Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Jack Wallace on October 15, 2010, 09:08:32 am
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I am trying to encourage more of my customers to start paying electronically, quite a few do already but not as many as I would like.
The bank charges me 30p for each cheque I deposit so I have been thinking about passing this on to the customer in the hope it will get them to either use online banking after each clean or set up a standing order.
I was thinking that with a carefully worded letter I could make people see the benefits of standing order, such as cost and time saving.
Has anyone tried charging for cheques? If so what were the results?
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unless you leave a sae its costing them about .30p to send as well
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Hi Jack,
I have gone from 50 odd cheques a month to about 6. I asked them to use phone banking or internet transfer.
I tell my custies that they cost over a pound to bank with the banks charges and also my time in taking them and standing in the que. I hate collecting but banking is worse.
Most will understand if you ask or write to them
Lee
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Next time your prices go up, add an extra 30p onto the customers who usually pay by cheque, problem solved.
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Sean... Yes we leave an envelope but I am thinking of stopping that also as an added encouragement to swap to electronic. As you rightly point out this costs the customer so i hope it will be enough to sway them.
Lee...That’s encouraging news, I am glad it went well for you as I am getting about 250 cheques at the moment and with expansion plans I don’t want that to increase.
Andy... I understand what you mean but it will only solve a part of the problem, processing cheques is not only expensive but very time consuming, I am trying to cut down on both.
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Bank transfer is quick convienent and saves paper postage and much more efficent you have to sell it to them its hard no one likes change but no one wants to pay for a cheque either and put your prices up at least yearly or you ll get stuck in a rut and working for peanuts in 5 years time
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Just changed my bank a/c to Alliance and Leicester - free business banking, and you can pay in at any PO:
https://www.alliance-leicestercommercialbank.co.uk/content/SB010002.asp
Not a complete solution and a bit of a PIA to change bank accounts, direct debits, but so far so good.
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I am trying to encourage more of my customers to start paying electronically, quite a few do already but not as many as I would like.
The bank charges me 30p for each cheque I deposit so I have been thinking about passing this on to the customer in the hope it will get them to either use online banking after each clean or set up a standing order.
I was thinking that with a carefully worded letter I could make people see the benefits of standing order, such as cost and time saving.
Has anyone tried charging for cheques? If so what were the results?
Hi jack i charge £0.50 for cheques and most off the customers are ok with that
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why would you charge the customer when your bank charges are tax deductable....
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Good topic jack i get a lot/similar amount to you.
I read the suggested remedies with interest.
I have two biz accounts.sanander and alliance and leicester- both are free.I kept copping for a penalty clause of hitting the ton in any one month with sanander so opened the ally account.
In the ally a machine takes each cheque individually and gives a photocopy receipt.If you go in with ten cheques ( it says in the brochure you may only pay five in on one day) you hog the machine a bit.The staff have told me to take no notice of the five limit and i always staple my reciepts together afterwards. I have to be there every day so this isn't that bad for me.
With santander you have a page from a paying in book that you list the cheques (name and amount and total value and number). I have a specially made stamp with my account details to stamp the back with.These cheques are put into an envelope which a machine swallows.You have to put in the details, say 10 cheques, value £120.
In essence one account takes credit transfer, the other cheques.This does make reconcilliation easier.
I agree it's a huge waste of time.
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I am trying to encourage more of my customers to start paying electronically, quite a few do already but not as many as I would like.
The bank charges me 30p for each cheque I deposit so I have been thinking about passing this on to the customer in the hope it will get them to either use online banking after each clean or set up a standing order.
I was thinking that with a carefully worded letter I could make people see the benefits of standing order, such as cost and time saving.
Has anyone tried charging for cheques? If so what were the results?
Get an appointment with your bank manager. Your bank is ripping you off.
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I am trying to encourage more of my customers to start paying electronically, quite a few do already but not as many as I would like.
The bank charges me 30p for each cheque I deposit so I have been thinking about passing this on to the customer in the hope it will get them to either use online banking after each clean or set up a standing order.
