Cheques to be cleared in a day by exchanging images of them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39351793

I recall looking at this idea more than 35 years ago but the scanning and data transmission capabilities didn’t exist. I once calculated that it would be quicker to scan them, dump the data onto magnetic tape and drive the tape down to the Clearing House in London every day, and even that was only possible for a subset of the cheques 😆

and how many people own a cheque book these days

Dunno, but there’s still around 500 million of them being exchanged every year.

In practical terms cheque payments have been cleared electronically for years, but I seem to recall from when I was working on this in the 1990s that the law still said the paper had to be exchanged, so it followed the data in a van some time later. I guess it’s this that’s finally changed.

I had to pay in a cheque the other day for the first time in years (Plusnet new customer bonus paid by cheque – how retro is that?) and was surprised to find my account credited the same day.

The USA has been doing this for years – saved many jets full of boxes of cheques flying across the country.

and how many people own a cheque book these days

Me, and I have used it a number of times in the last year.

I also have a cheque book for a French bank, which makes sense as France is the only country in the world with a more antiquated and useless consumer banking system than ours.

I’ve still got a cheque book, have written some in the last few months as well. Not many mind you..

and how many people own a cheque book these days

Don’t know but imagine they are generally older people so will die out in the next 20 years.
I haven’t needed a cheque book for at least 10 years as haven’t owned one for more than that.

We’ve still got one, our Lad’s school only accepts cash or cheques for dinner money, school trips etc.

Not sure the faster cheque clearing thing will help them much, they average 2-4 months between taking them, and cashing them.

We’ve still got one, our Lad’s school only accepts cash or cheques for dinner money, school trips etc.

and

they average 2-4 months between taking them, and cashing them.

So much this – the only thing we ever write cheques out for are generally school / club / activity related. And it is so bloody annoying when we write a cheque out in January and it doesn’t get cashed until March, totally throwing our finances out and resulting in us going overdrawn 👿

The banks could clear them within 24 hours, if they wanted, but then they lose the interest off the money they can earn whilst the funds are “clearing”, so I understand. So there’s little or no incentive for the banks to clear cheques immediately.

johndoh – Member

We’ve still got one, our Lad’s school only accepts cash or cheques for dinner money, school trips etc.

and

they average 2-4 months between taking them, and cashing them.

So much this – the only thing we ever write cheques out for are generally school / club / activity related. And it is so bloody annoying when we write a cheque out in January and it doesn’t get cashed until March, totally throwing our finances out and resulting in us going overdrawn
To be fair, thats your fault for not managing your money properly. PITA it may be that people hold onto cheques for weeks / months though.

Yeah we’ve got one that gets used occasionally for school stuff mainly.

Also my wife gets a cheque every now and again for Santander share dividends and if the likes of HMRC still send cheques out for tax rebates so it’s not just old folk that use cheques.

To be fair, thats your fault for not managing your money properly.

That’s the problem of joint accounts – I don’t make my wife accountable for every cheque she writes and it happened to get cashed at the wrong time of the month.

Aaah, doubly difficult to keep an eye on stuff then.
IIRC our son’s school has introduced some sort of paypal thing called Parent Pay(?), which should avoid the need for cheques in the future. Might be worth seeing if your school offers that as well?

Ran out of cheques years ago. Frustrated me when someone asked me for a cheque, despite offering a bank transfer.

Once a year or two I get a cheque to pay in and Barclays have a scan system. Put in cheque, it scans it, credits the account instantly and gives you a receipt with an image of the cheque.

That it’s been credited doesn’t mean it can’t be reversed though until properly cleared I assume.

Even when I started in the bank ages back it was no secret that slow clearing was an industry choice not a necessity. But the focus was all on the slowness of BACS at the time and the introduction of FPS, and the weird diversion of chip and pin. I’ve a feeling since then everyone’s also been happy to have it help drive cheque usage down. But it is nonsense.

scotroutes – Member

Dunno, but there’s still around 500 million of them being exchanged every year.

Yup, but that’s only 2/3ds of the levels in 2014, it’s still crashing down. Just got a bill I can only pay by cheque and realised I don’t have a book for my new account, never really expected to use it!

I’ve had two cheques sitting on the table totally more than £1.5k since before christmas that I keep forgetting to pay in. So I don’t think a faster clearing system is going to do much to counteract my apathy and forgetfulness 🙂

the law still said the paper had to be exchanged

Does it have to be paper? I thought you could right a cheque on anything – the chequebook the bank gives you is just a handy set of ready-written ones but anything with the account details and cheque number will do. Didn’t someone once write a cheque on their false teeth and post them because they were angry about something or other.

I’ve got a cheque book. Still use it pretty regularly too.

Correct – the signed item has to be exchanged.

During the protests about the construction of the Torness nuclear power plant, one of the protestors was fined. He paid his fine with a “cheque” written on a coffin. Said coffin then had to come through the data centre before being sent off to the appropriate bank. We’ve had other weird things but that was the most memorable.

The next step after this faster clearing is to have your mobile banking app to take a photo of the cheque and use that image to credit your account.

and how many people own a cheque book these days

I think in useage terms, it’s something like the equivalent of every adult in the uk writing one cheque every month.