A cheque or check (US spelling) is used as a method of payment instead of using cash or a credit or debit card. It is a piece of paper that contains information including your bank account number and sort code with the instructions for a certain amount of money to come out of your bank account to pay the named person or organisation named on the cheque.
As the person writing the cheque does not have to produce any cash when paying by cheque, it is often a useful way of paying for goods by post or when you do not want to hand over a huge amount of cash. This is because the payee, the person or organization to which the money is being paid to, is the only person able to cash the cheque. In this case, even if the cheque does fall into the wrong hands, it cannot be cashed by them as they are not the payee named on the cheque.
Cheques are like a type of bill of exchange and they were originally introduced to make it easier and safer to make payments without having to carry huge amounts of money around with you.
In recent years this method of payment has become less popular as other electronic payment methods such as the use of debit and credit cards have become more prevalent.
As the person writing the cheque does not have to produce any cash when paying by cheque, it is often a useful way of paying for goods by post or when you do not want to hand over a huge amount of cash. This is because the payee, the person or organization to which the money is being paid to, is the only person able to cash the cheque. In this case, even if the cheque does fall into the wrong hands, it cannot be cashed by them as they are not the payee named on the cheque.
Cheques are like a type of bill of exchange and they were originally introduced to make it easier and safer to make payments without having to carry huge amounts of money around with you.
In recent years this method of payment has become less popular as other electronic payment methods such as the use of debit and credit cards have become more prevalent.
