please empty your brain below
I still write a couple of cheques a month. After 30 years in the IT industry, most of it in various flavours of the financial services, there is no way that I'm going anywhere near online banking.

Gavin | 17.10.12 - 8:01 a.m. | #

I still write cheques to pay for some club membership subscriptions.
I sometimes also get a cheque in the post, that's nicer, but does involve having to go to a bank and pay it in, which is probably the only time I set foot in a bank these days.

John | 17.10.12 - 8:08 a.m. | #

I haven't written a cheque for a very long time.

Michael in the Netherlands | 17.10.12 - 9:06 a.m. | #

I'm always having to write cheques for the kids school! : (

CornishCockney | 17.10.12 - 9:23 a.m. | #

Strangely, I've written and received cheques in the last fortnight.

Almost certainly the first time I'd received one for...about five years.

And the first I'd written for I guess three.

Dominic H | 17.10.12 - 10:26 a.m. | #

I wrote a cheque yesterday too. The merchant who I was paying didn't even suggest any other payment method. I think they'll be around for a while yet...

IslandDweller | 17.10.12 - 10:58 a.m. | #

Not surprised. The UK still heavily relies on cheques. (And lengthy forms for that matter.)

I wrote a cheque last week for my driving licence application.
I received the new licence on Monday and the money still hasn't been debited from my account.

I worked for a hotel chain in London where staff is still paid by cheque. And of course HMRC refunds overpaid tax by cheque.

Greg | 17.10.12 - 11:06 a.m. | #

I wrote one the other week too - following visit to dentist who resolutely refuses to have payment terminal - hence our fees are kept low!

B | 17.10.12 - 11:42 a.m. | #

I find myself writing a cheque or so a month, ish. But seen years ago when I moved from Australia I couldn't remember the last time I'd written one there. I wrote my only Australian cheque last month as a wedding gift, but that was a one-off. I am surprised that tey are still in use...

EskimoPie | 17.10.12 - 1:03 p.m. | #

I'm paid by cheque by my clients on a daily basis, I get 2-4 a day. A minority pay by bank transfer (less than one a week). None of them find cheque payment unusual and all expect to pay by cheque.

David Scott | Homepage | 17.10.12 - 1:35 p.m. | #

I live in USA and still have to write a couple of cheques. To pay my water/sewage/trash they charge a $10 "convenience" fee to pay online. I pass the place weekly so I just drop of the cheque when it's due. The other is the local rates. They chare a 5% "convenience" fee to pay online. As the bill is normal $5000, I really don't want to pay $250 when the cheque is free and postage is less than $1!

Jon | 17.10.12 - 2:37 p.m. | #

I have a half finished cheque book at home where the date line at the top right still has a "19_______" where you have to write the year.

It also has an address for the bank branch that hasn't been vaild for about 10 years, but as the account data (sort code, a/c number) are still the same, I suppose the cheque would still work!

Mark | 17.10.12 - 2:51 p.m. | #

"convenience fee" - there's the rub with electronic payments: the card handling companies charge a percentage fee to the payee, and some of them pass it on to the customer. Fees for paying in cheques tend to be flat-rate.

It is mostly on-line banking and electronic tranfers for me at home, but we send out and receive a fair few cheques at work.

Andrew | 17.10.12 - 2:59 p.m. | #

I opened an online savings account a couple of months ago in England, and obviously, to open the account I had to make the first payment by cheque. I only realised this after i had started the process and as I haven't had a cheque book for 10 years, I then had to order a cheque book just so i could properly open it. I now have no idea what to do with the remaining cheques.

Oddly, i seem to be moving the opposite way to the world progress. Until the last year or so, i have lived in Scandinavia for most of last 15years where cheques have been obsolete since about 1950 and all my bills/banking is paperless and online. Back in the UK i needed a cheque to open an online account, and a couple of bills I still receive on paper only. And I am shortly moving to the US where i will doubtless have to open an account and get used to writing cheques again, because online bills don't seem to exist much, cheques are still pretty ubiquitous and much cheaper than the plastic/online world i am used to.

Progress is a wonderful thing, isn't it?

Rich | 17.10.12 - 4:02 p.m. | #

I think I used my cheque guarantee card once, just a few months before the hologram on my bank card became obsolete. I'm not sure what my delightfully anachronistic optician does for high-value transactions now.

martin | 17.10.12 - 6:18 p.m. | #

I've decided to stop accepting cheques for my fees, as I always lose the odd one and then, when I find it and take it to the bank, am appalled to be reminded that they're only valid for six months... sigh

misspiggy | 17.10.12 - 11:08 p.m. | #

I had to sign across a tuppenny stamp on a cheque once. I can't remember why.

Herb of Romford | 17.10.12 - 11:25 p.m. | #

The 2d stamp duty on cheques was abolished in February 1971, I believe.

http://www.chequeandcredit.co.uk/cheque_and_credit_clearing/history_of_the_cheque/taxes_and_stamp_duty/

Andrew | 17.10.12 - 11:36 p.m. | #

Yes, the duty stopped then but cheques usually had duty printed on them. A nice pretty stuck stamp was on this one for me to scribble across. Must have been a special cheque for something important, yet I can't remember being important.

Herb of Romford | 17.10.12 - 11:40 p.m. | #

Bloomin' flip, how odd? The first cheque I've written for 2 years, I wrote last night too. For all the cash I took in as sponsorship money for a 10K walk at the weekend.

Audrey | 19.10.12 - 4:39 p.m. | #











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