Will you still take cheques next month?

Re: Will you still take cheques next month?

Martin Atkinson — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 17:16:21 GMT

[quote user="Bob Russell"]

I asked the bank to print out the last 5 years statements and we have them in a file (cost about a fiver). If HMRC want to wade through them they are very welcome but I would be asleep in seconds!

[/quote]

Rather sadly I suspect that is the sort of thing that fires their enthusiasm and keeps then awake. I interviewed a school leaver for an auxilliary nurse position ealier in the year and she told me without trick questions that her mother was a tax inspector, she'd done her school work experience in her mother's tax office and she had missed the whole of her final year of school from migraines. Now whether there is a connection there or not I'm not sure but although these ultimately were not the reasons I didn't employ her I felt like telling her that if she ever wanted to be employed that perhaps she shouldn't so freely volunteer such information.

Re: Will you still take cheques next month?

Bob Russell — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 09:52:56 GMT

I asked the bank to print out the last 5 years statements and we have them in a file (cost about a fiver). If HMRC want to wade through them they are very welcome but I would be asleep in seconds!

Re: Will you still take cheques next month?

Martin Atkinson — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 18:07:45 GMT

[quote user="Bob Russell"]

All our cash goes into my Barclays account - no charge but they do grumble occasionally. Then into the practice account!

[/quote]

Ditto: cash free into personal account then free electronic transfer into business account, that's if I haven't spent it first! Downside is HRMC then may want to look at your personal accounts if they investigate you and you may not want them sniffing around there.

Re: Will you still take cheques next month?

Bob Russell — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 17:16:38 GMT

All our cash goes into my Barclays account - no charge but they do grumble occasionally. Then into the practice account!

Re: Will you still take cheques next month?

Ian Mostyn — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:48:47 GMT

We have a Santander account into which we pay cheques for free, write cheques for free and pay in cash at a cheap rate. I then transfer the money over twice weekly into our RBS account where most of my loans, payments etc come out of.

Ian

Re: Will you still take cheques next month?

Martin Atkinson — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:37:54 GMT

[quote user="patrick murphy"]

but my bank charges for BACS on my business account, but not on my private?

maybe I'll have to put the paperman on direct debit?

[/quote]

I elected for LloydsTSB's electronic business tariff, (personal accounts were always free if >£2K in the black) they charge a £5 service fee then all my electonic banking is free and all I pay is is 65p for cheques paid out and 95p for cheques paid in which was £2.55 last month. As I say it has more than halved my bank charges probably a quarter of what it was on a standard tariff but a good reason not to accept cheques.

Re: Will you still take cheques next month?

Bob Russell — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:16:33 GMT

Be even more aware of recurring payments on credit/debit cards. These are totally under the control of the recipient and can only be stopped by them. If there is a mistake all that can be done is a 'charge back' by the card company which can be challenged.

Direct debits will be credited instantly if you challenge them and it is up to the company to prove the payment is correct.

I had an internet company take money from my account years after I stopped using them (debit card)and it was a heck of a job correcting it because they were based in Spain!

Re: Will you still take cheques next month?

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 15:43:37 GMT

[quote user="Martin Atkinson"]You shouldn't be scared of direct debits though, the bank is bound to refund you if an unscrupulous trader takes an unauthorised payment.[/quote]

Not scared of them, I dislike the principle: "just help yourself to what you want out of my bank account". Then it's true your bank has to refund you if some company (not usually crooked, just too big, incompetent, arrogant and with no regard for anything resembling customer service) takes too much: but first you have to spot the overpayment on your statement, then you have to write to your bank, who can only refund you the whole not just the overpayment; soon then you can expect to start arguing with your supplier who will be sending you letters threatening penalty payments, interest, charges for writing these threatening letters and all sorts........... I say "arguing" but it's usually a matter of them not listening to anything you say but just grinding on churning out the ever more threatening letters until you take the step of a polite letter of complaint addressed personally to the CEO.

Re: Will you still take cheques next month?

patrick murphy — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 13:50:41 GMT

but my bank charges for BACS on my business account, but not on my private?

maybe I'll have to put the paperman on direct debit?

Re: Will you still take cheques next month?

Martin Atkinson — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 10:38:40 GMT

I pay 70% of my bills by BACS via internet banking (I set up the payment as soon as the invoice is received so I don't forget) and 29% by DD. The bank charges so much to process cheques paid in or out I try to avoid them like the plague. The only cheque I've paid recently to someone other than a local trader is to JAK because the BACS payment kept failing even though I used the payment details they gave and I double checked and had 2 attempts at setting it up. When they sent the late payment reminder I sent them a cheque. You shouldn't be scared of direct debits though, the bank is bound to refund you if an unscrupulous trader takes an unauthorised payment.

