# No more bank checks / bank cheques allowed in New Zealand



## Kingdragonfly (Apr 29, 2021)

New Zealand is know for experiments with banks.

Cheques / checks are going the way of the dodo bird. They are extinct in New Zealand.

So if you have a IRS stimulus check, or a paper bank draught, or god-forbid a personal check, you can forget about depositing it into a New Zealand (or Australia bank).

You _may_ have luck with Citibank or an Indian bank as they have have branches in Auckland only, but double check first.

A list of affected banks (basically any NZ bank with more than one branch)

ANZ -------- May 2021
ASB -------- August 2021
BNZ -------- July 2021
HSBC -------- June 2021
Rabobank -------- June 2021
The Co-operative bank -------- May 2021
TSB -------- June 2021
Westpac -------- June 2021
SBS -------- June 2021
*Stuff news*: Banks phasing out use of cheques is simply poor form

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This isn’t a trivial issue. For most of us, cheques are a quaint relic, like public phones and Post Offices, that we still occasionally observe in the wild but have no use for. ANZ says fewer than one per cent of their customers used cheques regularly, and we can assume that this is a trend across all banks.

Yet for this small minority the ability to make payments with this antiquated method is incredibly useful. Many older Kiwis don’t have access to, or really understand, this internet thing that Al Gore invented back in the day.

Many rural banking customers are also displeased by this development, with Federated Farmers raising the issue of poor connectivity experienced by many of their members. A number of advocacy groups, such as Dyslexia Foundation and Blind Low Vision NZ (formerly the Blind Foundation), have also made submissions in opposition.

It might seem unusual that profit-driven organisations such as our banks are moving away from servicing some of their customers in this way, but the economics probably make sense. The cost of processing hand-written cheques from a dwindling number of relatively low-value customers would be an easy expense to cut.

They should be entitled to do so, but just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.

However, it pays to remember what a cheque is: nothing more than an instruction to your bank. There is nothing to prevent those impacted by this change utilising the method I adopted from my splendid isolation all those years ago, when I had access to neither a cheque book nor the internet.

If you have money in your bank, this is a debt that the bank owes you. They are a creditor, a custodian of your capital. If I wished to pay a bill, order a magazine or donate to an orphanage, I would write to my local bank with an instruction as to whom I wished to pay, the amount, and the bank account of the person to receive the money.
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