Next Monday, the ANZ will become New Zealand’s second major bank to halt all transactions involving cheques.
The ANZ will follow Kiwibank’s lead – it shelved cheques in February – and the BNZ, Westpac and the ASB will have all have halted cheque processing by late August.
Cheques have been on the outer for decades now with transactions falling steeply since the mid-1990’s.
Getting rid of cheques appears to make sense – or does it?
Electronic banking maybe king of the online world but cheques are now almost solely the domain of our elderly.
And therein lies the rub.
Age Concern says many of its clients are too old or simply unable to cope with the demands of online banking.
It’s calling on banks to show some leniency towards elderly customers who have been unable to adapt to online technology or are without adequate support to manage.
Age Concern CEO, Kevin Lamb says elderly people who are isolated or without family to help them are struggling to cope.
With the scaling down of cheque services now well underway, Claire Matthews from Massey University says a back down by the banks is unlikely.
The low number of cheques now being presented makes the processing fees unworkable for the banks.
Claire Matthews says the following options are available to those looking to adapt to banking without cheques:
Automatic payments
• For regular payments, even things like power (eg Meridian offers Levelpay – see here )
• The bank can help with setting these up
Direct debits
• Older customers, in particular, have tended to avoid these but for regular payments with variable amounts, eg power, phone, they are good.
• The account tells you when the payment will be made and for how much.
• The company being paid can assist in getting these set up
Scheme debit cards, eg. Westpac’s Debit Mastercard ( see here )
• Can be used anywhere a Mastercard can be used.
• Unlike a credit card, the money being spent is the customer’s own.
• Can be used for phone transactions as well as by post.
• The bank can assist with issuing one of these.
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