Card transactions by proxy

[Roland Perry]

In article <8364 at iapetus.plus.com>, Laurence Taylor 
<laurence at iapetus.plus.com> writes
>> My council closed their "cash office" for good last Friday. Although it
>> also took cheques, and Credit Cards for a £2 fee.
>>
>> Apparently, if I want to pay in person now, I have to find a PayPoint,
>> but I doubt they take cheques and certainly don't take debit or credit
>> cards.
>
>Put your cheque (or, I suppose, card number) in an envelope, deal
>it, and hand it in at the front desk.

I don't really call that "paying in person" as its really just the same 
as sticking the cheque in the post (which is still allowed).

>I've done this with more than one organisation that claimed they
>couldn't take payments over the counter, and it never failed.

At my council you'd have to run away immediately. If you give something 
to the front desk they open it and try to engage you in conversation. In 
this case I expect it would be to try to hand it back (on the grounds 
that they don't have a cash office any more).

The last time I tried the front desk it was delivering a letter saying I 
was moving, and needed to claim an "empty house" discount. Some councils 
won't accept this post-dated, so time is of the essence.

They said I couldn't do that by letter, and had to see someone who would 
fill in a form for me. But they didn't have the form handy and could I 
wait. As I was in a hurry I said I couldn't (the last time I waited for 
something similar, it was about half an hour all told). And I ran away. 
What happened next was that they posted me the form, presumably still in 
denial that I had given them the notice they needed, in the letter.

>One of them even posted me a (n unrequested) receipt!

It's the receipt-in-person I'm most wanting for Council tax. I've seen 
cheques applied to the wrong account before now, and that's the sort of 
muddle I'm trying to head off.
-- 
Roland Perry