Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Where’s the logic

I recently had my roof repaired, great job at a realistic price of £1200.
In readiness I made out a cheque, but omitted the payee until fully known.
The roofer arrived and I told him I had a cheque ready or he could have cash the following week when I had been to the bank. And yes, he preferred cash.
So that I didn’t waste the cheque I made it out for cash and presented it to the cashier.
She looked aghast and said that because of the amount there were lots of forms to fill in as to why I wanted the cash. This was to prevent exploitation of people by crooksters who do shoddy jobs for excessive prices (like roofers) and semi force them to the bank for a duress withdrawal.
Bloody cheek, do I really look old, senile, without my wits? (don’t answer that).
But here’s the rub….I could have any amount without question against my debit card, a card with a £500 daily cash machine withdrawal limit.

I just don’t get it

There is no logic, it is best to just smile and say "of course, very sensible!"

Try cashing 2 for 600 each.

I needed £1,750 in cash by the end of last week
Four separate trips the cash machine over 7 days - 3 withdrawals of £500 and one of £250 - is all it took

It sounds like you went to a lot of effort just to avoid wasting a small rectangle of paper!

I've had quite a few jobs done to the house in the last couple of years and although I always offer cash, not one of the tradesmen (including the roofer) has been interested in taking it. The carpenter who built me a new porch said that cash was a liability for him, he didn't need it for himself and the banks suspected him of money laundering if he tried to pay it in. All of them used an online system that sent me an email bill payable by direct transfer.

Haven't written a cheque in over 20 years. The sooner the banks have the coligiones to do away with this antiquated system the better, although appreciate they tried some years ago.

That's all very well Richard but how are we then to pay the sums required ( usually £10-£20 ) for our summer runs with various small car clubs? They don't have Visa nor DD facilities and we have aready found via previous posts that cash is no good.

If there is a club bank account you can use 'Faster Payments'. Can also be used to send to individual account holders.

The last time I had to write a cheque it was a few years ago to my District Council for a planning application fee. It took me ages to even find a chequebook.

These days with ApplePay, Faster Payments and PayPal it's just completely unnecessary. The only reason we have any cash these days is to pay the guy who cleans our windows.

Ironically our window cleaner is about the only person who prefers a cheque. £19 every 5 weeks to do a 4-bed house + conservatory + garages. His day job is as a paramedic, he has some harrowing tales to tell.