Bye bye cheques.
And good riddance.
During the lunchtime news on Radio 4 the other day was the story of the beginning of the process to phase out cheques.
The usual neigh-sayers were there. ‘Boo hoo – how am I going to pay my bills now?’ they said. ‘Cheques are so convenient’ they said.
Balls.
Cheques are an outmoded, out dated pain in the arsehole.
How come I was listening to the lunchtime news on Radio 4? Because I was in my car – driving 10 miles to the nearest Post Office (30+ to the nearest branch of my bank) to stand in a line for 20 minutes to pay in a bloody cheque. Now I’m waiting for it to clear. For the next month or however long it takes.
Cheques are fine if:
- You live near your bank branch or a Post Office
- You can get to said office at a time that suits you and a time they will be open.
- You don’t have anything better to do with your time than stand in a line nattering about the price of cat food and hair nets.
- You don’t have anything better to do with your money than leave it stagnating in a zero percent interest current account
Online banking, BACs transfers (Faster Payments even better), Direct Debits, Paypal, Google Checkout. All much more convenient, much faster and much better than cheques.
Now – if we could only get rid of cash as well. I mean, come on – it’s just bonkers. Carrying around a piece of paper and a metric tonne of nickel which, if you drop is gone forever? Crazy.
Contactless payment? Yes please.
Category: Making the world a better place 2 comments »
March 29th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
I 80% agree with you. It used to be 100%, and then I got talking to my plumber who was dead worried about it. No-one wants to have a few hundred quid in cash laying around to pay a plumber for doing work, and sole-trader workers like him don’t want to have to get a card swiper thing because they cost extra money and the bank take a bite out of each transaction, meaning that they either have to put their prices up (which hacks off the customers) or take a 5% pay cut (which hacks off the plumber). I’m not sure what the resolution is here…
March 31st, 2010 at 1:37 pm
My solution would be that the plumber invoices you and on the invoice is his BACS details. Then you just phone your bank, or go online, and pay him.
Or, he lists his Paypal address and you do it that way.
For a point-of-sale payment how about the banks provide a service where the plumber phones up and enters his ID number and password, then the ammount, then hands the phone over to you to enter you debit card details, for which there is only a 25p charge. If YOU want to pay by credit card, then you have to pay the extra quid or whatever it is.
Remember where you heard it first.