Cheques: does anybody still use them?

[MrGongGong]

Not at all. In my job (debt collection)

That has to be the most surprising thing I've read in this discussion
I never imagined Petrushka to look like this

[Petrushka]

That has to be the most surprising thing I've read in this discussion
I never imagined Petrushka to look like this

Nothing like that at all, Mr GG! Ir's all very civilised and businesslike I can assure you except in extreme cases (rare). My employer is owed money for work done and want paying for it. I extract that payment and I can assure you that cheques as a method of payment are vanishing daily.

[MrGongGong]

Nothing like that at all, Mr GG! Ir's all very civilised and businesslike I can assure you except in extreme cases (rare). My employer is owed money for work done and want paying for it. I extract that payment and I can assure you that cheques as a method of payment are vanishing daily.

Do you speak like Ray Winstone ?

(please say yes and confirm my stereotypes )

does "extracting" payment involve fingernails ?

We are all owed money from the banks who seem to have been given lots of our cash , can you get some back for me please ?

[Richard Tarleton]

Nothing like that at all, Mr GG! Ir's all very civilised and businesslike I can assure

Doesn't involve tying them to a chair and making them listen to 52 versions of Bruckner 9 till they cough up then As Mr GG says, amazing how one can have one's preconceptions shattered!

[MrGongGong]

Doesn't involve tying them to a chair and making them listen to 52 versions of Bruckner 9 till they cough up then As Mr GG says, amazing how one can have one's preconceptions shattered!

That sounds like my idea of a holiday (without the bondage )
better still with a bit of Ryoji Ikeda

[Petrushka]

Doesn't involve tying them to a chair and making them listen to 52 versions of Bruckner 9 till they cough up then As Mr GG says, amazing how one can have one's preconceptions shattered!

No, it's all mostly desk-bound telephone work to be honest, about building business relationships with customers and making sure they pay to according to terms as well as doing credit checks before opening accounts. It's surprising how little people understand, even those in business, how important cash flow is and how to make people pay. There is nothing remotely wrong in asking for payment for work done; it is how you go about it that makes all the difference and that involves building up good customer relations.

Trust me, baseball bats, leg-breaking and Dobermann Pinschers are not part of my scene.

[EdgeleyRob]

No, it's all mostly desk-bound telephone work to be honest, about building business relationships with customers and making sure they pay to according to terms as well as doing credit checks before opening accounts. It's surprising how little people understand, even those in business, how important cash flow is and how to make people pay. There is nothing remotely wrong in asking for payment for work done; it is how you go about it that makes all the difference and that involves building up good customer relations.

Trust me, baseball bats, leg-breaking and Dobermann Pinschers are not part of my scene.

Just threaten them with Radio 3 breakfast Petrushka,a doddle.

[ahinton]

Sorry you are wrong on this

Wrong on what, exactly?

You can have as many "personal" bank accounts as you like
you can use them for different things

Of course you can; I didn't suggest otherwise!

If you need audited accounts (which aren't always necessary) someone will go through it all anyway so no extra accountancy fees at all

Whether or not audited accounts are required, it is obvious that, if all the business income and expenditure are on the same account as personal income and expenditure, someone will have to go through it first to separate out the former and if you know an accountant that will do this for free then I'd like his contact details

You seem to be much more interested in the money thing than whatever your business is ? So I would guess it's to do with money.........

I'm sorry - I don't follow you. I was discussing banks accounts for business and those for personal use and the separation of these, so it's not clear what you mean by this.

I never visit my bank "Branch" , I don't even live within 100 miles of it

So how do you pay in cheques that you receive? Presumably by putting them in the mail to your bank. I'm in a similar situation to yours in which my nearest bank branch is more than 100 miles distant.

[ahinton]

" relics of another era and ripe for phasing out"? Do you think that the not inconsiderable number of people who find cheques useful or essential for personal or business reasons are 'relics from another era'? The banks want to phase cheques out because they reduce their profits. It's another example of them 'improving' services but really reducing them.

