A recent-ish couple of "General Discussion" threads in which the subject of cheques arose, have been closed to further posting; thus, starting this as a new one.
I (in my mid-seventies) am one of probably not very many people, who enjoy using cheques in circumstances -- not very common nowadays -- when they can be used: for me, a mixture of personal gifts or lack thereof, and contrariness -- I relish the old-fashionedness of the thing. A relevant discovery just made, however, has somewhat "brought me up short". I had been wishing to stop / cancel / "kill off" a cheque which I had written and posted off a couple of weeks ago, in connection with a slightly tangled situation involving senior citizen's bus passes. The staff member at my branch of my bank (Lloyds) informed me that doing thus with a cheque, would involve a £10 fee. Decidedly taken aback, I remarked that this must be a new thing: I have had the process carried out before -- admittedly, the last time was some years ago -- and am certain that then, it carried no financial penalty; certainly not a swingeing £10. The lass responded that the £10 rule had been in place for quite a long time.
Mercifully, stopping the cheque in question was not necessary to avoid possible financial loss -- the intended recipient had made it clear that the payment concerned, was not due to them for any service that they could render: I had just wanted to, neatly, "tie up loose ends". Needless to say, in the circumstances I declined the bank's stopping-the-cheque offer; cheque was for £7.50 -- the recipient's wrongfully helping themself to that amount, would have cost me less than the measure taken to prevent that from happening !
Am wondering whether I am the last person in Britain who has, or will, become aware of this £10 fee for this purpose -- and, whether any other users of the admittedly archaic method concerned, of conveying money; have relatively recently made this unwelcome discovery. I am, for sure, inclined to see it as a decidedly underhand ploy on banks' part (probable scenario of all of them -- not just Lloyds -- engaging in this procedure) to hasten the extinction of the cheque, through making the use of the things more problem-fraught.
I (in my mid-seventies) am one of probably not very many people, who enjoy using cheques in circumstances -- not very common nowadays -- when they can be used: for me, a mixture of personal gifts or lack thereof, and contrariness -- I relish the old-fashionedness of the thing. A relevant discovery just made, however, has somewhat "brought me up short". I had been wishing to stop / cancel / "kill off" a cheque which I had written and posted off a couple of weeks ago, in connection with a slightly tangled situation involving senior citizen's bus passes. The staff member at my branch of my bank (Lloyds) informed me that doing thus with a cheque, would involve a £10 fee. Decidedly taken aback, I remarked that this must be a new thing: I have had the process carried out before -- admittedly, the last time was some years ago -- and am certain that then, it carried no financial penalty; certainly not a swingeing £10. The lass responded that the £10 rule had been in place for quite a long time.
Mercifully, stopping the cheque in question was not necessary to avoid possible financial loss -- the intended recipient had made it clear that the payment concerned, was not due to them for any service that they could render: I had just wanted to, neatly, "tie up loose ends". Needless to say, in the circumstances I declined the bank's stopping-the-cheque offer; cheque was for £7.50 -- the recipient's wrongfully helping themself to that amount, would have cost me less than the measure taken to prevent that from happening !
Am wondering whether I am the last person in Britain who has, or will, become aware of this £10 fee for this purpose -- and, whether any other users of the admittedly archaic method concerned, of conveying money; have relatively recently made this unwelcome discovery. I am, for sure, inclined to see it as a decidedly underhand ploy on banks' part (probable scenario of all of them -- not just Lloyds -- engaging in this procedure) to hasten the extinction of the cheque, through making the use of the things more problem-fraught.
