Lordship Lane Post Office Closure

[Moovart]

And just by coincidence I tried to scan the cheques in to my account today but the app wouldn't scan so my bank told me I would have to go to a branch or to the post office as they couldn't work out what the problem was. Hah!  

[sebastiondangerfield]

Santander only allow you to scan a cheque under£1000.

And believe me there are still people around Dulwich who pay for services by cheque.

[Penguin68]

Cheques are still the safest way to send money to others if you want to make a 'thing' of it. At Christmas or birthdays a card with a cheque is the most effective present to distant god children or extended family, for instance when you don't know what they have or need - made out to the parent if you don't think they have an account yet. Of course you can use electronic transfer, often, to parents if you set it up, but that doesn't quite have the impact of a cheque in the post. So a cheque still has a use, I believe, even when you have very much reduced your cheque writing for other purposes.

[vladi]

You can use PayPal to send money and it is free of charge if you chose to send it as a gift to friends or family.

[Spartacus]

37 minutes ago, vladi said:

You can use PayPal to send money and it is free of charge if you chose to send it as a gift to friends or family.

You can 

But you can't put PayPal in a card like you can with a cheque or postal order  🙄 

[Pugwash]

I am a signatory of a trust fund which requires 2 out of 3 signatories, The investment company who manages the fund pay into the account by BACs but we pay the trust reciprocates by cheque.  

[Cyclemonkey]

When they were very little I transferred money in my nephew and niece's savings accounts and wrote a little voucher to put in the card.

Now they are a bit older I put half in to their savings accountd and half on to their Go Henry cards.  Children neither know nor care about cheques.

As for Postal Orders  last time I checked I'm not in an Enid Blyton novel 😆

Edited Saturday at 13:49 by Cyclemonkey

[Spartacus]

55 minutes ago, Cyclemonkey said:

When they were very little I transferred money in my nephew and niece's savings accounts and wrote a little voucher to put in the card.

Now they are a bit older I put half in to their savings accountd and half on to their Go Henry cards.  Children neither know nor care about cheques.

As for Postal Orders  last time I checked I'm not in an Enid Blyton novel 😆

And that's your choice, but it's not everyone's choice. 

Some people don't like or can't do what you do. 

[Cyclemonkey]

Indeed so.  Just noting there are other options and many children and indeed young adults may well be perplexed and/or irritated by a cheque. 

[Moovart]

It is important that children and young adults should not be irritated when given money as a gift 😕

[Sue]

My grandchildren would be most bemused if they were sent a cheque! 

And what a faff! They would have to pay it into a bank anyway, wouldn't they? How does that work, if they don't have a bank account?

Even if they do,  sending money by BACS is quicker and easier. You don't have to spend an arm and a leg to buy a stamp, and the money  can't get "lost" or delayed in the post.

They have the use of the money immediately, buy something they want with it, then tell me/show me  what they bought.

Better all round for everybody, in my opinion, though I accept everybody is different.

I know people who still want to bring back pounds shillings and pence 🙄

[alice]

I just put cash in the envelope works for me

[Penguin68]

And for the crooked temporary Christmas Mail staff... Who I've seen holding envelopes up to the light to check their contents. 

[Cyclemonkey]

I'm in my early 40s and I am not sure anyone (aprt from HMRC) has sent me money in cheque form for at least 20 years.  I would be slightly irritated to get a cheque as I would have to find time to pay it in.  I can well imagine a young adult being pretty baffled by a cheque.  Many don't even bank with places that have physical branches.

[Moovart]

Just in case you do get a cheque you can pay it into your Monzo account or similar by taking a photo of the cheque in the app v easily.  I know my bank's app didn't work but that's probably the exception.  I have to say that if and when people gift me money in any form I'm always really appreciative and never get irritated. 

But for those that are not tech savvy of whatever age, brain power or other reason, a face to face encounter may be preferable but becoming increasingly impossible so that company profits can be increased. 

[Sue]

1 hour ago, Moovart said:

 

But for those that are not tech savvy of whatever age, brain power or other reason, a face to face encounter may be preferable but becoming increasingly impossible so that company profits can be increased. 

Surely increasing profits are not the reason?

It's more about  preventing massive losses?

You can't keep things going at vast expense because a few people still use them. We would still be in the stone age.

There are always going to be some people who find it hard to use "modern" technology (which has been going for decades).

I would have thought the answer was for those people to learn how to do the things they need to do? I'm sure lots of help must be available? 

I'm one of the ancient ones, and around the end of the nineties I went on a free course to be taught how to go online and use the internet. It was quite a steep learning curve, but so is learning anything new.

So in previous years was learning to use a PC and word processing. So was learning Excel and spreadsheets.  If you need to use something, you have to learn how to do it!

Some people may not have the mental  capacity to do this, but in that case surely they will be getting support in other areas of their daily life already?

And as regards the possible  closure of the Crown post office (note - possible) we don't know what alternative arrangements may be made should this happen, so it seems a bit premature to be protesting about it at this point.

Edited Sunday at 11:29 by Sue

[Cyclemonkey]

It is a challenge.  These sorts of services are increasingly expensive to deliver as fewer and fewer people use them.  Most people don't want to have to go back to using their lunch hour to queue up at the bank or Post Office. 

So the options  are - reduce the service, make it more expensive or the tax payer subsidises it.

 

[Penguin68]

I believe that Crown Post Offices are normally owned by the Post Office, and are frequently in valuable high street sites, so I would not be surprised if their sale value (or rentals to be derived if not sold) would be enticing, particularly for those offices running at slim or no profit margins. Happy to be proven wrong, of course. 

[jazzer]

They plan to close the Mount Pleasant Office, absolute and utter madnesss

[Sue]

2 hours ago, jazzer said:

They plan to close the Mount Pleasant Office, absolute and utter madnesss

How do you know it's madness unless you know what they plan to replace its services  with?

And isn't Mount Pleasant a Royal Mail sorting office? If so, that's nothing to do with counters.  Royal Mail is a completely separate - and privately owned - business.

 

 

[Penguin68]

There is also a Post Office at Mount Pleasant. Which isn't the Royal Mail Sorting Office for London. If you Google it it seems quite a large building, I doubt it's doing the trade that justifies it now. 

[Soleila]

On 17/11/2024 at 09:21, Cyclemonkey said:

I'm in my early 40s and I am not sure anyone (aprt from HMRC) has sent me money in cheque form for at least 20 years.  I would be slightly irritated to get a cheque as I would have to find time to pay it in.  I can well imagine a young adult being pretty baffled by a cheque.  Many don't even bank with places that have physical branches.

I’m younger than you but have received a couple of cheques in the past year or so. And also written one out. Depositing a cheque is actually less of a faff then setting up a new payee or sharing your details. Just open the app, go the section to deposit money and take a picture of the cheque. 

[hfoster]

Ultimately, nobody really  wants to pay for them. The banking doesn't make them any money and should the state really be subsidising the functions that the banks themselves used to, and should be providing?

On top of that, they have a dwindling user base for the other competencies like currency exchange and logistics. I personally just use Google Pay abroad, and get my deliveries picked up by the postie or use a deposit box.