Re: Will you still take cheques next month?

Bob Russell — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 09:53:23 GMT

We have a minority of (mainly older) clients who prefer cheques and I don't have a problem with these continuing if necessary. We write half a dozen or so cheques a year but our limited bad debt problem usually starts with 'I don't get paid till the end of the month' followed by 'I can pay by cheque' which is invariably accompanied by 'I don't have a card' or 'my husband has the card'.

The non-guaranteed cheque that we take in desperation is banked then within a few days a letter with a photocopy of the cheque (and notification of the charge made to our account) confirming it has been returned unpaid.

I hate cheques and will happily see their demise. My only problem is that the banks have not provided a 100% replacement and are just shifting the risk of bad debts from themselves to us!

Thanks for changing my one star to five stars but three stars for me letting people know we had a bouncing cheque last week?????

Re: Will you still take cheques next month?

Ian Mostyn — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 00:18:19 GMT

80% of our private clients pay by card now, but I make sure we have cash-in-transit insurance. Our problem is that 20-25% of private cheques bounce so we try to discourage payment that way unless they have regularly paid that way before. We wont mention cheques unless someone directly asks if we take them but debit card preferred.

We have 60 direct debits set-up - with the DD guarantee you are probably better protected from mistakes than payment by cheque.

Ian

Re: Will you still take cheques next month?

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 23:21:08 GMT

Cripes. I hate the principle of direct debits and yet I seem to have quite a number. I'd only allow them to people I trust implicitly (like Centaur Services) and those I don't really trust but who give you no option (gas, electricity, BT, finance company (only one of those left now and there will never be another), and Pitney Bowes, who I do not trust at all but would be much more expensive and difficult without the DD.

I'm happy to take cheques. It's a service I offer to those of my clients who prefer to pay by cheque. Also, I'm happier for my staff to carry £x00 in cheques than £x00 in cash to the bank.

Not preaching, by the way. Just telling you how it works for me.

Re: Will you still take cheques next month?

Ian Mostyn — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 22:28:57 GMT

[quote user="Evelyn Barbour-Hill"]

How do you all pay your suppliers? I'd be up a gumtree if I couldn't pop a cheque in the post.

[/quote]

BACS, Standing Orders or Direct Debit for 98% of our payments. Ironically, our accountant and a couple of small, one-man band servicing outfits are the only people I send cheques to.

Ian

Re: Will you still take cheques next month?

Martin Atkinson — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 19:29:05 GMT

I haven't accepted cheques for well over a year now except from account customers and charities but even they are starting to pay by BACS. That said someone's card was rejected last week and it was a cheque or squat diddly. He has been a few times so hopefully it won't bounce but I'm not over-confident as its on the same account that the card was declined on! I pay an electronic only tariff which more than halves the monthly charges but means those few cheques we do accept cost a lot more.

Re: Will you still take cheques next month?

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 19:22:43 GMT

How do you all pay your suppliers? I'd be up a gumtree if I couldn't pop a cheque in the post.

Re: Will you still take cheques next month?

Gillian Mostyn — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 17:39:18 GMT

We stopped taking them a couple of months ago. Obviously if that is all someone has with them we'll take a cheque rather than nothing - but sometimes they're worth less than nothing anyway...

Re: Will you still take cheques next month?

Bob Russell — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 17:30:12 GMT

Our last bouncing cheque was last week! Which miserable person gave me one star for asking a question?

We get very few of them but it seems mainly from people that are dodgy!

Re: Will you still take cheques next month?

Hannah Wynne Richards — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:49:25 GMT

I'll carry on taking them from bonded clients, but obviously not from strangers

Wynne

Re: Will you still take cheques next month?

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:44:17 GMT

To be honest I thought the cheque guarantee card scheme had been ended years ago. I'm still happy to take cheques, although of course we don't get so many these days. The last bounced one was quite a long time ago, and the bloke was, with hindsight, so obviously dodgy that it was my fault.

Cheques are such a convenience to many honest people. I'd be cross if the banks manage to abolish them.

Re: Will you still take cheques next month?

Michael Woodhouse — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:09:35 GMT

We will carry on taking them as before. Since we are mainly large animal 80% plus of our money comes as cheques.

Re: Will you still take cheques next month?

Amanda Nicholls — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:02:59 GMT

We decided to stop accepting cheques from clients apart from the charities who still pay by cheque but we didn't have guarantee cards from them so nothing changed. We updated our terms of business but as we have so few clients (1 or 2 a month) pay by cheque that we didn't bother with putting up notices. Glad to get rid of them! (cheques that is)