Abolishing use of cheques?

[TSThomas]

I volunteer with the elderly and there is no way that 99% of the older people i work with can handle online banking...

Don't forget telephone banking...

In my own line of work, cheque payments do indeed bounce (regularly) which creates additional headaches in sending demands (etc.), not to mention those filled in incorrectly & must be returned. EFTs work flawlessly though.

 

[TarfHead]

If I do an online EFT from my Halifax account before midday, it will be in the other persons (Irish) bank account before 9am the next day.

Do Halifax allow you to send money on the fly ?

Cos BOI don't. They require you to register the beneficiary which you can't access until you activate it via an activation code sent to you by post. So if I have to pay a tradesman, I need their bank details, wait 3/4 days to activate them on 365 Online, then pay the amount which could, depending on the time frame, take another day or three to arrive in their bank account.

Versus 30 seconds to write a cheque and I don't have to think about it any more.

And from the cheque recipient's perspective, with online banking they have to actively monitor the bank account to make sure the funds arrive, and that's when the payment arrives with a correct narrative.

And if I register each and every person to whom I might ever need to give a cheque to, my online account is going to get (even !) slower as the list of beneficiaries lengthens.

The principal advantage of cheques, for me, is the €12.50 MSD for each book of 25. Given that there is not yet a viable alternative, they're a necessary evil.

 

[Complainer]

Do Halifax allow you to send money on the fly ?

Cos BOI don't. They require you to register the beneficiary which you can't access until you activate it via an activation code sent to you by post. So if I have to pay a tradesman, I need their bank details, wait 3/4 days to activate them on 365 Online, then pay the amount which could, depending on the time frame, take another day or three to arrive in their bank account.

NIB certainly allow you to set up payees (Irish or international) on the fly. The only danger is that you enter a wrong digit, and the money goes astray. I usually do a low value test payment with new payees, and confirm that it has been received before making regular payments.

Versus 30 seconds to write a cheque and I don't have to think about it any more.

And from the cheque recipient's perspective, with online banking they have to actively monitor the bank account to make sure the funds arrive, and that's when the payment arrives with a correct narrative.

But with the cheque, you have to physically post or deliver it, and the recipient has to physically post it or deliver it to their bank, complete a lodgement slip, and confirm that payment has been cleared before drawing on the those funds.

 

[markpb]

Do Halifax allow you to send money on the fly? Cos BOI don't. They require you to register the beneficiary which you can't access until you activate it via an activation code sent to you by post. So if I have to pay a tradesman, I need their bank details, wait 3/4 days to activate them on 365 Online, then pay the amount which could, depending on the time frame, take another day or three to arrive in their bank account.

Absolutely. Log in, enter recepient details, enter password, complete transfer, job done. 30 seconds. And like I said, if you did it before midday, they'd have it the next day. Don't mistake lazy Irish banks for bad banking in general.

On a side note, I miss Halifax already

 

[candyflipper]

Cheques are better.

Look what happens to folks who try to wire money in the SEPA area.. they're falsely told that it's free, then intermediary banks take money directly out of the wire itself. The consumer has no control over this, and no way to stop it from happening. They simply discover that less money showed up at the other end. They then must pay 25€ simply to trace the money, to get a record of what happened, and discover which bank took the money. Sure, you know how much your bank will take, but you cannot know how much the other bank will take, or any of the banks inbetween, because it's not simply based on the bank. Banks have different fees for different clients and account types. Wires are totally vulnerable to money grabs.

With a cheque, the postman (and anyone else who passes the check along to the recipient) cannot snatch some of the money. You know the full amount will make it to the intended recipient.

 

[ontour]

You know the full amount will make it to the intended recipient.

Unless of course it gets lost in the post, or stolen from your postbox, or the recipient loses the check or their bank will not process a non bank or foreign cheque and puts it in their internal mail. At the end of all this the recipient could lose a huge chunk of the money between fees, charges, commissions etc. They will potentially also lose the value of the cash between when you send it and when the cheque is credited to their account.

Like most things in life there are Pro's and Con's to each method of payment.

 

[candyflipper]

the recipient could lose a huge chunk of the money between fees, charges, commissions etc.

All those fees are only possible on the recipients end of the transaction, and the recipient understands and accepts the terms of their own bank. Eg. The sending bank cannot send less than the amount on the check. And there's no opportunity for an intermediate bank to take some undisclosed fee either. There are no surprises here.

BTW, aren't cheque deposits generally free in most UK banks?

They will potentially also lose the value of the cash between when you send it and when the cheque is credited to their account.

Only a cashier's cheque makes it possible to lose access to the money while it's in transit (which is also the case for wires, which ironically can take weeks sometimes).

With normal cheques, the sender has access to the money up until the point of cashing -- which means they are still getting interest on the money until it actually moves, at which point the interest starts for the recipient.

 

[Crugers]

Cheques are better.

Look what happens to folks who try to wire money in the SEPA area..

With a cheque, the postman (and anyone else who passes the check along to the recipient) cannot snatch some of the money. You know the full amount will make it to the intended recipient.

AFAIK your Irish Euro cheques can't be used for 'foreign' payments, SEPA or not...

 

[DrMoriarty]

Correct. And, for amounts under €50,000, the banks at both ends of the transaction can only apply the same fees as they would for a 'domestic' ETF (usually somewhere between nil and €0.50).

I doubt whether I write more than three or four cheques a year, and I only ever step inside a branch when I need to lodge one. But that suits me, and may not suit others. From a consumer point of view, is it really too much to ask that banks continue to provide the option, until a viable alternative is as widely available?