London Banter - View Single Post

[email protected] · December 21st 18, 03:43 PM posted to uk.transport.london

On Fri, 21 Dec 2018 13:20:35 +0000
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 12:02:04 on Fri, 21 Dec
2018, remarked:
A lot of sole traders don't want the hassle or the fees from lugging
a card machine around when they go to jobs.

most of these people give me an invoice and expect me to pay by internet
banking

Some trademens do , some don't. Plus there's often a discount for paying in
cash but you probably wouldn't know about that.

even my sister's window cleaner worked this way

An invoicing window cleaner? Where does she live, Islington, or maybe Chipping

Norton?

At my previous house the window cleaner invoiced (about twelve pounds a
month, I'm not sure if that's regarded as expensive or not). I always
paid cash, if I was at home, because of the time it takes to do an
electronic transfer.

I had to do one this morning to a new tradesman (who I'll not be using
again, because it was that kind of a one-off job) and it took six
minutes to get the banking site logged into, a new payee's details
entered and authorised, and then the individual payment made and
authorised. It would have taken me thirty seconds to write a cheque
*and* I'd have had a hard copy audit trail automatically.

It does make me wonder if the people who evangelise online payments for
everything actually have vested interests. They have their place but they're
not always a convenient alternative to cheques or cash.