I don't care what the banks want to do for their own benefit and my own lack of interest in using cheques is purely down to the cost and inconvenience that they cause me. I wonder whether some people who say that they prefer to continue to issue and receive cheques have really thought through the consequence of dong so and not doing so and made a comparison that's meaningful to them. I'm still waiting for someone to provide convincing reasons why they consider cheques to be better (at least for them) than other means.

[umslopogaas]

#159 ahinton, you want a convincing reason why I should carry on using cheques? You might not be convinced, but here's mine.

They give you a written and therefore verifiable record of the money you have spent. Plastic doesnt, until you get the statement a month later, by which time it is far too late. But I can look at my cheque book stubs and think, hmm, been spending too much recently, need to throttle back. You cant do that with plastic, you can go on spending on your card without limit (or at least up to it), HEY, look at all this stuff I bought, and its only a month later when the bill arrives that you realise you couldnt afford it.

I mostly use cash, which is never refused (the banks hate it, but then we all hate the banks so that is just fine), but for big stuff,where carrying that much cash would make you nervous, cheques are just ideal.

[Richard Tarleton]

I'm still waiting for someone to provide convincing reasons why they consider cheques to be better (at least for them) than other means.

I thought - reading through this thread - that had been made abundantly clear? A host of tradespeople like to be paid by cheque (if not cash). Therefore, one needs cheques to pay them. In my own case - electrician, plumber, painter, builder, firewood merchant..... Nephews and nieces like cheques in Xmas and birthday cards, as ff pointed out. I don't have their bank details to make BACS payments or credit transfers, and they might forget to tell me if they switched their accounts as people are constantly being urged to do. I am on the whole an issuer rather than recipient of cheques, though I did receive a nice cheque from the RSPB lottery not long ago....

Let it go - lots of people, to answer the OP, still use and like cheques!

[VodkaDilc]

I'm still waiting for someone to provide convincing reasons why they consider cheques to be better (at least for them) than other means.

I have given two examples in message 88 and others have given similar reasons for using cheques. ahinton does seem to read very selectively. I wonder if s/he is a politician!

[MrGongGong]

Wrong on what, exactly?

zzzzzzzzzzz this

" but in most if not all such instances any such savings would likely be more than offset by the additional cost of having an accountant go through the statements to determine which entries relate to business income and expenditure and which to personal income and expenditure."


It's not "additional"

Whether or not audited accounts are required, it is obvious that, if all the business income and expenditure are on the same account as personal income and expenditure, someone will have to go through it first to separate out the former and if you know an accountant that will do this for free then I'd like his contact details

gadzooks
if you are SELF EMPLOYED there's no difference between "business income" and "personal income"
what's "personal income " anyway ? if you earn stuff it goes on the tex return ........
I don't try to set my shopping against tax but it's rather easy to see that a receipt from the cheese shop is NOT part of my work as a musician
(though I did a project with the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra and one of my expenses that year was a large quantity of carrots )

So how do you pay in cheques that you receive? Presumably by putting them in the mail to your bank. I'm in a similar situation to yours in which my nearest bank branch is more than 100 miles distant.

You go to a branch of your bank and stick them in a machine, most banks have lots of these and unless you live on Benbecula they are rather easy to spot, I guess if you did live in the Outer Hebrides you could probably pop along to the post office with them..........

I've never posted a cheque to my bank in my life , what on earth are you on about ?

[JFLL]

I'm still waiting for someone to provide convincing reasons why they consider cheques to be better (at least for them) than other means.

But several have provided detailed and what they consider convincing reasons. I suspect by now that if you’re waiting for reasons that would convince you, you’ll have to wait for ever. So best to agree to differ and drop it?

[Roehre]

.....
They give you a written and therefore verifiable record of the money you have spent. Plastic doesnt, until you get the statement a month later, by which time it is far too late. But I can look at my cheque book stubs and think, hmm, been spending too much recently, need to throttle back. You cant do that with plastic, you can go on spending on your card without limit (or at least up to it), HEY, look at all this stuff I bought, and its only a month later when the bill arrives that you realise you couldnt afford it.......

Just checking your Credit Card account online in stead of looking at the stubs does the same job, with the advantage of all the payments (credit and debit) being added up: you know exactly to the penny what you've spent.