Fingerprint recognition in schools

[Ian Batten]

On 05 Oct 08, at 1046, David Hansen wrote:

> On 5 Oct 2008 at 9:18, Ian Batten wrote:
>
>> parents whose
>> children are already in the school are heartily sick of the fact that
>> payment has to be made by cheque,
>
> Why are they?


Because when daughter shouts ``I need some money for lunch'' as we're  
all heading out of the house in the morning (for extra points on a day  
when other daughter needs to be taken early), it means ferreting  
around for a cheque book, writing a cheque, and then her going to the  
other end of the school when she gets there in order to pay it in.

Alternatively, I can just stick some money in online with a debit card  
when I get to work, making things much easier for everyone.

Cheques are over.  It may be that for a tiny minority they still have  
an appeal --- although I'd have thought pieces of paper with name,  
sort code and account number on the front, a good example of your  
signature, and either your address or your debit card number written  
on the back would be regarded as a bit worrying --- but for most of  
the population they're an archaic nuisance.  Remember: one thing M&S  
did to restore their high-street sales was to stop insisting that cash  
and cheques were the only means of payment they'd accept.

About the only people we write cheques to are schools (trips, lunches,  
peripatetics, etc) and in every case doing an on-line transfer would  
be easier and cheaper for all parties concerned. And it always comes  
in clusters one larger than the new cheque book ordering threshold,  
too; I think last week's highspot was five cheques in a morning.

Extra idiocy points to the woman in Waitrose last week, loudly telling  
everything that as cheques were legal tender she intended to keep  
paying with them and would call the police if shops refused to accept  
them.   It's quite a trifecta to (a) not understand what legal tender  
means (b) not know that cheques aren't, and never were, legal tender  
and (c) not understand how legal tender would be enforced.

ian