No More Cheque And Balances
FAST forward twenty years into the future to one of those cheesy TV nostalgia shows and you’ll probably see some nodding head, say Paul Ross, droning on about the chequebook on ’I Love 2007’.
“Weren’t they so naff?” he’ll quip. “People used to say ‘the cheque’s in the post’ and actually mean it!” How we’ll laugh.
With Argos joining the likes of Asda, Boots, Next and Currys in announcing plans to stop customers from paying by cheque, time is fast running out for the humble and once rather handy chequebook.
According to Argos, the fact that only 1 per cent of customer transactions currently involve cheques has forced the company to withdraw the facility from all of its 68 stores in the UK and Ireland, starting from July 28.
Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s is also reported to be reviewing their policy of accepting cheques, as the credit and debit card revolution continues. Indeed, according to bank payments body Apacs, consumers wrote a total of 4.9 million cheques in 2006, down from 5.3 million in 2005 and from 11 million in 1990.
But Help The Aged are worried by the trend. A spokesman says: “Cheques are the preferred way of handling money for quite a lot of older people. When a retailer stops accepting cheques, it takes away their choice.”
Fortunately for many of the more affluent OAPs, John Lewis, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose currently have no plans to phase out the use of cheques at their stores.
Who knows, like vinyl records, traditional gents barbers and pie and mash, the chequebook may become a must-have retro item for the fashion-conscious shopper.
Watch this space.
Posted: 18th, June 2007 | In: Money Comments (2) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
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February 10th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
I am really angry at these large stores taking away peoples choice on how they wish to pay for their goods. I hate these PIN numbers and have far less faith in these than signatures. Let’s just hope that one day all their swipe machines break down and they have no way of taking money.
I am voting with my feet and will return to corner shops while they still take cheques.
rel:dr:10.02:19.57
June 18th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Cheques are unreliable because we rely on signatures which do not even expose person’s gender in the event of crime. Financial institutions have option to make cheques reliable by providing is ID stickers (small sticker with person’s photo and name printed on it) which would enable us to personalise our signatures.
*Fraudsters have option to misuse victim’s personal details but not their appearance (true identity or visible biometric).
*Current signature system is like passports without photos and that is why it is so difficult to deter and prosecute fraudsters.
Virtually all fraud crimes are preventable if banks implement ID KEY system described on website http://www.xwave.co.uk which will make signature and card transactions concluded with PIN numbers reliable.
Why would fraudsters get tempted to use stolen or skimmed cards at retail outlets or ATMs when they know that invisible Card Key Code stored on ID KEY would be required to activate transaction?