You can’t please all of the people all of the time.
And (in business) nor should you try.
Today has been a particularly striking example of that principle 
Having branches is also increadibly more costly than offering cheques. It’s not really comparable.
But I too rejoice to know that Monzo isn’t relying on pointless freebies to attract customers. However the difference is that cheques aren’t gimmicks, I see them as a core service/feature a bank needs to offer. You clearly don’t.
Yes today was a prime example of it however the community has had a say in the matter and option 3 won overwhelmingly.
Maybe the importance, or lack thereof, of cheques is another matter the community could get a say on?
This could be easily and cost-effectively fixed with a solution such as iZettle. (Get free transactions with this link Zettle by Paypal (former iZettle) | POS & payment solutions )
I suspect that would be easier for parents and could improve speed of collection of payments.
If the community is given a say on everything, we’ll end up with a traditional bank. I’d rather go with TomBlom’s vision.
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Cheques are outdated. We might all still receive cheques but I would wager that we all receive less than we used to. The generation that still use cheques are, to be brutally honest, literally dying out.
Even my Dad used Monzo to send me some birthday money this year. He initially sent a cheque but when I hadn’t got round to paying it in he suggested sending it via Monzo.
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Incidentally I just ordered my first cheque book ever, yesterday, as my son just started school, and we were informed that cheque would be the only payment method they’d accept for some things, other than writing down card details on a piece of paper (No thanks!).
For me, the answer is quite simple: I’ll keep my old Barclays account for the foreseeable future for cheques and paying in cash. I think we just have to accept that Monzo isn’t and won’t be (at least for a while) the answer to all our banking needs.
and it never will be. It is not their intention to do loans, mortgages, safety deposit boxes, insurance, and the whole range a bricks and mortar bank does. However they plan to offer some of these things thru 3rd parties thru a marketplace.
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I’m head a primary school and we have totally phased out any cash / cheques in school. Everything has to be paid via our third-party online systems. We had some kickback from parents initially but now all 300+ children’s parents use it without any problems.
No only is it easier for us as a school it’s safer and easier for parents as well.
Just to add we’re located in socially depreived area as well.
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There’s a use-case for cheques which I run into with some small contractors that, to my knowledge, there is no modern replacement for. I recently had a few tonnes of firewood delivered. I didn’t want to pay before the delivery arrived, and the driver needed payment when he arrived. They only accept cheques for this as the cheque is made out to the company, so can’t be diverted. I could make a Faster Payments transfer the day before, but then if the delivery doesn’t arrive, I’ve lost my money.
I’d love to get rid of cheques entirely, but there doesn’t seem to be a modem equivalent that lets a third-party accept payment for another (legal) entity.
Why can’t you make the faster payment to the company when the driver arrives? That way they get their money quicker than a cheque and it is guaranteed, unlike a cheque.
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Driver is trying to get out as soon as possible and doesn’t want to faff about phoning the office, waiting for someone to log into the banking, etc.
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In any case, there’s often not someone in the office or whoever does answer the phone doesn’t have access to the bank account.
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Your use case for cheque comes down to two things, as far as I can see.
- Your unwillingness to make a payment by faster payments the day before delivery
- The company’s unwillingness to accept a faster payment at the point of delivery
I’m not suggesting that this is not inconvenient for you. Ideally, the company would join the rest of us in the 21st Century.
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Faster Payments aren’t well suited for this, as it requires the receiving party to have access to the bank account. Small firms can’t always have someone with access to the bank account on hand the whole day. What is needed is some universally recognised token that can be passed between two parties at the point of transaction. I guess this could/should be a mobile card reader, and as you say the companies should get with the 21st century. But cheque acceptance is free, card readers aren’t, so small contractors often stick with them.
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This is what they think. But there is a cost to accepting cheques. The time taken to deal with them and business accounts often have charges for cheques.
Card readers are much cheaper than they used to be. And they’d get their money much more quickly.
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Hey, I’m not arguing in favour of cheques as a mechanism, just pointing out that for certain transactions they’re still necessary. Hopefully in the next few years these things will be replaced by card readers, but I’m not holding my breath!
Agreed. Cheques are dying out, …but not quickly enough.
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Cheques are dying out? Someone sent me a Postal Order this week – I had assumed that they had been dead and buried for years
A postal order?? Blimey. Not seen one of those for 20+ years. As you say I thought they’d actually died. If I got one I’d struggle to know what to do with it!!?
I guess card payments via iZettle and the like are the way forward. Cheap for retailers and customers alike. Instead of charging for card payments, start charging for cheques, that’d get people to look at card payments as the cheaper option. People just need a bit of encouragement to use cards. It’ll happen soon enough, but could be accelerated.
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It would be nice if challenger banks offered a way to accept cards to individuals - cards are now mainstream and it would be awesome if anyone could accept them without having to deal with a merchant account, a scammy legacy “acquirer” and a separate card reader (you’ve already got one in your hand - your phone - it has all the technology required to take contactless transactions).
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I had to actually search what a postal order is.
From Wikipedia:
postal orders continue to appeal to customers, especially as a form of payment for shopping on the Internet
What the actual F…? I’m happy to give good money to someone who can actually find a shopping site that accepts this kind of payment. 
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