Phasing out cheques, and what will happen to cash?

I am in my 80s. My eyesight is poor and I don't have a mobile phone. Cheques are much the safest method of payment. It is an example of age discrimination to ban cheques. The government should keep allowing them. The main users are older, & will die off fairly soon anyway.

My son wanted money for his 21st. We wanted to give him a generous amount, but not by bank transfer, not in cash and not with some pre-loaded card. So into his birthday card went a cheque. It was something physical to present from the family for his special occasion. After I explained what a cheque was he happily took it to the bank to deposit into his account. He even took a photo of it.

So much for democracy ! It is a farce !

Back to Gold , please .

Yours , Ramon .

Regarding retailers charging a credit card surcharge, I've never seen the justification. Merchants make considerable savings by not having to handle money. Anyone who has worked in retail would know the time and effort of managing cash is significant - banking after hours, managing a float, till reconciliations, the security issues of handling cash during the day, theft possibilities - the list goes on. Paying 1.5% to a billing company to make all those problems go away seems like a good business decision. But then charging the customers on top of that is double dipping and unjustified. Maybe we should ask for a discount for using a credit card.

Extrapolating the trendlines from the RBA graph appears to indicate that cash usage will reach zero by 2025. As others have indicated, a cashless society may be all well and good when it works as advertised, however when bushfires visited our part of the country a while ago we had firsthand experience of trying to cope with modern life without electricity for several days. Besides no household electricity to charge phones (car charger was an option for some), there were no streetlights, traffic lights, petrol pumps or grocery stores operating. The supermarkets had backup generators for their chillers full of perishables but were not open for business. Of the 40 or so local eateries only a handful, mostly Asian, were operating, presumably because most wok cooking is done with gas. As for communications, as far as I know Telstra mobile and copper landlines were operating, Vodafone and NBN were not. As a result, only cash transactions were available but the catch for those without cash on hand was that ATMs were offline. In addition, some households with solar power were no better off than the ones without as their solar systems still required some grid power to operate. Having lived overseas where backup generators and universal power supplies (about the size and cost of a car battery) are ubiquitous it was interesting to note that, of the businesses here that provide fairly necessary supplies and services, very few of them have backup power supplies. The Chinese Communist Party long ago recognised the importance of encouraging cashless transactions. When matched with personal details the CCP assigns each citizen a social score which is influenced by what products and services show up on the customer's transaction record. This in turn determines what services the citizen is allowed to access and what charges, taxes, and fines are applied. The CCP is thus able to influence and control their citizens' behaviour, while dissidents can have their lives suitably restricted. When the shooting starts in earnest with Russia/North Korea/Iran/China, etc. resulting in destruction of satellite and sub-marine communications, and their hackers get busy disrupting the programmable logic controllers on our critical infrastructure (which they have already demonstrated), we may begin to question the wisdom of the race to widespread digitalisation of our lives without a plan B.

I have met Noel Whittaker at one of the conferences I organised many years ago, and valued his comments then as I do now. I must admit that the removal of cheques will not worry me unduly, but the lack of customer service in our financial institutions, closure of branches with a "real person" and the denial by some retailers/businesses to refuse to take cash (which is still legal tender in our country) riles me greatly. It seems that me that consumers have less and less say about how they consume, interact or trade. Last year, when the Optus outage caused severe hardship to many businesses and annoyance to Optus' customers, one very happy retailer in Kingscliffe NSW was thrilled to take my cash for an item I wanted......she said it was the only sale she had made that day! Would not even cover her rent I'd wager! Luckily the item actually had a physical price ticket on it too!!! And, as I've read in previous comments, what happens when our country is subject to cyber attacks on our financial system, and we will be, not to mention all of the computer driven services that keep our country going? On a small scale, that also applies to POS machines in shops which, if they are fully computerised, cannot even tell you the price of an item, let alone allow you to use any method to pay for such item. Sorry to be a Prophet of Doom, but I think the efficiency boffins should be careful what they wish for!

