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Just a rant about DVLA's old-fashioned bureaucratic procedures....

I've sold my car. It was taxed up until next August. I used their online procedure to notify the transfer/sale to the new Keeper. They confirm it, all goes smoothly. And they will refund me the tax from the end October until next August.

The refund arrives promptly enough, £120. I was beginning to be impressed with their efficiency. But it's a cheque. A cheque!!! Who uses cheques nowadays? What am I supposed to do with a cheque! (Rhetorical rant, I do know what I have to do but it's a real pain in the backside). I paid the tax by Direct Debit, they have my up to date Debit Card details, so why on earth couldn't they just credit the refund to the card I originally paid it with? Grrr.

Some online bank accounts (e,g, NatWest) allow one to pay it in online with a photograph of the cheque.

As do Lloyds.

Natwest suggested to me that, after paying the cheque in via their App, you write confirmation of the transaction on the cheque in case you forget and try to pay it in twice.
Mind you cheques are as rare as hen's teeth now so forgetting is unlikely.

If you don't have an app that'll let you scan in cheques, and you can't get to a bank branch (all closed now where I live!) or banking hub, most (all?) of the major banks allow you to deposit cheques at your nearest Post Office.

Just to share something the counter clerk at my bank told me when I went and paid the cheque in this morning in branch (one of the traditional High Street banks - fortunately there is still one near me).

I was bemoaning that DVLA still issue cheques and she told me they see very few cheques paid in nowadays and that the largest single source of them is the DVLA. Seems DVLA could be single handedly keeping the cheque system alive!

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