Aldi compressor ...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Anyone who accepts a cheque can surely also accept an electronic transfer

- unless they're using the local pub to handle their cheques?

[Arfa Daily]

Well, if you ask me, using negative information to convey positive information, is a pretty stupid way of going about things ... If they are going to be a pikey shop that won't take credit cards from the zombies, they should have a bloody great sign up on the door that says so !

Arfa

[Arfa Daily]

I have to admit that M&S food is perhaps not quite as good as it used to be, but I still find most of it to be of superior quality to the average supermarket offerings. The main things that I like about Waitrose is that they have decent sized aisles that are not continuously full of shelf stackers, and the staff are superbly trained in customer service, and are the politest and most helpful you will find anywhere. And I know it sounds snobby, but the 'class' of people that you get in there are so much different from those to be found elsewhere, probably because they have this (quite wrong as it happens) perception that it is an expensive supermarket for food. I love that I can go into my local branch, and not have my senses assaulted by screaming and ill behaved kids charging around, and their noisy ill behaved parents screaming at them and charging around after them ... :-|

Arfa

[Alan]

But do you also have to factor in when the money is transferred. With a debit card the money may get transferred within hours. How long do the CC company hang on before transferring the money?

[Tim Streater]

Not relevant to my post about Giro.

That's what we're talking about, isn't it? How to pay money into the accts of such as TMH if there are no cheques and you can't/don't do internet banking?

Ta, I'll look that up.

[Tim Streater]

I also meant to mention, in talking about Giro in Switzerland, that at the epoch in question no one used cheques (or extremely rarely, I used one perhaps two in 12 years), and this was *well* before the Internet.

[Huge]

There's no such thing as "perfectly secure". What you need is "acceptably secure". And that's quite straightforward, if a little tedious.

[Dave Liquorice]

That was posted before your reference to Giro. In explantion as to possible security problems of giving out ones sort code and account number.

No this bit of the thread has drifted over to the security of your own account/money if you give out your sort code/account number.

[Dave Liquorice]

True but how doe Mrs Miggins who doesn't do/want/understand internet/online/telephone banking how do they pay when cheques are phased out?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I only use the old Acorn for online banking. The chances of anyone bothering to write a 'bug' or whatever to capture my keystrokes on that are pretty remote. And I don't store passwords etc on it.

[Huge]

All very sensible.

[Bob Eager]

I'll have to start using the VAX....!

[Andy Burns]

Well obviously the cheque has the customer's bank details on it, rather than the supplier's, but in terms of fraud in general, a cheque has a sample signature on it too ...

[Tim Streater]

Dave, you need to keep up better. Yes, I made a security post and it was rightly pointed out to me that cheques have the same info and your signature anyway. So, end of story.

I then remembered my experience if living in Geneva and how we paid bills there where no-one used cheques but every organisation to which anyone might like to pay money, plus probably many private citizens, had Giro accts at the PO. I posted about that and it is what this subthread is now about.

[Steve Firth]

I ensure that all of my banking access is via Mr Babbage's difference engine. The advantage is that it is slightly more modern than an Acorn.

[Huge]

I suspect anything other than IE on Wintel is a major step in the right direction. Obscure processors (so as not to be able to run shell code) and minority browsers (so as not to be worth exploiting bugs) are also a good idea. Another good idea might be a single-shot VM, which you discard after each session, if you could be arsed.

[Huge]

Isn't having to go to the Science Museum to do your Internet banking a bit of a bore?

[Bob Eager]

[Tim Streater]

Or not using Windows at all, which is the best solution.

[djc]

if you prefer Lego