Very good and valuable comments on here.
Of course, the likes of direct debits, credit cards and digital wallets on smart phones etc all encourage indiscriminate spending which is what big business wants. Plus awful surprises when the monthly bill comes in.
This is based on the song 'Old Macdonalds Farm' - so sing along.
"
My young nephew has a smartphone,
E I E I O
And on that smartphone he has a digital wallet,
E I E I O
With a ding ding here, a ding ding there,
Everywhere a ding ding - E I E I O

Clearly all governments, Liberal, Labour, Country Party plus Green, Teal and independent wanabees are there not as your representative but there to push an agenda that is all about control. In every aspect of life now you have the animal farm pigs leading us to the knackery.

The Government/ Treasury could not believe their luck when covid struck and every one in retail was encouraged to refuse cash, insisting on contactless payment. This occurrence took 5 plus years off the long term plan of the Treasury to convert the population to a totally cashless society and enabling the authorities to track the population`s every move and spending habits. I see Bob Katter was a victim recently of the cashless society in Federal Parliament when the cafeteria staff refused to accept cash payment for a meal.

The suggestion that cheques are more susceptible to fraud is a real crock. Credit cards take the prize on this one - just check the stats!

Your 100% right !!

Absolutely correct! 3 ways to defraud by cheque vs how many electronically?

I intend to be the very last person in this country to still be using cash.
The card surcharge is meaningless to me.
And every bank/internet outage makes me laugh.

if i said ill give you a 1.5% or 2% paycut , would that be alright ?? i bet not. Yet, people use the cards and pay that on every transaction !! what is wrong with people ?? anyway, its all about control and data aquisiton.
we have enough scams as it is now !

Actually, a relatively small proportion of credit card transactions attract a card fee at point of sale.

Annoying perhaps, but at this point anyway, hardly "every transaction" - and people understand that, and so there's nothing "wrong with people ??"

Often smallish businesses with no direct competition selling exactly the same product.

It's not keeping me up at night, nor most other people, I'd think.

More and more businesses are charging a fee - airlines, councils, restaurants, ticket agencies, small shops such as Bakers Delight, it’s starting to be unusual when a business doesn’t charge

well, if your not paying a surcharge, then youre already paying for it in increased cost of goods. maybe, there should be a cash discount , then cash users wouldnt be paying for card transactions !

Hey everyone, just because of a paragraph in this piece about cash doesn't mean that anyone in authority is seriously considering getting rid of it. Cheques are dead and buried, but cash will still be used for as long and as much as people choose to use it. The issue is that fewer and fewer do use it. Like me - I rarely have a note or coin on me these days as I've got no use for them. But I'm not everyone.

Consequences if we go cashless:- the card companies (Visa, Amex, Mastercard) will raise their charges for transactions, AND those charges are levied already on the vendor/business as well as the consumer. Watch the prices rise all over!

Cash is legal tender in this country and should by law, be accepted everywhere without argument.

Companies that choose to go cashless without giving the ability to pay cash instead, should have no rights to charge a surcharge on Electronic or Card payments.

Their choice to go cashless, they wear the costs associated, not the consumer.

For those who want to keep using cash, it is necessary to note that it costs folk money to give you that pleasure, so be prepared to pay for it.

The fewer of you contributing to that cost, the higher your share will be and so the cost will rise for you.

These are some of the costs to a business receiving cash.
*Having the right amount of change for anyone who proffers a high denomination note for a small purchase (even given the legal restrictions on just how big it can be). This encourages armed robberies, which seem to have increased of late - even for getting small amounts of cash.
* getting any surplus cash into a bank branch is not trivial, given the reduction in branches.
* getting the surplus cash away from the business to the car is a stressful exercise as one is very vulnerable, especially if one has much in the way of coins.
* likewise arriving with the funds for the til.
* the risk of being passed a forged note. In a busy shop this is quite possible.
These risks can be mitigated (but not eliminated) hiring a security firm.

The same risks apply to a bank but on a much larger scale.

There is a problem even for banks moving money to and from branches as the security firms are not making enough from the work. There is an application to the ACCC to allow the banks to cooperate on pricing so as to keep them solvent.

If using electronic pay saves the business owner all that trouble with cash, they should absorb the cost from profits not pass on to consumers. It's a small price to pay for their own benefit.

Whether you accept cash or not, of your preferred position is non cash transactions, you pay for it.

I think you will find that if a business goes cashless it cannot legally impose a card surcharge and I have never come across one that did.

