Warning - Cheques will not be guaranteed

[Jacqui Harvey]

Just in case the information has not filtered through yet, the bad news is that as from 30th June 2011. The Payment Council will be closing the Cheque Guarantee Card Scheme.  This means that U.K. cheques will no longer be guaranteed.  I have had information from my bank to this effect.  It will mean that if you accept a cheque there will be no guarantee it will be honoured by the Banks.  
I am quite annoyed about this as it is forcing people to use electronic payments.  My son is a Plumber and he usually gets cheques as payments, he does not have card facilities.  This means people will have to pay him in cash.  This will effect a lot of small businesses with the Bank pressurizing them to get credit card machines.  
The other factor here is, a lot of people particularly elderly people will now have to get sums of money from the bank to pay bills, which means they will be a target for thieves.
This is typical of Banks dictating to their customers and making it easy for them (the Banks) to make more money.[!]

[starman™]

I didnt know cheques were still in existence. I havent seen one this side of the century.

[Piscoe]

I had a guy come and service my boiler recently and he asked specifically for a cheque. I informed him that I don't have cheques anymore as I pay everything via internet banking. I asked him for his account details and paid him there and then via the net. I even printed a copy of the confirmation for him. He was happy enough.

[Jacqui Harvey]

My son had two elderly customers last week.  Both paid with cheques, neither of them had a computer.  I think older people feel more comfortable with cheques and why not?    I would say that 95% of my son's business is payment by cheque.
We have two Supermarket Garages in Peterhead.  They were both always busy.  One, Asda, put in pay with card only machines.  The other one, Morrisons has queues out of the forecourt every day.  Asda is almost empty every day.  I now use Asda most of the time.  I was told by the girl in Morrisons that no one wanted to use cards at the Asda Garage and particularly the older drivers.  I suppose in this day and age Asda imagined that no one would object to card only fuel pumps. So technology has not caught up with this part of the world yet.

[waterdragon]

It is not just the banks driving the death of the cheque. The Government also want to increase the proportion of all transfers by electronic means. They can then track what you are spending so should you get audited by HMRC the information is there for them to get a "clearer" picture of your spending and lifestyle. This has been gradually happening for 20 years or more. The next step will be the death of cash.