner in cash and all the trades people I use do online payments including the window cleaner.

Thanks Sueki44 ?

Just had a look at my cheque book - last used in 2015.

I have been told by several people that banks charge as much for handling cheques as they do for credit card transactions

Oldgoat: DH and I are trustees of a Trust that requires 2 signatures for everything, like you and the WI, and won’t allow online banking for this reason. Nor will they allow telephone banking, both a real nuisance, especially if they have made a mistake, as they not infrequently have done. They are doing their best to phase out Trust accounts, I suspect there is little profit in them, goodness knows what we will do then. They won’t issue bank cards, nor telephone passwords for Trusts, though their operators missed the memo and keep asking for one.
As our local bank has shut down, and we infrequently go to the nearest branch which is quite a long distance away, I end up paying bills out of my own account, and the Trust has to reimburse me, can’t think that is very good practice, though I keep careful records in case I am ever accused of embezzlement.
Mamacaz, I think you will find that many of the main banks allow you to photograph cheques to pay them in now, once one did it the rest seemed to follow suit. Though it is not foolproof; occasionally the system will “take against” a cheque and the transaction doesn’t go through

Have only written one cheque in the last year to a dog trainer. Still have lots left in my cheque book

I have just received the usual bunch of Christmas raffle tickets. They all ask for payment by cheque. You can pay by debit card, but I don't like giving my card details.

People are naturally cautious about who they give their bank details to. How do those who advocate using cheque books feel about giving everyone these details on every cheque they write?

To those who don't live near a bank you can post cheques to your branch with a letter detailing the account it should be paid into. Have done this in the past

I wrote a cheque to my Great Niece for her 21st Birthday recently, and reading this thread made me think to check and see if she had paid it in - quite surprised to see she had done so quickly! But hasn't thanked me for it........no matter I stop presents at 21 anyway!