h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just got my new cheque book (have I really written over 450 cheques in my life?) and notioced that the back of each cheque is now blank. I'm sure it used to have a space for 'have you checked their ID, was there CCTV present' plus something to note the coinage used on the back.

But no, completely blank now.

Anyone else noticed this and anyone know why?

Well, I've had a current account with cheque book since 1983 and I don't ever remember there being anything on the back of my cheques. Maybe it just varies depending on who you bank with?

Also, cheques are going out of fashion. I only write one a month and my bank is trying to persuade me that I don't actually need to write any at all. Internet money transfer is going to be the way forward, aparently.

Liz
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Oh, well, maybe it is just an individual bank thing then.

I must admit I use internet banking to pay my visa bill as I am nowhere neatr a bank during the week and saturday morning is usually spent in bed with a hangover So it is incredibly useful to me.

But I still pay bills by cheque, won't get me using Direct Debits any more than I absolutely have to!

I'm a big fan of DD's myself, particulary now that I can cancel them myself if need be, via internet banking. My credit card is the only bill that I don't pay by DD.

nah, don;t like the idea that someone else can choose how much money they want to take out of my account. Oh I know they are supposed to tell you and stuff, but they don;t *have* to and 9 times out of 10 they tell you so late there is nowt you can do about it!

All my direct debits are for fixed amounts (I even pay into some savings accounts by DD), so I've never had any problems in that area. I don't think I would want a variable one.

As previously said above I think it must be who you bank with, because I still have a printed section on the back of my cheques. But saying that I dont use my cheque book that often, because i either pay for things by DD/switch/visa.

All DDs are potentially variable. Fixed amount transfers are called Standing Orders.

I use TSB and they don't have anything on the back

I'm with TSB too. I liked them better before they got into bed with Lloyds, but I've never had any problems in over 20 years of banking so I'm sticking with them.

The main difference between DD and standing order is that DD is requested by the payee from the client's bank whereas the standing order is set up by the client to pay the payee when the client says so. I used to do a job where I took DD's from customers and there was different paperwork for variable or fixed but that was with Bank of Scotland. I always informed my customers of how much that month's payment would be by writing it on their monthly statement. It was remarkably time consuming actually and I'm jolly glad I don't do it anymore.

>> All DDs are potentially variable <<

Actually, as Lizzbett correctly points out, there are fixed DDs and variable DDs. It depends on the wording of the form you signed when the DD was set up. Standing Orders are usually fixed.

With a variable DD the payee is required to inform the payer 10 days in advance or some similar time period. This has always happened with me, particularly is respect of Council Tax.

Off all the years I have been paying bills via DD I have never had a problem with it. On the odd occasion when there has been a hiccough, the banks have always been quick to rectify the matter. If a bank incorrectly pays a DD, they are obliged by law to reimburse the payer.

As for cheques, I don't think I have written more than half a dozen cheques in the last five years. What with Standing Order, Direct Debits, Credit Cards, Debit Cards and on-line banking who needs cash anymore.

Donald

I stand corrected then! So why are there fixed DDs? What benefit does this give and to which of the invovled parties does it give it?

Thanks for info, but I still don;t like giving someone the power to remove money from my account. Bad enough the mortgage had to be DD.

'What with Standing Order, Direct Debits, Credit Cards, Debit Cards and on-line banking who needs cash anymore.'

Students.

Students? With their own cash?

OK, maybe it has changed, but most students I knew (including myself) and most I know now use switch/delta more than cash. And credit cards (either ignoring the debt or getting parents to pay it off) or overdrafts. Student load is administered via Direct Debit. Some landlords require standing orders.

The only place you need cash these days is pubs as far as I can see!

>>The only place you need cash these days is pubs as far as I can see! <<

.. and even in my local that's not a necessity. They do have a rule that you must buy food with your drink to pay by credit/debit card, but a bag of crisps can take care of that requirement. With a Debit Card you can also get cash back.

Imagine that, going into a pub with empty pockets. Having a few drinks and walking out with cash in your pocket?

Donald

'The only place you need cash these days is pubs as far as I can see!'

Just try using cards to pay for student society membership, JCR membership, formal dinners (yes, at my college there is an additional charge to cover the costs of better food than is served at normal dinners), cheap snacks bought in the interval between lectures because your lectures/tutorials/seminars clash with lunchtime* (if you're in halls/college accommodation), events put on by societies of which you're not a member that charge for attendance by non-members...

Pubs? What strange ideas you have about students.

* Yes, ready-made snacks, or ingredients, can be bought in advance; but there is a limit to how long many things will keep, the fridge on my corridor is, ahem, 'interesting', and the central heating in my room tends to turn it into a boiler every so often (and, it being a ground floor room, the window opens only a few inches and has to be shut when I leave the room).