Cheque Books.

SachaMac

I was a machinist in a bank in the late 70’s. It was the first job you did as a junior before moving on to being a cashier. The first job of the day was to check the piles of cheques coming through the clearing looking for errors including missing signatures. At the end of each day we had to sort & process stacks of cheques that had been paid in over the counter or through the night safe. Banks were a hive of industry in those days with customers queuing out of the door at lunch times and lots of staff always busy in the background. I remember my first cheque book when I started working there at 16 had a big picture of concord on it. I still have a cheque book but can’t remember when I last used it, I’d like to continue to have the option of writing a cheque though, just in case I need to, although it’s likely to be a rare occasion.

SachaMac Gosh that brings back a lot of memories!! I worked in a City of London bank from the late 60's to late 70's in all areas of banking: clearing, securities, accounts, cashiering etc etc. Very happy times. I especially enjoyed being a cashier and meeting the customers. On one occasion while processing cheques into the clearing system I accidentally keyed in my own account number for a credit payment (it was one digit different to my own number), and credited my account with over £1m !!! The following morning my error was discovered. I was terrified I'd be sacked (I was 16), fortunately the chief accountant saw the funny side and it was quickly sorted out. Young though I was I still had the cheek to ask if I could keep the overnight interest - no chance

We have cheque books but never use them. We have solar panels and the only way we can receive payment from the national company is by cheque! Crazy!

MerylStreep

Floradora9

Your account number is not on you bank card your sort code and long number of the card itself are on it plus dates for being valid . The long number is read by the bank and from this they get your account number .
Sorry I used the wrong quote someone said the card showed your account number and it does not.

I don’t know what bank you use but my account No is on my cards.
In fact it’s got Account number written underneath the number.

I bank with RBS and no number on my cards.

We use cheques quite often at 56 I don't regard myself as an oldie

Yes, except here in America we call them checks. (Same pronunciation). I write about 4 checks a month for various bills. But for shopping restaurants, etc. I use my credit card.

It’s a myth that we should use bank branches in order to keep them open. Visiting a branch and using their services is a free service to us which provides no income or profit to the bank . Unless we use a visit to buy investment products, insurances or borrowing there is only a cost to the bank not a benefit.

How strange. I was clearing out my file the other day. It's bizarre how much gets in there as I have paperless bills now.

I found a cheque book right at the bottom of one of the file separators. It was battered and bruised. It must be 5-6 years easily since I wrote a cheque.

Its very rare I have cash on me, either these days. It was like that pre pandemic so it isn't just something that crept up from Covid19

Cheques will eventually be discontinued. I pay for everything by card, online banking etc

You're right, vickymeldrew. I used to visit our bank branch regularly, then they closed it and told us to go 11 miles to the next one. Then they closed that one (which was a bit of a surprise, as they hadn't warned the staff, let alone the customers) and told us to go 40+ miles to another branch in a town which we pass through but don't have reason to visit. I asked if we could move in the other direction to a town 18 miles away which we do visit regularly. They said we could, but would have to do the whole thing ourselves, and couldn't use our previous account numbers not the account switching service. We would move away from RBS but the choices round here are limited. Getting used to online banking with the building society, so we may end up going with that.

Sorry, that was a diversion from the main thread. Just wanted a rant!

I know the answer, but and slightly off topic,
can anyone remember what the "calender" was used for at the end of cheque book?

No, definitely not, I have zero need for a cheque book anymore. I occasionally receive cheques, fortunately our bank has now added cheque depositing to its mobile app so they can be paid in remotely and cleared within a day or so. I pay by direct debit, debit card/contactless, direct transfer and Paypal.

You can use another branch without changing where your account is based. Our RBS branch closed some years ago but I still have the same account numbers sort codes etc. . You can pay in cheques and get money from any post office which we do quite often . I love internet banking but am careful not to log on anywhere insecure and am aware of all the scams .

Oh yes, I like paper ‘everything’! An iPad surely can’t file everything! I wouldn’t know how to anyway……

Yes you can, Floradora, and our account still has the same number and sort code that it always has had, but only because we allowed it to go to the place where RBS wanted it, not where it would have been convenient for us. It was the branch in that place who were very unhelpful about letting us move to them without doing all the work of changing ourselves (I know the number and sort code would have changed), which made me wonder what would have happened if we had moved to the other end of the country.

Floradora9

Your account number is not on you bank card your sort code and long number of the card itself are on it plus dates for being valid . The long number is read by the bank and from this they get your account number .
Sorry I used the wrong quote someone said the card showed your account number and it does not.

pretty sure mine, both of them, have my a/c number on, at the foot, next to sort code. ?

I decided to join U3A. Did it all in a very up to date way, downloaded application form, filled it all in using Adobe fill and sign.pasted signature. All done.
Then I went to pay the subscription and was amazed to find I could only join at a meeting, or send a cheque! No way to pay online.
The thought of finding cheque book, remembering how to write cheque, finding envelope and stamp and getting to a postbox was enough to put me off, and I decided to wait until they restarted meetings.

Floradora9

jocork

I paid my council tax by cheque until Covid when I started paying online. Recently the online payment system failed so I wrote a cheque and took it to the post office then later found the online payment that claimed to have failed went through the next day! Just as well I noticed! I don’t always check my credit card statement that carefully but was looking for something in particular. I’ll be checking every month now and will pay council tax by cheque too since I clearly can’t trust their payment system! Our council recently went bankrupt so perhaps that had something to do with it! I tried the phone line and was put through to a council 200 miles away! Not trusting them at all now!

Your account number is not on you bank card your sort code and long number of the card itself are on it plus dates for being valid . The long number is read by the bank and from this they get your account number .

My account number is on my card.

infoman

I know the answer, but and slightly off topic,
can anyone remember what the "calender" was used for at the end of cheque book?

If you used your cheque book to withdraw cash, the cashier used to put a mark on the date on the calendar. If my memory serves me correctly, you were only allowed to make one cash withdrawal a day.

growstuff
Correct answer,it was in the days of thirty pound a day maximum withdrawl,if I recall correctly.
It was to stop you going from your bank to another branch to withdraw cash when you might not have had sufficent funds.
No bank guarentee cards bank in the day.

My account number is also on my card and has been for as long as I remember.
For some reason, I have a talent for remembering long numbers, bank accounts, NI, NHS CHI number and mobile phone numbers, yet I cannot remember what I have come upstairs for.

I fefuse to bank online, BUT it takes a minimum of one hour to get a reply to a phone call to the Coop bank which I stay with on account of it's ethical stand point despite constant changes of ownership. The nearest branch is 30 miles away. I have a cheque a year old which I don't know how to cash or transfer to my account as I have no link with a branch. I send my grown grandchildren cash for birthdays and Christmas inside a card as they could not handle cheques either. So far it has worked. No loose change of course.

I still send cheques as birthday/Christmas gifts to nieces and nephews etc. Is there another way of sending money without having to know their bank account numbers or cash in the post (which I have never trusted)? All of my other banking activities are online or by card.

what about sending postal orders.
www.postoffice.co.uk/postal-orders

Grandma2213

I still send cheques as birthday/Christmas gifts to nieces and nephews etc. Is there another way of sending money without having to know their bank account numbers or cash in the post (which I have never trusted)? All of my other banking activities are online or by card.

Paypal.

AlisonKF
I also bank with Coop and, if you check their website it gives details of where to send cheques for paying in. Don’t use the Post Office for paying in cheques as it takes for ever to go through.

Thanks Alegrias1. I do use Paypal for paying for various online purchases but that just involves clicking the button. I'll have to investigate that but do you not have to know the recipient's bank details first?