wrote in message
news
On Mon, 17 Dec 2018 15:37:46 +0000
Robin wrote:
Meanwhile vast swathes of both the public and private sectors are
operating in the 21st century with employees placing orders and making
payments online. Eg use of payment cards was common when I retired 13
years ago. There were naturally limits on how much could be charged on

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

even my sister's window cleaner worked this way

tim

On Thu, 20 Dec 2018 17:45:02 -0000
"tim..." wrote:
wrote in message
news
On Mon, 17 Dec 2018 15:37:46 +0000
Robin wrote:
Meanwhile vast swathes of both the public and private sectors are
operating in the 21st century with employees placing orders and making
payments online. Eg use of payment cards was common when I retired 13
years ago. There were naturally limits on how much could be charged on

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?

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.
--
Roland Perry

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.

In message , at 16:43:41 on Fri, 21 Dec
2018, remarked:
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.

It's a collective failure to realise that "one size doesn't fit all".

While there are many transactions where payments can be made to
established suppliers with virtually no authentication, especially if
there's an intermediary [ecommerce platform or credit card issuer] who
has a reputational stake in resolving glitches.

Send a one-off faster-payment direct to a local tradesman, and it's like
throwing the money into a black hole.

FWIW, when I've dabbled in online selling professionally, I've always
used such an intermediary, and never asked people to simply wire money
to a sortcode/account.
--
Roland Perry

In article ,
wrote:
It does make me wonder if the people who evangelise online payments for
everything actually have vested interests.

Of course they do. Sorting and processing cheques is very expensive,
as is dealing disputes when they're lost in the mail, or people claim
they're lost in the mail.

Since October 2017, cheques in the UK are photographed by the payee or
his bank, and all you get back is a picture. Doesn't seem all that
different from a transfer.

Over on this side of the pond, where we've had check imaging for
several years, the banks all provide a free billpay service where you
enter the payee's address and phone number, not bank details, and it
mails them a check, which is a good deal for the customer since they
pay for the stamp. I found that even though we have thousands of
banks, there are two service bureaux that do most of the billpay. You
can sign up with them so if they recognize your details on an outgoing
payment (that's what the phone number is for) they "truncate" the
check and transfer the money directly into your account, saving
several days.

There are also account to account transfers if you know the
recipient's bank details, but they're a lot less popular. And there
are third party apps like Venmo and Square Cash and Zelle (the last
being the banks' belated response to the first two) which will handle
the coordination between payor and payee. Venmo is very popular among
the under-30 crowd.

For the record, my dog is opposed to check truncation because when I
get a paper check, we take down to the bank where they fuss over him
and give him a dog biscuit.

--
Regards,
John Levine, , Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly

wrote in message
news
On Thu, 20 Dec 2018 17:45:02 -0000
"tim..." wrote:
wrote in message
news
On Mon, 17 Dec 2018 15:37:46 +0000
Robin wrote:
Meanwhile vast swathes of both the public and private sectors are
operating in the 21st century with employees placing orders and making
payments online. Eg use of payment cards was common when I retired 13
years ago. There were naturally limits on how much could be charged on

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.

so far, they all have

Plus there's often a discount for paying in
cash but you probably wouldn't know about that.

the man in the lock shop gave me a discount for cash, after saying "cash
only" when I proffered my card (for 40 quid)

even my sister's window cleaner worked this way

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

did! Canterbury

tim