CHEQUE POINT CHARLIES

“Cheques in the post.” Well, not for much longer, it seems, as yet another great British institution (and great excuse) really could be lost forever. That’s assuming the Payments Council (a new one for us – and you too we suspect) gets its way. Never mind that this much loved and well understood payment method has been around for centuries, and over four million are currently written out each year. Meeting recently to discuss its fate, a 15 strong panel drawn from members of the Payments Council, which itself is an organisation with no fewer than 17 banks listed as full members, decided in its infinite wisdom that the humble cheque should be phased out.
The argument is that cheques are too expensive to administer and the usage is dramatically declining – falling by around 10% a year. It appears that most of us now prefer paying by debit cards, credit cards or direct debits.

Of course paying by debit is fine for your average high street retail shops, online stores and the large utility companies, but what about your average tradesman? Do you think for one moment that the ever so lofty Payments Council has considered the builders, plumbers, electricians and landscapers of this world? It doesn’t seem so. For years the cheque has provided a unique and extremely viable means of completing a transaction between the tradesman and the homeowner for services carried out. Keeping large amounts of cash in the house, or on one’s person, is never a good idea. Equally, for the more vulnerable members of our society there’s a certain security in the knowledge that their cheque will take up to five days to clear. This can provide a very welcome cooling off period to ensure that goods and services meet the required standard before full payment is made.

Before you go apoplectic with rage at yet another interference in our everyday lives we should point out that the proposed date for phasing out cheques is 2018, so we have some leeway here, but only a bit – and then what? We are assured that the cheque system will only be phased out if there is a viable alternative. But what would that be? It’s hard to think of anything which could serve us equally as well.
The suspicion is that the viable alternative will be something which will pile yet another layer of costly administration on to small tradesmen. We can already envisage a future in which small contractors will have to have those little payment terminals that are now common in restaurants and bars. Undoubtedly there will be the cost of buying or renting them, some kind of annual or monthly fee for the privilege of using one, and maybe even a charge per transaction. The cost will most likely be borne by – surprise, surprise – the tradesperson.

There are currently numerous problems in our world, our country and our industry – paying by cheque most certainly isn’t one of them. Those in positions of power should spend more time on the bigger issues and stop meddling with something that has been fit for purpose for hundreds of years, and remains so today. Those who make the rules would do well to remember the old adage – “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it"!

Editor, Professional Builder magazine