Anyone gone down the Plastic Money Route?

[NozSpark]

I've just looked at my cheque book & I've written out 3 cheques in the last 2 years.Santander are speeding up the process as their new debit cards will not double up as a cheque guarantee card.

IIRC the cheque guarantee card is being phased out in the next year or two and cheques by the end of 2018

 

[Lurch]

But wouldn't the cost of a portable POS terminal be offset with the cost & time saving not having to fill in a paying-in book & physically going to the bank with the cheques & also avoid any bounced ones?

Nope, not by a long shot.

Just to break down the costs of me banking a cheque;

• Filling out paying in book - free (plenty of free pens)
  
• Going to bank to pay them in - free (I don;t pay them in, someone else who is in and out of the bank themselves and works a few doors up from it does)
  
• Bounced cheques - doesn;t really happen, most people just don;t pay rather than give out bounced cheques
  
• Business bank account cheque credit charge - gonna be charged for anything, even cash, so not really a cost that can be attributed to and associated solely with cheques
  

So the total cost of being paid by cheque over and above being paid cash = nothing.

The only thing that may differ between me and others on here is having someone else to pay cheques in for you, but even paying your own cheques in will never cost more than a card payment system.

 

[a12jpm]

I have a feeling as we get closer to the phasing out of cheques the banks will offer a "tradesman's hotline" or something that we can take credit cards while on a job and phone it in using a code generating token or similar.

I take cards via paypal and charge a bit extra to cover the 3% charges. But to be honest if I worked out the time to take cheques to the bank, parking etc I am still ahead of the game if I don't charge a bit extra.

Heres the paypal link if anyones interested.

 

[sparkytim]

How I heard it was the Banking system has to come up with some acceptable alternative to cheques before they can be dispensed with. The date is a target by which they hope to be able to replace cheqs with something else. Trouble is no one has come up with anything yet so maybe it will never happen.

 

[JUD]

Isn't there an iphone app for taking credit cards? Anyone know the costs?If cheques go I'd imagine all the smartphones would have similar apps.

Found this.

https://squareup.com/features

 

[Andy™]

audio input jack the new USB?

 

[Lurch]

[quote name='Andy

 

[Lurch]

Found this.https://squareup.com/features

Worth keeping an eye on, but for anyone getting excited over it;

17. Export Restrictions

The Service may only be used in the United States. By accepting this Agreement you confirm that you will satisfy these requirements. You will not export the Service directly or indirectly, and you acknowledge that the Service may be subject to export restrictions imposed by US law, including US Export Administration Regulations (15 CFR, Chapter VII).

https://squareup.com/tos