Cheque Book

Hi all,

I’m new to Monzo and I was wondering if this bank offer cheque books.

I know cheque books are few and far between now, but I have had to use cheques a few times this year and I can’t find anywhere about cheques with Monzo

Nope and pretty much never will

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They don’t , and won’t. Most High Street banks offer cheque books, I don’t think that any new app only banks do.

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Virgin Money do, but they also have a web portal so maybe that doesn’t count.

I’d call Virgin Money a high street bank. Cause it is Virgin Money Stores, Clydesdale Bank, and Yorkshire Bank branches. With the latter two being more like legacy banks rather than neobanks.

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Most don’t issue them by default any longer for new accounts, you have to specifically request one.

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Monzo have publicly said in the past that they don’t intend to issue chequebooks as they consider cheques obsolete, or at least on the way to obsolescence.

This is why they also haven’t joined the cheque imaging clearing scheme (ICS) to process cheque deposits - they get cheques processed on their behalf by a third party, to avoid the need for being a member.

Starling, as a member of the scheme, process their own cheques but still don’t issue a chequebook.

As others have said, no neobank currently offers a cheque book at all. The “closest” are the challenger banks, which would perhaps include Virgin Money and Metro, but they are more similar to traditional high street banks than they are to neobanks like Monzo.

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I understand people receiving the odd cheque from large corporations whos systems and processes are really complex and therefore expensive to update.

However in what situations would Joe bloggs need to write a cheque in this day and age?

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Those situations where people aren’t confident online, or who aren’t online? Old people, like my parents.

Edit: Actually, some people my age.

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Then why (or how) would they open a digital only bank account :confused:

If you have a Monzo account surely it’s safer, quicker and far more secure to send a bank transfer.

Sorry, I thought you were talking in general. As I’ve said many, many times in the past; “If cheques are your thing, then Monzo isn’t.”

HNY BTW :tada:

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Ahhh yeah sorry I see now. My bad, I should have been more specific.

HNY! :partying_face:

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From my own experience, as a “young person”, you still encounter the odd thing.

Opening a savings account with Birmingham Midshires, as a new customer, requires the initial deposit to be by cheque, as an example. It’s part of their security procedures. After that, you can change the linked account to anything you want (provided it supports Direct Debits and Faster Payments).

For me, it would be to send raffle tickets through the post as I am not happy to send card details and cvv via snail mail.

No cheque book though, despite 7 current accounts, so no raffle entries.

I could get cheque book from one of my legacy banks, but cba tbh.

I’d have to remember where I put the darn thing :joy:

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Yes, that view makes sense - but I personally do like to keep at least one chequebook from one of my banks, just in case I ever get caught out in a situation where a cheque’s required. I’ve needed to use it only a handful of times though.

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I understand this view as I have seen a number of savings accounts mentioned in the MSE forums where the initial deposit can only be made by cheque, especially with “by post” accounts.

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There’s still a handful of organisations that accept cheque only for certain situations.

Yes I’m looking at you DVLA :eyes:

Hopefully they might modernise one year to include card payments for everything.

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That’s the sort of thing I’m thinking of, exactly!

Oddly, my experience was in applying for an “internet saver” account, but despite the name it did require the cheque. I imagine that, like with DVLA, it was simply a process they hadn’t bothered to modernise (I think they are mostly a post-and-phone operation, so that makes sense).

I have since opened another account with them, as an existing user, and the cheque wasn’t required the second time!

The trouble is it does always take some time for a bank to print and send a chequebook (with the exception of Metro, who apparently will print them in-branch on demand) so to wait until you need one before requesting it is likely to lead to serious delays. I just want to avoid the risk of that happening.

A good place to keep chequebooks, by the way, is a filing cabinet or drawer.

Happy new year to all!:tada:

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Why didn’t I think of that? :thinking::rofl:

Probably because I put things safe, only to never see them again :man_shrugging:

So safe they’re inaccessible! :rofl: