Weary Bankers

[steepholm]

Just had an email from Natwest telling me that cheque guarantee cards will no longer work from the end of this month. However, they add chirpily...

As part of our ongoing commitment to becoming Britain's most helpful bank, we'd like to highlight some convenient ways to pay.

• Debit Card - A quick and safe way to pay for goods and services.
• Direct Debit – A simple, safe and speedy way to pay regular bills
• Standing Order – A hassle free way to transfer money on a set date regularly
• Direct payment – An easy way to make a one off or regular payments in branch, online or using Telephone Banking

Like any of these is going to be of the slightest use for the occasions when I actually use cheques - e.g. paying a plumber to come and fix a leak; or paying a mechanic to service my car; or paying for my child's piano lessons. It's really a choice between keeping lots of cash on me or asking people to trust my cheque won't bounce. Either way, it's a very good day for criminals, whether blue-collar burglars and muggers, or white-collar fraudsters. Oh, and for the banks, of course - but perhaps they're covered by one or both of the above?

Comments

They're all doing this, you know.

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

Bit of a nuisance, really.

I mean, even my bank. Harrumph.

Re: They're all doing this, you know.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Yes, they did mention that it was happening across the sector, so I don't blame Natwest particularly, other than for their half-hearted effort to pretend that this was anything other than a reduction in service.

The next target is of course the cheque itself, the death of which was announced some time ago, but for which they've as yet been unable to devise a replacement, other than some half-baked idea about a piece of paper that you could give someone, and which they in turn could take to their own bank, which would then arrange for money to be taken from your account and put into theirs - or some such Heath-Robinson arrangement. It'll never catch on.

AP Herbert, thou should'st be living at this hour

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

Negotiable cattle'll be next.

I have never quite recovered from my bank's absorption by, eventually, RBS.

Re: AP Herbert, thou should'st be living at this hour

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I'd quite forgotten the cow-cheque!

Great man, Herbert.

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

And a damned good MP, as well.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I had that one too (from a related bank). It's really going to drive me crazy when the cheques go altogether. Quite apart from the Christmas/birthday donations to young relatives, I have no idea how to manage my Labour party branch's account without cheques. (Though since the branch doesn't have a cheque guarantee card I suppose we'll totter on as usual for now.)

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's rather as if some whizz kid had announced that "Everybody has cars now, so we no longer need pavements!" "But what about the people who don't drive?" "Oh, we'll think of something for them before it comes to it, mumble mumble.... Maybe a system of trapezes, swung from street to street? That will be so much better than walking!"

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that I very rarely use a cheque these days, but when I do, there is no currently available substitute. I know that sending a cheque in a birthday card is not as exciting as receiving a present, but it's a darn sight more exciting than receiving an electronic bank transfer!

Also how will I pay for the occasional odd job? They're encouraging the grey economy if everyone starts working cash in hand.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

And what about remote parts of the land like the Orkneys where banks are few and banking facilities often come in once a week by ferry?

The bit they fail to mention is that for the smallest of businesses in such places (a two room B%B par example) the economics of running a card reader just don't add up (they charge exactly the same for a paper copy slidey thingy) and if cheques aren't guaranteed this means having to carry large amounts of cash which makes no sense at all.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Well, exactly.

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that the people who dreamed up this "improvement" don't often stay in B&Bs.

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

It's all the banks, according to the sign in the post office. I confess I did not know what a cheque guarantee card was, having only seen the mentions of it in, oh, 50s-era magazines.