Ministry of Propaganda

Ministry of Propaganda - 28/Nov/2003: "What took you so long?"

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What took you so long?

When I first moved to the UK in 1995 I was surprised how many payments were still made by cheque. Direct Debit had just started and was heavily promoted at that time, take up was fairly slow. A standing order took ages to set up. So I had to join in and make a lot of payments by cheque, something I hadn't done before ever. Bank transfers, direct debits and standing orders had been the norm in Germany for years, basically as long as I can remember handling money.

It looks like the UK is finally catching up and cheques are in real decline. I've been able to drastically cut my usage of cheques over the last two years, in particular through online banking. When I moved house recently it was still quite strange though: When I asked if I could send my deposit via bank transfer I caused a bit of confusion. When I got the deposit from the previous flat back, they sent me a cheque instead of just transferring it to my bank account.

Welcome to the 21st century!

PS: I believe the situation in the US is similar or even worse. Is that true? If yes, when will the self-proclaimed most advanced nation on earth get a proper banking system?

End of entry

Entry trivia

When writing this entry the weather was: cloudy, drizzle, cold

When writing this entry I was listening to: Feeder - Comfort in Sound

During the last hour before I wrote this entry I visited this website: The Silent Penguin

End of entry trivia

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