Hi! I have a a Brit pick type question for you, if you have time and interest in answering (of course absolutely no issue if you don't). I try to be relatively accurate in my writing, but this is something googling hasn't been helpful with. How do you think Holmes and Watson would accept payment for their services these days? In TBB, they are paid by cheque, but would that be true for most clients today? In Canada (where I am), they would very likely be paid via e-transfer and cheques have become pretty rare (even the government has made the switch exclusively to direct deposits except in very specific cases). But e-transfers don't seem to be popular in the US (I have no idea what Venmo is, but it seems to serve a similar purpose?). What about the UK? Would the days of a client stopping by Baker Street to drop of a cheque be over?
In the UK, bank transfers are the norm for high-value bills or invoices.
Cheques have declined in use (but saw a sudden upsurge when Covid closed all the branches). Electronic/phone/online banking is increasingly popular (certainly with the banks as it's a lot cheaper).
In 2007, around one-third of the British population used online banking, which increased up to over 90 percent as of 2022.
Attempts by banks to stop the use of paper cheques have been resisted by citizen advice and Age Concern UK, as there is a generation out there that still wants to do it that way.
Interestingly, despite working in banking for half of my career, I will use cheques when I can't get into a branch to use their machines for a bank transfer (or have a bill to pay that is over the machine limit). I don't do online or phone banking because I don't use a phone much these days and I am wary of computer and phone hacking.
So, Sherlock and John would need to be able to invoice and include their bank details for transfers - if they charge clients.