I was thinking that with a carefully worded letter I could make people see the benefits of standing order, such as cost and time saving.
Has anyone tried charging for cheques? If so what were the results?
Get an appointment with your bank manager. Your bank is ripping you off.
A bank ripping us off? are you sure!#
Lee
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My envelopes, and ink, and any cheque charges...... are always included in the quote i give.
They have to be .
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Just changed my bank a/c to Alliance and Leicester - free business banking, and you can pay in at any PO:
https://www.alliance-leicestercommercialbank.co.uk/content/SB010002.asp
Not a complete solution and a bit of a PIA to change bank accounts, direct debits, but so far so good.
I was thinking of opening an account with these as it's free permanently, but I don't have a branch local enough. (Well it's about 3 miles away)
So just to clarify, I can pay in either at the Alliance & Leicester branch or a Post Office? Also can you pay in at Santander as I think that's who they're owned by?
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not yet you cant >:( >:(
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You can pay in in any PO with this A and L account. I think you can pay in at any Santander branch too. You can pay in 10 cheques on each slip (if I have 14 cheques that's 2 slips - 10 on one and 4 on the next). With cash you just take the wodge in, hand over a swipe card (like a Switch card) and they count your money, confirm the amount is what you think it is and it's done. There is no splitting it all down into £20's £10's £5's and loose change like you have to do in a regular bank.
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Thanks Carl. I'm gonna apply Monday. I think it will look much more professional for customers to be able to write a cheque out to my business name rather than me personally.
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We use Alliance and Leicester too; no charges, no problems :)
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Im A & L. Instead of using post office or sending cheques to bootle, use the atm in branch it prints a photocopy of each cheque for proof plus you can pay in up to 90 notes (cash) at a time. the machine counts and gives u a receipt. plus cheques clear in four days this way. I do this cos i would be gutted to lose a load of cheques in the post :'(..far too tight for that.
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sorry just realised slumpbuster pretty much covered that :)
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Thats okay.I've put dynamite on here and no one bats an eyelid.I've more or less spelt out how to build a huge self referring business with no knocking or leaflets and had it blanked.Thats what i love about this forum- no one ever believes you so you can say anything.
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Either that or world war 3 over nothing!!! ;D I try to stay out of the rows and only ever post if i know what i am talking about. or at least i hope i do ;)
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Just changed my bank a/c to Alliance and Leicester - free business banking, and you can pay in at any PO:
https://www.alliance-leicestercommercialbank.co.uk/content/SB010002.asp
Not a complete solution and a bit of a PIA to change bank accounts, direct debits, but so far so good.
I was thinking of opening an account with these as it's free permanently, but I don't have a branch local enough. (Well it's about 3 miles away)
So just to clarify, I can pay in either at the Alliance & Leicester branch or a Post Office? Also can you pay in at Santander as I think that's who they're owned by?
I have an account with Santander, the old Abbey National, and they do offer "free" business banking but they delay the money showing up in your account for over a week, ten days sometimes. Also if you transfer money out of your account or even to another santander account it disappears for about three days and then appears in the other account. So there is free and there is their idea of "free".
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Just changed my bank a/c to Alliance and Leicester - free business banking, and you can pay in at any PO:
https://www.alliance-leicestercommercialbank.co.uk/content/SB010002.asp
Not a complete solution and a bit of a PIA to change bank accounts, direct debits, but so far so good.
Be very careful witl A & L. As they move under ther Santander umbrella, the reference numbers for BACS payments will be removed. Santander don't display these and regard it as low priority. You could end up having to guess which customer has paid.
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Just changed my bank a/c to Alliance and Leicester - free business banking, and you can pay in at any PO:
https://www.alliance-leicestercommercialbank.co.uk/content/SB010002.asp
Not a complete solution and a bit of a PIA to change bank accounts, direct debits, but so far so good.