Funny to note that I was (un)lucky enough to be working in banking when they made us start charging the clients for depositing coins. As you can appreciate lots of businesses would take in great amounts of coins. For cost recovery banks started charging for sorting coins and also for 'bagging up' and providing large amounts of coins to businesses. Charging money to provide you with money, and charging you money to take your money. Classic!!!

Fyshwick is an industrial suburb here in Canberra. It used to have a branch of each of the four big banks. Now all have gone.
With the exception of certain takeaway establishments, no business in Fyshwick takes cash in payment for goods or services, because as they say, they can't get rid of it.

The banks have had a social licence for almost 150 years or more. They have total disregard for the needs of consumers and the arrogance is just unbelievable. Shareholder value is king and no one in the banks gives a fig.

Wherever that these people control our lives for too long.

Bill, was Canberra affected by a business- day length of outage late last year? Few with cash to use, bakery /takeaway interviewed, estimate $10,000 takings foregone plus cost of waste unsold food prepared for service.

My wife is one of well over 1 million people who, according to the Macular Degeneration Foundation, suffer from this disorder and cannot read small print so is unable to use a computer or smart phone and therefore cannot use internet banking. She uses cash as most of the other sufferers do, I would imagine. She has never been scammed and, when power outages occur, she can still shop. She can always track her spending and that is rare for people who use credit cards or smart phones for purchases. charity raffles, buskers, children's stalls at markets and the tooth fairy among a host of other worthy causes.
How will people like her manage if cash is phased out? What alternatives is the Government proposing to provide people such as her if cash is discontinued? I am surprised that you would support this trend Noel.

My apologies. The sentence beginning with charity raffles should have been prefixed with the words She can easily support charity raffles etc.

The one thing I don't like about cash is the black market that many ( mostly ) tradies do very well out of. Why should some people be paid cash in hand unbeknownst to the ATO whereas I have a substantial slab of my pay taken out as tax PAYG in my payslip before it reaches my bank account ?
My personal income taxes are subsiding those who are paid cash and avoid their fair share of tax. Don't pretend it doesn't happen.

My use of cash has increased as I don't like paying the card surcharge everybody now wants, as banks have increased their charges for card use - who needs to support the banks.

I use cash wherever possible, though the value of the transaction might be low, the number of them in comparision would exceed 75%, because why do we need to involve a third party in the transaction? We all pay more because of it. The answer to the costs of keeping cash is to add a 0.01% fee on all electronic retail transactions to cover the ongoing cost of providing cash!

A small point of interest. For many cheques there is no need to go to a branch to deposit—it can be done by scanning in the Westpac app for example.
Also I recently had to do a very large transfer between super funds. It took weeks as it had to be done through a government mandated portal that simply didn’t work for the transfer that we needed. The eventual work around was to transfer several large amounts (my new limit with random number generator security device) to a third super account and then re-transfer from that. A bank cheque would have taken a few hours to organise and take to the super fund and would have been so much easier.

Do the super fuds allow RTGS?

I hardly ever use cash but it would be CRAZY to eliminate it. What happens when the Internet goes down due to power failure or cyberhackers/ terrorism/war ?
People have been left unable to pay at supermarkets because EFTPOS machines are
off line. I once couldn't pay for petrol at a service station because the bank had just suspended my Credit card ( without yet telling me ) due to them detecting an unauthorised attempt by someone to use my CC number .
Fortunately I did have some cash but very often I don't.

Hello, I have read this article with much interest, as a problem with Australia Post no longer receiving a cheque for payment of Post Office Box Rental Service, has caused a considerable problem. Allow me to explain. I am the Treasurer for a not-for-profit Organisation. All payments made by this Organisation require two signature authorisation. Hence, we cannot use Post Billpay for payment of such account. Post Billpay requires entry of a Debtor or Credit Card detail. Because of the two signature authorisation requirement, the Organisation does not have either a Debit or a Credit Card. When Australia Post was made aware of the problem their advice was, pay by cash. Found to be not possible. There is now no longer a Bank in the town and the local branch of Australia Post do not cash cheques. Again Australia Post was contacted, when it became evident that the Organisation had no way of making the payment, since cheques; the long used method of payment was no longer available. Australia Post was requested to supply BSB, Account Number and Account name, so the payment could Be made through the Organisation's Bank Account. Australia Post was not prepared to do this, instead they suggested we get someone else with a Credit or Debit Card to make the payment and seek re-imbursement accordingly, which is what I eventually had to do. Checking around town, I found that the local Tennis Club has had the same problem. This need of now having to get someone else, other than the Organisation to make payments in such circumstances is not 'cricket'. I am less than happy being forced to make payments through my Credit Card, that rightfully should be paid through the Organisations account. Surely they can provide a payment method that caters for two signature authorisation, and stop the humbug that goes with having a private person make payments on behalf of such. There must now be many Organisations, facing this same problem. It needs to be addressed. I am about to have same problem with National Geographic, who apart from Credit Cards, can only accept cheques. Thank you for listening ??

