No more cheques

After receiving a rebate cheque in the mail from my health insurer last week, I thought, what a pain in the arse it is to have to now go to the bank to deposit the cheque. They could have found another way to give me a rebate. Perhaps they could have reduced my health insurance fees, that would have been more useful.

It is a good thing that cheques as a payment method will be gone in Australia by 2030. The use of cheques has collapsed by 90 per cent over the past decade, are now well beyond their use-by date. The federal government stopped using cheques for welfare and health payments in 2016, so it is time the rest of the economy followed suit. The removal of cheque payments will align Australia with many European countries. Finland eliminated cheques in 1993, while Dutch banks have not accepted personal cheques since 2001.

Some pensioners may find it hard to adjust after a lifetime of using cheques, but I haven’t written a cheque in years, and receiving a cheque as a payment is an inconvenience. It is time to embrace a future with no more cheques.