I was thinking of opening an account with these as it's free permanently, but I don't have a branch local enough. (Well it's about 3 miles away)
So just to clarify, I can pay in either at the Alliance & Leicester branch or a Post Office? Also can you pay in at Santander as I think that's who they're owned by?
I have an account with Santander, the old Abbey National, and they do offer "free" business banking but they delay the money showing up in your account for over a week, ten days sometimes. Also if you transfer money out of your account or even to another santander account it disappears for about three days and then appears in the other account. So there is free and there is their idea of "free".
Santander have serious IT problems IMO. They keep chopping and changing things like transfer times, whether or not to display BACS references and even whether they can be arsed to post back cheques that a customer may bounce on you. These may seem like minor glitches but I have been left seriously in limbo by them a few times now and am gradually moving my banking elsewhere. Indeed, if Co-op bank had a branch local to me wherre I could deposit cash and cheques 24/7 by ATM, I would complete a move away from Santander.
As for clearance times I find the following to generally be true (though it can sometimes vary a bit):
If I deposit cheques with Santander, the funds become available on the same day of the week as I deposit them (so long as I do it before evening) but obviously, on the following week. This is delayed a bit when there are public holidays. This is when I deposit by ATM (branch deposits aren't allowed. If posting them the cheques, obviously it takes longer. If you have had a 10 day wait before, I assume that's when you have posted them. Cash ATM deposits are available either the following day or one day later depending on the time of day that I make the deposit.
Transferring money out of the business account is very hit and miss. I do transfer money to my Santander personal account quite a lot. This used to happen immediately (or within 60 seconds) unless done during the night. Recently, without warning, they put a 24 hour delay on this. Fortunately there was enough in my personal account to avoid a bouncing direct debit. It was pure luck though. When I queried it they said they had IT probs that they were "resolving". Two months later it is still unresolved.
IMO this is a Mickey Mouse bank but they are useful as I live near a branch and can make ATM deposits easily.
There are other things I could go into but suffice to say that if the ATM deposit facility were removed, I would move all my business (business and personal) elsewhere.
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My Business Manager told me to stop taken cheques and gave Standard Order Forms the customer put there account details and I take it back of the and my manager represent it to there bank. No more cheques the easy life of getting paid.
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Nothing wrong with cheques.
Easiest way of sending it, handy if they're short of cash, and you can't spend it, so always money in the bank.
If you can't cope with business charges there's something wrong. Cost of running a business.
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Just changed my bank a/c to Alliance and Leicester - free business banking, and you can pay in at any PO:
https://www.alliance-leicestercommercialbank.co.uk/content/SB010002.asp
Not a complete solution and a bit of a PIA to change bank accounts, direct debits, but so far so good.
I was thinking of opening an account with these as it's free permanently, but I don't have a branch local enough. (Well it's about 3 miles away)
So just to clarify, I can pay in either at the Alliance & Leicester branch or a Post Office? Also can you pay in at Santander as I think that's who they're owned by?
I use A&L and I pay in at my local post office, the nearest A&L branch is 20 miles away.
I could pay in there if I fancied a road trip. The cheques would clear quicker but its cash flow vs profitability.
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Nothing wrong with cheques.
Easiest way of sending it, handy if they're short of cash, and you can't spend it, so always money in the bank.
If you can't cope with business charges there's something wrong. Cost of running a business.
30p a cheque? If you are paying that then there is definitely something wrong. Your bank is ripping you off.
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Got my Alliance & Leicester account open now but I've just found out they want £100 a year to set up an overdraft.
I only wanted the overdraft for peace of mind, mainly during switch over to the new account.
Think I'll leave the overdraft.
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Got my Alliance & Leicester account open now but I've just found out they want £100 a year to set up an overdraft.
I only wanted the overdraft for peace of mind, mainly during switch over to the new account.
Think I'll leave the overdraft.
Yeah they offered me that too. RBS charges the same.
Theiving scumbags.
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its unreal aint it, i remember bk in 2005 i was with barclays they charged me 5 quid a month and if i use the over draft to much it was another 15 :-[