> I still think this cheques system is weird: you write on a piece of
> paper, which you give to someone else, who takes it to her bank, which
> reads it, and forwards the request to your bank, to transfer money to
> her bank, at which point your bank might find that you don't have that
> amount of money in your account. 
right, but if combined with a cheque gaurantee card then the gaurantee card company will chase it and take most of the risk off the merchant.

alternatively they can set a debt collection agency on you.

its not as solid as a card system that can be checked in real time but its pretty much the next best thing for those situations in which cards are impractical (e.g. small buisnesses who don't wan't to invest in the kit/pay the card fees, payments to private individuals etc)



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