Sir, The idea of ceasing to use cheques must have been thought out by young, mobile, computer literate people who do not believe that they will ever grow old (letters, Dec 18).

I am 80 years old and, unusually for someone of my age, do almost all my shopping online. For me, cheques are nothing to do with buying things from shops. They are so that my nine grandchildren, who all live along way from me, can be sent birthday and Christmas money. They are for when I ask an electrician or plumber to come and do a repair, and it turns out to be more expensive than I bargained for, I can pay him. They are so that I can manage without having to hold large sums of money in my home in case of emergencies.

The suggestions about mobile phones being the answer to everything is not for us. Our eyesight isn’t good enough to text, even if we knew how to do it.

I am at a loss to visualise any real alternatives to a cheque book.

Loraine Brown
Weymouth, Dorset

Sir, As a member of a rural church congregation, it is often convenient to slip a cheque into our Gift Aid envelope when notes of a suitable denomination are not to hand. In future additional verses will need to be added to the offertory hymn as the church warden makes slow progress along the pews while we punch our PIN into his handheld terminal.

chris hughes

Coed-y-Paen, Gwent

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