What to do after cheques get cancelled

[jaime bray]

What will be your method of payment for customers after the phasing out of cheques and cheque guarantee cards.

 

How efficient is internet banking etc, I was thinking I'll just request cash, however a lot of my customers when I have recently asked about this have said that cash is becoming a bit of a pain to get now, especialally as the cost of things have gone up,and you can only get 300 out the machines, having to do two trips etc, seems people do not have time to go the bank these days, I personally do not like the stigma associated with cash payment, as people think you do not bank it and therefore you are not trading effically, also they expect a discount.

 

I have been contacted by AA to ask if it would be of interest to the industry if a streamline scheme was set up.

 

The cost of the streamline terminal is £300, which is non-returnable, but may be sellable back to the company. The monthly subscription is £30 for the sim, which can be returned at any point,free of charge. Every transaction made costs the company 30p, payment will be in company bank within 3 working days.

 

I personally am not impressed by the prices, but is this the going rate or a good price etc, was wondering what you will all be looking at getting put in place to deal with this issue.

 

Is this a viable option that the AA should do some work on to get the best system for mobile workers.

 

Cheers Jaime

[skyhuck]

IMO, it will be a very long time before cheques are no longer in use. They have already scrapped the 2018 date they had proposed.

[likeitorlumpit]

Quite

It's the cheque guarantee card that is going - not cheques

Your dream of only accepting cash will have to wait:001_rolleyes:

[Mesterh]

One of those terminals would be quite. Hate having to dash to the bank through the week or early on a saturday:thumbdown:

 

No bounced or 'delayed' in the post cheques either!

 

Thing is though, it would last about 10 minutes before it got lost or stamped on.

 

Soon we are going to be able to pay for items using a smartphone that has a chip in. Will be a great way to take payment from customers.

[scraggs]

If that is not tied into a contract and you can get out any time it's not that bad a deal, however I am sure the transaction fee is not just 30p there must surely be a percentage aswell, if not then it's an increadibly good deal, most of the ones I have looked at want to tie you into a 2 year contract although the machine is free.

But as said it will be a very long time before cheques dissapear.

[Peter]

75% of my clients pay me by BACS, and 99% of my suppliers get paid by BACS.

 

It is significantly cheaper than any credit card setup.

[gensetsteve]

We had a streamline machine about 5 years ago. It was free but £15 a month to hire in the first year credit cards were 2.5% debit cards are 30p a go no matter the amount. In the second year drop to 1.5% . Unfortunately in the second year they took £2500 from my customer but forgot to give it to us. We took 6 weeks to notice by this time it was too late apparently. After alot of rude words I got my money and told them to stick their machine. I discovered that we were completely open to fraud and working the machine was a pita. We really dont want to go their again.

[Rupe]

Onlin epayments work fine and lots of my clients do that. Sometimes, if they have the same bank, the money is in your account by the time you get home the same day!! (not often enough though)

 

I put cheques in throuhg the banks letter box so no need to rush to the bank durign opening hours.

 

I think those streamline things are no good for us, they are for multi transactions only, not one a day transactions. By the time cheques are gone there will be new mothods in use anyway, possibly by mobile phones, so you would use your phone to scan the customers phone and that would be it.

 

As will all these things it takes time to "train" the public. So now we are used to self service tills in supermarkets and its only a few older poeple who are left behind. By 2018 (or whatever date) cheques will probably cease to be on their own.

[jaime bray]

I set up a ''pay a friend'' type thing with hsbc whenever i want to pay someone, but it needs their sortcode and account number, normally in their bank in 15 mins, probaly the same as your setup rupe.

 

So the general census at the early stage is that its not that good an idea just yet, I shall wait a few more days before reporting back to them with your opinions.

 

Thanks for the feedback lads, these are the sort of topics that the AA's arborist working group are trying to look at, and hopefully do the hard work for you. If anyone is interested in this setup let me know and ill try and get further info from the AA.

[tommer9]

I prefer BACS to cash or cheques. I ask to be payed like that and pay most of my bills that way.