Back in December 2009 the board of the UK Payments Council announced that cheques would be phased out by October 2018.
As part of the plan, the cheque guarantee (the assurance that an individual will receive the full value of the cheque providing the recipient sees the guarantee card and writes the 16 digit card number on the back of the cheque) will be removed in July this year.
There will be no protection for those receiving cheques beyond that point.
The NFU believes strongly that the cheque has a place as a low cost payment method available to consumers and traders. We are in the process of compiling all of the responses we have had via email and through the NFU banking survey, which is still open.
The deadline for submissions to a Treasury Select Committee consultation is May 6. Take our banking survey here or email NFU economics here.
So far the response has been unprecedented - but we’re also looking for farmers who have either his we are seeking farmers who have either enquired about, or introduced, chip and pin facilities, whether through your bank or another company.
The transaction costs applied to traders using chip and pin can be very significant we are looking for specific examples to include in our evidence for the committee. Contact james.edwards@nfu.org.uk
The evidence we have submitted to the committee will be made available to members after the May 6 deadline.
- J Cleave - 05/05/2011
Our business transactions are cheque-based. Monthly outgoings could largely be dealt with either by card or internet banking (which we'd have to set up); my greatest worry is receiving payments:(a) control & monitoring is lost without cheques, (b) farmer to farmer transactions (store livestock/fodder etc) is going to be problematic without the cheque - we don't want bundles of cash (will HMRC like this anyway?) We certainly are not in a position to warrant setting up card payments (not enough transactions to make it worthwhile), and a lot of our customers are not computer literate re internet banking - so how do we get paid?
- J Bowes - 04/05/2011
Phasing out of cheques forces retail business to have to use card machines. The banks charge a percentage fee, greater than the current bank charge.
- peter rugg - 02/05/2011
we would like to keep the cheques because we can keep more control over your business.