Written evidence submitted by Tyneside
Consumers' Group
Tyneside Consumers' Group (TCG) is a grass-roots
consumer organisation based in the North East of England. It aims
to represent the views of ordinary consumers. It has no political
affiliations.
TCG is concerned that the Board of the UK Payments
Council has announced that cheques will be phased out by October
2018 without clear alternative payment mechanisms having
been developed.
TCG feels that small voluntary groups will be
disadvantaged by abolition in a number of ways:
— 15% of our members continue to pay subscriptions
by cheque as they do not wish to use the standing order facility—these
are members we may lose.
— All the group's bills are currently paid
by cheque. These include reimbursement of committee members' expenses,
payments to typist etc. Payments are often sent by post. It would
be impractical and inconvenient to use existing methods of payment.
TCG members regularly use cheques for the following:
— Gifts to friends and relatives which
are sent by post—they may not have information about the
recipient to enable an electronic transfer to be used.
— Other payments by post—consumers
may be reluctant to pay online particularly in the light of concerns
about on line fraud.
— Payments to small societies eg for outings
or special events—such societies do not wish to handle cash.
— Payments to small businesses who do not
have the facility to accept debit cards. This seems to arise regularly
in the case of chiropodists etc who visit consumers in their own
homes. Elderly consumers do not wish and should not be encouraged
to keep cash in their homes.
— Donations to charities—this is
an easy method and it is felt that charities would suffer if it
was not available as a payment method.
February 2010
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