A cheque is a paper voucher for money that people use in lieu of cash. Cheques are used by people and financial institutions to settle payments so long as the parties are legal entities.Cheques have been on the decline lately as their role is being taken up by debit cards, credit cards, telephone banking and other forms of online banking. They are also costly for banks as the costs involved in cheque printing are enormous. As a result banks are actively discouraging there use by promoting the other alternative forms of payment. However there are transactions which involve huge sums of money in which a cheque would be suitable as the form of payment. The most common types of cheques are:
Personal cheques.
These are cheques that involve personal accounts and not corporate entities. They have a pre-written name and address of authorized persons who can write the cheque in the upper left corner. The only person who can cash a cheque is the person named on “the pay to the order of”line.However the person can sign on the endorsee block at the back of the cheque and allow the bearer to cash it.
Cashiers cheques/bank cheque
Bank cheque is a cheque issued by a bank on its own account for a customer to pay to a third party.Cheques for business is the most common under this category.
Traveller cheques
This is used by travelers in foreign countries to pay for goods and services.It mitigates against the risk of carrying a lot of cash.