And branches vanished long ago so there's nowhere to go to cash a cheque.

I haven't used (or seen) a cheque in at least a decade.

My last three employers (covering 15 years or so of my dealing with their accounting systems) who take in millions of pounds a year started refusing cheques 15-20 years ago.

I don't think there's a high-street bank left who issue cheques to account holders any more.

Nationwide still issues cheque books; I have one in front of me, last time it was used was just over 2 years ago.

I agree, however, that the era of the cheque is probably drawing to a close.

"You can get a chequebook on request" is what I see on their accounts, same as several other banks.

But they don't offer it to you automatically any more, and haven't for years.

HSBC customer. They do cheques. I wrote one a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully they'll get things fixed soon.

Soon, as in, before the XMas shopping period ?

Oh wait, we're already in that.

Oops. Looks like HSBC is going to post some dismal figures for this quarter.

How unfortunate for board bonuses . . .

I received a cheque in the post this morning, and deposited another in a bank last week.

The belief that something isn't important and can be ditched because someone doesn't personally require it or use it is what led to Brexit seeming like a plan to millions of people who knew absolutely zip about economics. That shaved 25% off sterling and gave the UK third world inflation, undermined the labour market and half emptied supermarket shelves.

gave the UK third world inflation

Tell me you're clueless without telling me you're clueless.

The UK has had nothing like "third world inflation". Some such countries experienced 3 and in rare cases, 4 digit inflation!

Turkey isn't a third world country and had, what, 8 times our inflation rate recently? Germany, Italy and Spain have been in the 8+% territory not too long ago. They certainly aren't third world countries.

No, but the determined efforts of their governments is making progress in that direction.

"Compensation time methinks," said one. "Train companies compensate when a train is an hour late… what about for thousands of customers who have important bills to pay/ transactions to do/ work and lives to live and need their banking app!"

Just vote with your feet, man.

I have moved away from every major UK high street bank at one time or another.

NatWest - when they pretended that a Java applet in an HTTP page was "secure" just because it showed a padlock, rather than deploy HTTPS.

HSBC - when they laughed in my face when I applied for a mortgage, so I went next-door to a mortgage shop and got... the exact mortgage I was asking for, no hassle. Also when they overcharged me for a cheque that they DELIBERATELY delayed paying in - in ten years of custom, the ONE cheque that could, in theory, be processed for 48 hours for which the last 10 minutes would incur a fee... that one delayed exactly 48 hours and incurred a fee. None of the thousands I'd paid in before over a decade did so, no delay, nor fee, not once.

Barclays - when they insisted on causing me nothing but hassle when it came to paying in my (Barclays Bank!) university grant cheque into the university branch of Barclays Bank that they opened for me for that express purpose.

...

and so on.

I now deal only with online-only banks (not FirstDirect!) because they have to give me the functions I want to use. And because they have no branches to staff, I get functions to do EVERYTHING I need (open a business account, a joint account, dispute a transaction, etc.) in the app itself.

Sorry, but a bank should not be "down" online nowadays. I can understand "Oh, sorry, we're just pausing scheduled payments for a little while" or "Your balance info may be up to date by up to an hour while we process a backlog", etc. but they shouldn't be DOWN. I should still be able to make payments, get to my account, etc. Anything else is a complete failure to deploy enough redundancy.

Which, weirdly, the online-only banks with only one thousandth of the same resources seem to manage no problem at all.

And the train analogy is very apt. When I started to realise that trains were so unreliable I couldn't use them, I just... stopped using trains entirely. That was many years ago and apart from very rare, non-critical, mid-day journeys into London for leisure (with plenty of backup options), I just never use them.

"Oh, the trains/banks are terrible" people say, as they reward them with thousands upon thousands of pounds year after year despite being terrible.

I'd really rather be inconvenienced on my own terms and at my own expense than give such places my money.

A bit like my electricity supplier at the moment. They decided to take the mick, they still are taking the mick, so I'm investing gradually in making them obsolete for my purposes - even if it costs me more in the long run. Each month my grid usage goes down. Each month they vastly over-estimate unless I put in a meter reading on the 31st. So each month I put in a meter reading on the 31st, apply for a refund for ANY overpayment, and use all such overpayments to buy more off-grid electricity equipment, which means my next bill is even lower again....

And I made my water supplier fit a water meter. My water bill dropped to 10% of what it was when I did so. Rest assured that if I ever find a practical way to reduce my water usage further, I'm doing it. I'm literally eyeing up a £1000 automatic greywater header-tank system. I'd rather pay £1000 to make them redundant than give them even £100.

Vote with your feet, people.

HSBC - when they laughed in my face when I applied for a mortgage, so I went next-door to a mortgage shop and got..

Why didn't you just go there in the first place then?

Congratulations on instinctively choosing the best provider for your needs.

Not everyone has that skill.

Oh, you're using hindsight . . yeah, that's much more practical.

Except that it comes after you need it.

We chose HSBC as the best choice when moving between Canada and France. Over the course of 18 months we spent literally hundreds of hours on the phone, being disconnected on the phone, and hanging up the phone because the low paid Asian call center drone was incomprehensible.

They are, without question, the most technologically inept company I've dealt with.

I now bank with the decidedly tiny Lahave River Credit Union, where I can even phone the branch directly and talk to a real person.

I've banked with HSBC for over 25 years. Of course that includes a good portion of time which was pre Internet banking.

Most recently - and for reasons they've never explained - I was locked out of my banking app despite having it set up with Face ID login which had worked for years. The app came up with a message asking me to set it up as a new user. It then wouldn't authenticate me using other details, which I know were correct. Phoned the telephone banking number. Worryingly they couldn't identify me. The resolution? You have to go into a branch to resolve this and there is literally no other way. But... HSBC closed my local branch years ago. So a car journey and some panic it was.

Now, when I actually got into the branch, super helpful and everything resolved in around 15 mins not including waiting around the same time.

I have other neo-bank accounts from the likes of Monzo which do not have any kind of branch. It did make me wonder what you'd do in a scenario like this with a bank that has no branches. But then perhaps that is part of the problem. If they don't have branches then they can't use the "come into a branch to sort our own mess out" excuse.

It seems to me like their systems are a mismash of preferring people to do everything online in the first instance. But when that inevitably doesn't work they tell you to either speak to somebody that can't help on a phone, or come into a branch that doesn't exist.