Cheque out some new ways to pay - 08/07/2011

The long countdown has started to the closure of the UK Domestic Cheque Guarantee Card Scheme.
After June 30, 2011, it will no longer be possible to guarantee a cheque using a plastic card. To help retailers and consumers, two fact sheets are available and the details are: i. Fact Sheet Retailers and ii. Fact Sheet Consumers
Banks and building societies with customers who have cards carrying the cheque guarantee function – indicated by Shakespeare’s hologram or logo – will be managing its removal in different ways.
Typically cards will be issued without Shakespeare’s logo on renewal; this may be before or after the closure date. This means that although Shakespeare will still be on many customers’ cards after the 30^th June 2011, it will be redundant.All customers will still be able to pay by cheque but they will not be able to use a plastic card to guarantee it.
Over the next year businesses still accepting guaranteed cheques are likely to be contacted by their bank to make sure they are aware of the closure. While a large number of businesses, big and small, have the ability to accept guaranteed cheques, research undertaken in 2008 showed only about 350,000 businesses had accepted one in the previous six months, and most of those rarely.
The decision to close the scheme was taken by the payments Council in June 2009 in response to the log term decline of guaranteed cheque use. It followed consultation with guarantee users and acceptors, and concluded that it was in all parties’ interests to manage the scheme’s demise in a co-ordinated fashion.
The scheme was introduced in 1969 before debit cards existed, when no one left home without their chequebook because cheques were the only alternative to cash. The guarantee card was designed to give businesses certainty that a cheque would not bounce.

You can read and download the full article by clicking here

There are Fact Sheets for Consumers and Retailer and you can visit the UK Payments website by clicking here

This article originally appeared in the Wiltshire Business News – Issue 39 – August 2010