Protest Payments by Cheque

[Crissy]

What is the most effective way of making a protest when paying by cheque? Does anyone have any good examples? And are there any legal implications of paying 'imaginatively'? All thoughts appreciated!

[pinus]

A P Herbert once paid his income tax using a cheque written on the side of a cow

[stevie21]

Include a letter of complaint & request a copy of their complaints procedure - most companies are required to respond to you within a set period of time. You could then reply with a threat to take them to whichever ombudsman covers their sector. Whether you win or lose, it tends to cost companies a lot of money to go to the ombudsman. By the sounds of things, though, you've accepted the decision to pay a disputed bill and just want to cause a stir :(

[AllYourBase]

Companies sometimes have to pay a fee to pay in a cheque with the bank, so it may be worth writing hundreds of small cheques out, just to P them off. Alternatively, you could date it for the first day of the next financial year. What about getting a pen and spoiling the electronic account no/sort code information so they have to manually process. When I was a student I was involved in a mass protest payment of rent to the Uni (as a result of an inflation busting rent rise). We all paid the entire amounts in 10p pieces (bear in mind hundreds of students paying in what I think was about �500 each) took the clerical staff hours to cheque and lug around. Finally, I seem to recall that if you send a cheque for the wrong value and it is cashed, it is considered to be a done deal. This may be an urban myth, but it is worth trying out. Try sending one for 21p when it should be 21 pounds or such like. You never know!

[Jeanalesi]

Change your name to something offensive to the institution, a read about a guy who changed his to Barclay's Bank are Fascist ********, so every cheque was a little insult from him. That is quite extreme, you might want to think about the long term consequences here.

[stevie21]

Sending a cheque for 21p rather than �21 only means that the debt is reduced by 21p - it's not an agreement that it's thought of as a final payment. It would be a right pain in the @ss to have loads of cheques for tiny amounts. A pain for both parties, I'd imagine. Also, if you post-date a cheque, the company can still cash it. The date on a cheque only invalidates it if it is 6 months out of date - a future date is as valid as a current one with my bank. Finally, if you spoil the cheque in any way ("electronic a/c number") - the company may just ask for another cheque and charge you extra for interest/late payment.

[londondave]

I think any item written out as a cheque has to be accepted as long as it carries your correct bank details. I rem the guy who wrote out his poll tax bill on a banana and a guy who wrote out a cheque on a brick.

[badhorsey]

Paying a debt in hundreds of cheques or coins will **** off the clerical staff all right - but these are likely to be the lowest paid workers in the bank. The people who you have the dispute with won't care about that. A good one is when the bank sends you a postage paid envelope. The bank is charged for the amount of postage, so glue it to something heavy, like an anvil or a paving slab.

[Canib]

When there is a discrepency between the amount you write in numeric form and the amount written in script (words), it is the words that are considered to be definitive. If you write 1000.00 in the number section and "one hundred" in script, the check will be entered for 1000.00 but you can challenge it and it will be changed to 100. That should leave everyone severely cheesed off.

[WendyS]

This is a very belated response as I have only just come across your posting. Several years ago we joined a mass protest about our local authority's massive rates increase and when we were eventually forced to pay up, we painted a replica of a cheque with the correct cheque number & sort code on the inside of a chamber pot & decorated the exterior with angry comments about the council's profligacy. Since our bank manager had been consulted in advance (& even given us advice on what information to include) they were forced to accept the "cheque" and when it eventually passed through the bank's clearing system it was returned to us.! We got our pictures in the local paper and the Council definitely didn't like it !! Would love to know what you did in the end.