Our plans to help you pay in cheques, just by taking a picture

You can pay cheques into Monzo now through the post. But we’re working to use the Image Clearing System to help you deposit cheques by taking a photo! :camera_flash:

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Great to know it’s on the cards! I’ve been using this with Halifax and it’s great… besides if you scan a cheque in and it fails (maybe it’s post dated) you have to visit a branch to deposit it. The app won’t let you scan the same cheque twice :roll_eyes:

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Getting money the next day, wowzers! Is this standard for the imaging system or specific to Monzo?

Really good news that the new system will clear funds the next day. The five working day turnaround has always been really annoying on the rare occasion I’ve used cheques.

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Definitely not standard. I have used Barclays cheque imaging in past and it wasn’t next day.

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Looking forward to this.
I posted a cheque last weekend and paid extra for recorded, as was nervous about it reaching Monzo.

The new clearing process is fund available next working day when paid in on a working day

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It’s part of the standard clearing system which has now had an upgrade in quick terms :slight_smile:

https://www.chequeandcredit.co.uk/press-release/cheques-are-starting-clear-end-next-weekday-october-2017

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Sorry didn’t see this :see_no_evil:

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I can imagine this would be great for business accounts as some still function with cheque.

However if a friend or family member gave me a cheque I’d probably give them a slap. :man_facepalming:t4:

Still a great feature mind… it’s essential in terms of competition and vital for some users here :blush:

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Haha, I’ve only had 2 cheques in the last 5 years.
One from the tax man with a refund and another from a charity for health reasons. I wonder how long until they’re phased out entirely, possibly in favour of some sort of escrow style feature?

It was meant to have been phased out this year however back in 2011 the payments council changed their mind and decided to keep cheques going for as long as needed

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Which is a shame. In this day and age there is absolutely no reason for cheques to exist.

I would understand if we were in a country like France where there’s still no universal standard for instant payments, but UK’s Faster Payments is instant (honestly its the most advanced payment system I’ve seen compared to horrors like SEPA and ACH).

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There will be a reason for cheques to exist as long as there’s a segment of the population who don’t use or aren’t comfortable with online or mobile banking. If you had a solution to that, the Payments Council would bite your hand off to get it.

In this case why also not provide telegrams & carrier pigeons? I’m sure there are people out there that aren’t comfortable with modern post nor email.

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Maybe… but is it 1 in 10 adults? Because that’s how many people in the UK have never accessed the internet. https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/itandinternetindustry/bulletins/internetusers/2017#adults-who-have-never-used-or-no-longer-use-the-internet

And taking cheques away from those people won’t encourage them to get online, it will just exclude them from banking.

We should be discouraging businesses from relying on them as a default so the rest of us don’t have to touch them, not kicking old ladies.

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I’ve only received two cheques in the last 3 or so years one from a Bank giving me my interest arruced on a savings account I closed and another was a tax refund from HMRC.

Glad to see Monzo is working on this, I recently sent a cheque to you guys and it was a pretty smooth process, I sent via recorded post as it was a high-ish value but this will make life a lot easier on the odd occasion I do receive the dreadful cheque!

The Faster Payment Scheme is not instant. It is between certain banks but can be up to the end of business the next banking day.

SEPA SCT has taken 2 or 3 days depending on the banks involved, however the SCT standard is being replaced by SCTinst which will provide near realtime transfers in seconds not days.

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And companies that like to send cheques for refunds or compensation, hoping that the inconvenience of paying it in means that you don’t!

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Because that’s how many people in the UK have never accessed the internet.

There’s a first time for everything I guess? Not to mention, you can still do FPS over the phone or even by visiting a branch (which you’d do anyway if you want to deposit a cheque).

Banks should charge for issuing cheques so that someone actually pays for implementing the systems that process them. 5£/cheque sounds like a good deterrent that should kill cheque usage within a reasonable timeframe (including from businesses that bank on the fact that most people won’t bother cashing their refund cheque).

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