Finance Title

The Future of the cheque by Charles Whitehead

You may have heard, or be aware of, a proposal and project to do away with cheques by 2018. The argument is that many people use electronic means of payment these days, many people bank online through their computer and the cheque is becoming redundant. The banks’ (and it is they who are behind this) other argument is that as the clearing of cheques is heavily manual with clearing houses employing many people, it is labour intensive and therefore costly. My initial reaction was that many clients of the association would fi nd this an enormous inconvenience and would be against such a move. You might think it a security risk as not all card transactions are totally secure. Or remembering loads of card and pin numbers let alone the security number on the back of the cards may be a real problem. I wrote to the organisation leading

this proposal and as a result have been invited to sit on a local group, which will collect information and put it to a series of fact fi nding workshops.

But I may be completely wrong – so I would like to hear from you, our clients. Do you think the abolition of cheques is a good or a bad idea? How will it affect your life and do you feel that this will place blind and visually impaired people at risk? Please contact me at the Sight Centre, by letter or by e mail (charleswhitehead@cornwallblind. org.uk) (these two are the preferred methods as I then have written evidence) or by telephone (01872 266706) and let me know your views.

Best wishes Charles

9 Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22