I got given my first cheque guarantee card (£50) by Nationwide when I was 16.
You used to be able to go into the local shop (Circle K or Spar or something I think it was) and cash a cheque at the till. No kind of ID checks, authorisation checks or anything. Just write the number of the card on the back and there’s £50 at the till. I think you could do this at Tesco customer services back in the day too.
Imagine the havoc that could cause now with a guarantee card and book full of cheques with someone under 18, which I’m sure probably happened back then too
I really wanna try and nick one of the pens they have at Barclays. One of the black Premier ones but I think I am going to have to go into branch with Wire Cutters
For Charles Schwab, you could also get a cover for their chequebook if you ask them via their live chat. They mailed it from their supplier via UPS. They do custom themed chequebook but these appear to only be available for local US clients and not us international clients.
I remember at some point in the 90s, when EFTPOS systems were advancing faster than the take-up of credit and debit cards, you could hand over a cheque at the supermarket checkout and they’d print the payee and amount for you in the receipt printer.
I remember in the supermarket checkout, you’d hand over a cheque and your ‘cheque card’, they’d swipe the magnetic stripe on the card and put your cheque face up in a cheque printer which would print the details. Then the checkout operator would physically turn the cheque over and the guarantee details would be printed, and they’d give it back to you to sign.
The printer was a Nixdorf cheque printer. I haven’t thought about that in years!!!
(on a side note, I feel I’m betraying my age in this thread )
All the development costs for the machines that produce chequebooks was paid for by DHSS as they needed the machines to produce the pension books. They were brilliant to watch!
Mine has just arrived today to replace the Halifax book went AWOL (the OH teased that someone sent paper through the post - had to use emoji because this forum bans the word!?). Quite disappointed in the quality of chequebooks from LBG, they must be using 85-90gsm paper instead of 95-100gsm like their competitors. Might order 1 from Nationwide to see if their quality is better. (Edit: I’ve just done it and the local branch may have identified me as either a secret shopper to evaluate the trainee, or a nutcase.)
There’s a 3 month-old thread on Reddit about UK cheque usage and there are some interesting stories there.
)
paper through the post - had to use emoji because this forum bans the word!?). Quite disappointed in the quality of chequebooks from LBG, they must be using 85-90gsm paper instead of 95-100gsm like their competitors. Might order 1 from Nationwide to see if their quality is better.