Cheques.......when will they die completely?

[R1Geezer]

I'm delighted to say that most shops are now not taking cheques and there are really very few situations where one is needed now days. I write about 2 a year max and that's when I have to post one to someone in the stone age, anyway, how long before they become totally obselete?

[Skyline D]

They are nowhere near obsolete and hundreds of thousands of small businesses which are not retail still depend on the cheque for income and payment of expenses.

The cheque will be around for decades to come, realistically at least two and quite possibly more.

[bednobs]

not sure geezer, but just because you don't use them dosent mean other people dont. I have written 5 cheques in the last week
1) as an entry to an event
2) to my cleaner
3) to the milkman
4) to the man who is tiling the kitchen
5) as a birthday present for a relative

[R1Geezer]

You on the electric yet bednobs?

It's not I'm totally techno, I just get cash out and pay with that and when that's gone I get some more. I suppose it's just a personal thing but I always feel like a total pillock paying with a cheque, and it used to **** me right off when some numpty paid for a sandwich with a cheque in ASDA, thankfully they don't take them now.

[R1Geezer]

all of those 5, bednobs, would just embarrass me to not give them cash, and if I was the recipient in any of those cases I'd be thinking, what a plonker, still maybe I'm weird eh?

[Foo.King]

yes , ^ you have nailed it in one !

[barry1010]

Paying with cash? That is very out dated.

[Gormless]

A guy recently did a lot of professional tree-pruning in my garden. It came to �400. He has done work for me several times, and takes a cheque because he knows I am not going to do a runner. In this instance, occasional work, a fairly large sum of money, cash would be inconvenient for me, so a cheque is the best way to pay.

[R1Geezer]

Fair enough in that case Gormless, but a few quid to the milkman!

[spudqueen]

Like bednobs I use a lot of cheques. I pay my hairdresser, milkman and newsagent with cheques. I also send them into school to pay for trips, school uniform, photos etc. I also use them to send money to my nieces for their birthdays.

Anyway, why are you delighted? Is it because you can get stuck behind someone paying by cheque? Using a debit or credit card can take just as long. Or is it because you work for a bank and don't have as many cheques to check everyday. When I worked in a bank we had to go through every cheque that had come in, check that they were not post dated or out of date, had a payees name on, were signed, that the words and figures agreed and that the amount was the same as on the printout which arrived with them. We would have tens of thousands of cheques a day coming in. Now that's a lot of work.

[Skyline D]

I hardly write any cheques myself. I think I've written about four in the last 12 months, two of which were to buy shares of someone, one was to the company that serviced my central heating, the other to the guy who came round to repair the washing machine.

However, those are exactly the sort of firms that use them and receive them constantly. I do however have many clients who use cheques constantly. Some of whom will be writing dozens every single month. Like I said, cheques are an awful long way from being obsolete. Small businesses still by and large depend on them.

[Skyline D]

"to buy shares FROM someone" not of. Doh!

Why isn't there an edit function on posts on this site?

[bednobs]

i would prefer to put a cheque out once a month in the bag in the top of the bottle for 30 quid than leave 30 quid in cash on the doorstep overnight! Don't really see how that is embarrassing. I also cant get to the bank very easily, and have to give them notice if i want to take out more than 200 quid. the tiler was nearly 500 quid, so instead of wending my way to the cashpoint 3 days in a row in advance, it was more convnient for me to write a cheque. my cleaner asks me for a cheque cause if i give her cash, she will just spend it. If it goes through her business bank account it is all above board rather than "cash in hand". i would rather not send cash through the post too. For the event, i had no choice but to send a cheque

[bednobs]

so in fact in every case it was more convenient both for me and them