I know it's partly my fault but I can't be bothered to constantly check my bank to ensure people are paying. I suppose i'm just too trusting and assume poeple will be honest themselves.
Partly your fault? I'd say that's
completely your fault. Can you think of anyone who would do anything for you, or sell you anything, then just assume that you'd paid it without checking? Of course not.
I have a separate bank account that customers pay into. I download all the transactions every morning. I then assign the payments to the customers and clear the account. This was advised to me as the safest way by my bank manager, it means that the bank details that I give to customers is for an account that has a balance of 0 most of the time.
It also makes it much easier to stay on top of who has paid and who hasn't.
I much prefer cheque in the post and mark it off my customer database, it's much less time consuming.
Bacs payments / standing orders etc is going to be how most people pay in the not too distant future. I'd bet there already are a few shiners that collect most of their income in direct payments. Also Bacs payments are free, pushing your profit margin in the right direction.
I'd get on top of it if I were you.