How many £s does it take to cash a 1p cheque?
Talking of small change…last week I received this cheque in the mail for a single penny.
I had to check it twice just to make sure that it was actually a 1-penny cheque.
I cannot help wondering how many man-hours have been wasted (and are going to be wasted) on issuing and processing this cheque.
My estimate is around 2-man hours (at least) which translates into well over £12 (or $24) at the minimum wage rate in UK.
Any one else cares to venture a guess?
Long live the “traditional” way of doing business!
P.S. Coincidentally came across this BBC report which suggests that “the cost to a bank of processing a cheque was 44p” (Note that this is simply the cost to the bank – it does not include cost to the issuer and the beneficiary – in terms of time).
This site suggests that the cost of “processing paper cheques” may be as much as “between $15 to $25″. Wow.
