Note that this is an old article. iZettle let me down badly and I switched to PayPal in 2015. Apart from that, the comments are still valid.
Back in September I wrote that I had acquired the ability/facility to take take credit and debit card payments from pupils in the car, thanks to my iZettle chip & pin 
card reader. It has been a real boon, and has saved me a lot of money in various ways. In an earlier article, I explained how I nearly went for the PayPal reader, but sent it back because PayPal couldn’t make up their mind how the system worked, and so convinced me the service was next to useless.
Being able to take card payments was something I’d wanted to do for the last ten years or so, but until this new – and long overdue – series of devices became available the cost was just too prohibitive, and the services far from convenient.
When it comes to taking payments from people, by far the biggest pain in the neck for the sole trader is the cheque. These have been used since the 17th Century (there is evidence that similar systems were in use as far back as 300BC). The problem is that the method of honouring a cheque has hardly changed in all that time. They are cumbersome and – if one bounces – a major headache. For me, the worst part was having to go and pay them in to a physical bank. The fact that it had to be MY physical bank was just as bad, as was the length of time they took to clear.
It made me smile, therefore, when I saw this story on the BBC’s website. There are plans – well, proposals – to allow you to take a photo of your cheque using your smartphone, and send it in electronically. Cheques will clear in two days rather than the current six. The thing is, they COULD make cheques clear in two days right now – something which should have been implemented years ago.
Apparently, this system of using smartphones has been possible in the USA for the last decade. I didn’t know that, and it makes the situation over here even more annoying. Britain seems to deliberately want to keep itself in the dark ages with some things, which is evidenced by the apparent u-turn on abolishing cheques altogether as a result of “public opposition” (read: “from the Luddites”).
Barclays is going to be trialling the service from early in 2014. But there are already rumblings from people about branch closures as a result.
People in this country need to get a grip and stop keep rattling on about the past. Banks are a major pain in the backside and always have been. As far as I am concerned, you either put money in or take money out, and that takes a few minutes at the most (which could be a few seconds if banks weren’t so bloody inefficient). But unless you’re the only one in there, every other customer is guaranteed to be a total prat who will keep the cashier occupied for 15 minutes over something stupid.
We should be going for instant money transfer systems, and a merger of individual financial systems so that you can access your account anywhere.
Thankfully, the days of the cheque are gone for me. Anyone who has a cheque book will have a chip & pin card, so they can pay me using that through my iZettle.