The End of an era
Apr. 13th, 2011 12:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dormouse1953Just logged into my internet banking and noticed there was a message. Turns out that HSBC are stopping their cheque guarantee card scheme end of June. Nobody is writing cheques that need guaranteeing any more.
Back when I started university in 1970, I remember my father taking me in to see the bank manager so I could open an account. The manager recommended that the account be based at the university branch in Leeds. So, when I was at uni, whenever I needed money I could just go across the road and cash a cheque there. (And, unlike some students, I usually managed to keep money in my account till the end of term.) I'm sure I occasionally wrote cheques for things like text books, but I can't remember how they were guaranteed. Perhaps they accepted my Student Union card.
When I graduated, I transferred by account to my home branch, but as I was getting a job in London, it was recommended that I receive a cheque guarantee card. I well remember how cheque books had a calendar in the back, and whenever you cashed a cheque using the card, the cashier would poke a hole in the day's date on the calendar, to prevent you writing cheques all over London. And I recall that the first few SF conventions I attended, I paid my hotel bill with a cheque guaranteed by the card.
But then came credit cards, and I no longer needed to write cheques for goods or hotel bills. And then came ATMs. (OK, I know the first ATM was installed in Enfield in north London in 1967. Apparently the first person to use one was Reg Varney. But I didn't get an ATM card till the late eighties.) I haven't cashed a cheque for years, I pay bills by internet transfer, everyone can accept credit cards via PayPal. It's only in my role as treasurer of the Science Fiction Foundation that I write most of my cheques these days. OK, a cheque in the post is a good way to send birthday presents, but a cheque I wrote my nephew for his birthday last August, he still hasn't cashed. When I saw him at Christmas, he admitted he never goes near a bank these days.
And my bank account was still held at my home town branch right up till the end of 2009. I haven't lived in that town since 1973. That branch has now closed, so they transferred my account to a nearby town, one in which I've never lived.
Back when I started university in 1970, I remember my father taking me in to see the bank manager so I could open an account. The manager recommended that the account be based at the university branch in Leeds. So, when I was at uni, whenever I needed money I could just go across the road and cash a cheque there. (And, unlike some students, I usually managed to keep money in my account till the end of term.) I'm sure I occasionally wrote cheques for things like text books, but I can't remember how they were guaranteed. Perhaps they accepted my Student Union card.
When I graduated, I transferred by account to my home branch, but as I was getting a job in London, it was recommended that I receive a cheque guarantee card. I well remember how cheque books had a calendar in the back, and whenever you cashed a cheque using the card, the cashier would poke a hole in the day's date on the calendar, to prevent you writing cheques all over London. And I recall that the first few SF conventions I attended, I paid my hotel bill with a cheque guaranteed by the card.
But then came credit cards, and I no longer needed to write cheques for goods or hotel bills. And then came ATMs. (OK, I know the first ATM was installed in Enfield in north London in 1967. Apparently the first person to use one was Reg Varney. But I didn't get an ATM card till the late eighties.) I haven't cashed a cheque for years, I pay bills by internet transfer, everyone can accept credit cards via PayPal. It's only in my role as treasurer of the Science Fiction Foundation that I write most of my cheques these days. OK, a cheque in the post is a good way to send birthday presents, but a cheque I wrote my nephew for his birthday last August, he still hasn't cashed. When I saw him at Christmas, he admitted he never goes near a bank these days.
And my bank account was still held at my home town branch right up till the end of 2009. I haven't lived in that town since 1973. That branch has now closed, so they transferred my account to a nearby town, one in which I've never lived.
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no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 09:48 am (UTC)