BristolUK

Back in 2008 there was a thread about whether Canada was generally a bit out of date (banking came up) and there was another in 2010 http://britishexpats.com/forum/canad...-up-uk-647018/ specifically about banking.
The apparent "need" for void cheques came up in both.

Today I got my quarterly water bill with an invitation for pre-authorised payments. So I may "never miss a payment" which I've not done anyway.

It was only 3 or 4 years ago that payment of property tax in NB was allowed monthly instead of having to pay all in one go.

Due to variations (and sometimes unreliability ) in the dates my income has been paid over the years I have actually preferred to have the choice of when to pay as well as whether to pay by debit card or credit card and even which credit card according to statement date.

Anyway, whether I complete "the enclosed form" or print one off and mail either of them, or email one or attend the office I have to provide a void cheque.

Why?

They've even shown a cheque with circles around the required numbers with a space for me to write those numbers, so by looking at one of my cheques I can identify my numbers and enter them in the space provided.

But I must still provide a void cheque.

Why?

Worse, the form says payment will be made on the date on the enclosed bill so please ensure it gets there 20 working days before the due date. It's already too late.

And as if that wasn't enough, it says payment will be taken (there is definitely no option) either monthly or quarterly.

That's quite an important detail missing. Budget for a monthly payment and find triple the amount is requested (on a date yet to be identified ) so two opportunities for an insufficient funds penalty.

I'm sticking with flexibility.

scrubbedexpat091

Only thing I do pre authorized payments for is ICBC because they force us to in order to get monthly payments.

The other bills, I pay online manually.

I never provide a cheque for direct stuff, just the relevant account numbers and branch numbers they need.

Teaandtoday5

I switched to paying monthly last year. So far this year I haven't had the annual assessment notice, just an interim letter saying they will take payments of about $30 less per month than last year. I can't help thinking that it's related to the property revaluations they did last year, and I am not looking forward to when they finally decide on the total bill.

magnumpi

I hate pre authorized payments too, if there is any disputes regarding the fee it's taken anyhow and up to the payee to get it back. I prefer to pay when I want with any means I feel like at the time

dave_j

Q. What is the prupose of issuing a void cheque?

I can only think of two reasons. The first is an attempt to verify who you are and the second is to ensure that bank account details are provided correctly.

I recently wanted to open a link to a financial institution for the purpose of transferring money. For some reason the receiving institution requested a void cheque. Being tight fisted I don't deal with cheques because I don't like giving banks any more cash than I need to. Fortunately the bank I deal with provides a function to print a void cheque from their website once you are logged in securely. So printed one and sent it off and receiving institution declined to accept it.

Another institution I dealt with accepted a printed void cheque without question.

It's chaos out there and I think that some people are so poorly trained that they just don't understand what's going on and why things are done the way they are and understand only.. 'Well that's the way we've always done it.'

Is this called progress? I think not.

BristolUK

If you are a new customer, the first might have some relevance.

In the earlier thread - before the email/interac option was available - I wanted to transfer some money to my wife's bank account in readiness for a bill payment. Same bank, same two customers they had been dealing with for years. They wanted a void cheque for her.
Instead, I took both our cards to the bank machine, withdrew cash from mine and put it in hers. It was the only way in the time available.

In the case of the water company, they've been sending me a bill four times every year since 2005 for our home and four times a year from 2005-16 for a rental property. I've paid them all and now they want to verify who I am?

I can understand they want correct details. Does this mean that UK banks and other organisations that don't want a void cheque - Canada Revenue springs to mind as they didn't need one for GST credits - don't mind having incorrect details?

I can only see two possibilities. One is that some of the organisations are just ridiculously fussy or Canadians are more likely to get it wrong.

But how can you get this wrong when it's drawn for you and there's a space to write the numbers?

What about "if you're not sure, you can always send us a void cheque."