Date   : Wed, 29 Jun 2005 15:53:38 +0100
From   : "Colin" <cwhill@...>
Subject: Re: Off Topic trader warning

Yes I remember the old Eurocheques well. They worked exactly the same way
and were accepted throughout Europe (including the UK). Very handy if you
were travelling to more than one country (you had to get travellers cheques
fir the country you were in or have to go to a bank to have them converted)
Of course, they withdrew them and replaced them with zilch!
Interesting that they have still to set up a central clearing house which
was one of the arguments for free trade and the establishment of a single
currency and the scrapping of Eurocheques. Anyone bother to ask anyone else
before the decision was taken I wonder?
Paypal makes good sense (just charge a little extra to cover the costs) or
simply secure credit card sales for businesses.
I use them a lot with the States at the moment thanks to the good old
exchange rate (I just got a DVD plus postage for £4). I wonder if it is good
against the Euro.
Ah well, back to the Beeb I suppose.
Colin Hill

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Kortink" <kortink@...>
To: <bbc-micro@...>
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2005 1:48 PM
Subject: Re: [BBC-Micro] Off Topic trader warning


On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 13:17:14 +0100, "Colin" wrote:

>Yup that's right. You can't issue a cheque in Euros from a UK sterling bank
>account. It will almost certainly "bounce" in the sense that the UK bank
>would not honour it (if the clerk knows what he/she is doing). Cheques
drawn
>on normal UK banks (ie normal cheque accounts) have to be expressed in
>sterling only. This comes from 24 years of me working in the banking sector
>and I have had to do the same with dozens of cheques that had,
>half-heartedly, been accepted by banks in Europe and elsewhere. This was
the
>tip of the iceberg as most of them were refused when trying to be deposited
>abroad. I don't think that applies to the Euro countries now (that was one
>of the reasons for the standardised currency)but don't take my word for
that
>as I retired a few years before the Euro came in and it may not be in force
>yet. Certainly the Euro is still regarded as a foreign currency in the UK
>though.

In the olden days, when we had Eurocheques here in the
Netherlands, we could simply specify the currency. Dollars,
pounds, whatever. Dutch banks would eventually simply convert
to Dutch guilders at the then current exchange rate, and charge
that to the account.

Much the same, I presume, in all other European countries.
Except, obviously, the eternal island-hugging UK and a number
of other foreign countries.

In any way, cheques have always been a pain in the proverbial
to cash, charge-wise, time-wise. If you buy globally, think
globally ! Use PayPal. And forget about your little local
chequebooks full of little paper flaps with kiwis, statue
of liberty, tower of pisa or otherwise on them.


John Kortink

-- 

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