Daft Letter

As you probably know, the Cheque Guarantee Card Scheme finishes in June.

My bank has just written to me telling of the useful alternatives to my business such as 'cash - may be suitable'

OH BOY

That's a good one

Cash? What's that? MMy life is all plastic

Reminds me of a marketing survey in the US where they discovered
that customers were interested in the kind of service they received

I actually looked. I DO still have one. Hadn't even realised!

Cash is a great system though! ..... You buy something off someone for £100 which means he has £100 to buy something off someone else who in turn buys something for £100 off someone else etc..... and so it goes on

With Plastic cards the card company can take up to 5% of each sale so the 2nd person only has £95 to spend... the next £90.25..... then it's.... £85.70..... £81.45.... £77.37 and so on At least it makes sure that the Bankers can pay themselves.... BIG BONUSES!

And that's why I try to pay cash if buying from smaller independent shops. They get charged outrageous sums to be able to accept cards.

I always use cash if I can. I hate giving commission to banks

Even the big retailers often make less profit out of a sale than the banks do. Some shops only make 1% to 2%.

It used to be possible (not sure if it still is) to demand a discount for cash in the likes of Tesco's because they work some kind of legal tax fiddle by passing all card sales through a separate company solely for tax purposes. I think it was about half of one percent.

Since returning from the UK I have had exactly €0 in my purse. I have paid for everything with plastic - none with a credit card though.
We stopped using cheques in the Netherlands nearly 10 years ago.

Some questions then, what do elderly housebound people do to pay a small tradesman? Lots of small businesses rely on cheques and many businesses rely on cheques to pay each other, what do they do instead.

The Netherlands being the civilised urbane place I believe it to be must have put some other effective systems in place. There seems to be nothing offered here at the moment.

The banks will have you marked down as an undesirable and a trouble maker.

I don't know if your realize that businesses get charged a percentage of the cash they pay in and withdraw from banks. It varies depending on the tariff they are on but a lot of the time it costs more than accepting cards.

Debit cards tend to have a flat fee of 10p-50p per transaction where as credit cards are 2-5%, Amex being the most expensive at 5%. MC and Visa are 2-3%.

You do ha e merchant terminal expenses but there are cheap ways of running them as well.

And businesses pay to pay in and write cheques.

I assume that in the Netherlands mobile card terminals are used a lot more than here. They are a rechargeable terminal with a gsm modem/SIM card slot.

We have acceptgiros. Usually nowadays these are mostly dealt with using internet banking, but it is still possible to hand them in at the bank.
At the bottom of the detailed bill is a tear off form, which follows a standard format. The name address and account number of the person you are paying, plus your name and address and if known yor bank account number - otherwise you fill that in. The amount to be paid, and an identifying code are included. Sign it and hand it in. Or do it all online. Even little old ladies use internet banking nowadays! http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bestand:Acceptgiro.jpg

For things ordered on the net we use Ideal, an electronic payment system which takes the money straight from your account and moves it to the shop's account.

For shops we use PIN - our bank card with PIN which again instantly debits your account. This is used even for really small amounts.

The only time I need cash is to pay my window cleaner.

Probably because they do not understand the risks

In the UK, yuo are far better protected with a credit card than with a debit card.