As the treasurer of a not-for-profit organization, we had the same issue. We have resolved it by having a debit card for the club on which we maintain a very low balance ($200). That is our 'petty cash' card and allows minor payments to be made, or, if a payment over $200 needs to occur, we transfer the required amount into the card. That transfer requires authorisation by 2 account signatories. I just last week paid our post box account using that very method.

I recently destroyed all my cheque books as I had not used them for years. I also bank with almost or totally branchless banks and use the Post Office to get cash out (very infrequently). What annoys me most is that during Covid everyone wanted you to pay by card (especially cafes), now they all slap a credit card fee (which, when I've asked also applies to EFTPOS and debit cards) of 1% or more (they are supposed to charge the lowest card fee, which is usually EFTPOS). Most don't even comply with the law by putting a sign up to say this. It's about time credit card surcharges were banned again as most payments are by card and BNPL schemes don't allow retailers to cover their approximate 4% fee.

Why should a small business pay your credit card fee. It is your choice to use a credit card. During coved it were a health safety issue.

"Why should a small business pay your credit card fee" because its part of the cost of doing business and as somebody else has pointed out ..a relatively small proportion of credit card transactions actually attract a card fee at point of sale ...eg.most big supermarkets and retailers don't pass on a card fee (Aldi is one exception)...so charging a fee may put your business at a competitive disadvantage.

True, which is why I pay cash now. However these businesses were happy to cover the fee when it suited them and now, most have both increased prices and charge the fee. My main issue is that they don't tell you they are charging the fee, which is illegal, but no one seems to police it. They are also happy to cover the cost of dealing in cash!!!

What happens if someone wants to make a large NCC to his superfund. It has to be Bpay transfer. Try contributing $330,000 after the sale of a property .It can be daunting because they don't accept cheques.

All property transactions are conducted via the PEXA platform .You need to give your bank details to your conveyancer, and hope they input the right details into PEXA .

For transfer of larger amount than daily transfer limit, bank cheques were useful for physical same day transfer between an entities accounts at different banks. Funds were credited the day of deposit, not the day of clearing. ~$10 each.

Made near obsolete by branch-less or branch-few banks.

An alternative is request by telephone for increased online daily limit.
Can take days to be credited in destination account resulting in loss of interest:
= (5% / 366) * 250000
= $34.15 / d.

Real Time Gross Settlement, under two hour transfers, co-existed with bank cheques and is likely to remain available. ~$30 each but no loss of interest.
Not all banks staff know what RTGS is or how to handle it or that it is an under two hour unconditional transfer.
Some banks think they do not have it, a few don't.

Cheques are the ultimate safest transfer method - the piece of paper must end up in the hands of your bank - over the years we have had a few fraudsters, always we came back to the original cheque to find where it had been altered and the account and name where it was paid, and we got our money back. Labor has more criminally orientated voters (Liberals want to jail every dope head for 20 years) so this suits their voters. A victory for the scammers.

Well they may be the 'ultimate safest transfer method' and 'Labor has more criminally orientated voters (eh what does that mean)' but facts don''t change - the RBA says only 0.01% of payments use a cheque !

The banks no longer keep the original cheque. The cheques are scanned by the bank and then destroyed.

Sigh. I suppose a smack over the ear counts as criminal assault, so therefore I must be a Labor voter. There’s been fraud for millennia since wheat bushels were currency and totems were used to count them. A cheque is a promise to pay, and can be dishonoured by a broken promise. Nothing is totally secure and a medium of exchange is only a method of satisfying both parties in the exchange. What is a concern is the reliance on digital systems. When the Russians have started attacking NATO countries, the fallout will be global, and digital exchange systems may not work. How do we maintain our economy then?