Rural residents feel cornered
Banks’ plan to phase out the use of cheques in favour of online alternatives is raising concerns over accessibility for rural customers.
Halcombe resident Julie Rush, 72, said she felt cornered by the decision from all New Zealand banks to stop accepting cheques.
She lived in a valley with no signal and no stable internet connection, and could not bank online, even if she wanted too.
In the space of a year, every bank in New Zealand announced they were phasing out cheques, which were not classified as legal tender.
The last bank to phase them out is Bank of New Zealand, which will not accept them from July.
Rush had been a customer of Westpac for more than 30 years and joined them because of how ‘‘accommodating’’ they were at the time.
Rush and her partner John Heron, 74, were convinced banks were culling cheques for their own convenience, and didn’t care about rural customers.
This was enforced by the reduction of opening hours at rural branches.
As the sole manager of her farm, Rush said she did not have time to travel to her nearest bank, which was only open for four hours, three days a week.
In a statement, Ruralwomen NZ president Gill Naylor said banks made their decision before everyone had stable access to the internet. ‘‘The banks and other institutions have seemingly not taken the needs of rural communities into consideration whenmaking these decisions.’’
A survey of their members showed over 70 per cent of respondents were concerned about the move.
Awestpac spokesperson said internet was becoming more accessible to rural areas, and that those who could not bank online or visit a branch could use phone banking from either a landline or mobile.
Chief executive officer of Technology Users Association of New Zealand Craig Young credited Covid-19 for banks’ ‘‘accelerating desire’’ to go online.
He said Rush’s gripe was a common one.
‘‘A significant portion of the rural population don’t have a stable connection. This has been an issue for several years.’’
He said the fibre broadband roll-out had been done ‘‘around the wrong way. Rural should have come first’’, given the number of homes simultaneously functioning as businesses.
His organisation supported the call for banks to keep cheques in place until reliable connections could be secured in rural areas.
Rush is dyslexic, and has fallen victim to several online scams, which adds to her distress .
She had been told there would be opportunities for her to take a class on how to use online banking, but she was not convinced she could be taught.
‘‘No matter howmany times somebody tells me something... it doesn’tmake sense.’’
Mary Kane, 73, said was speaking on behalf of her husband, who had also been a victim of online scams.
This broke his trust when mixing money and the internet.
‘‘Now he won’t even have automatic payments taken out of his bank ... He won’t give his account number to anyone.’’
Kane, Rush and Heron agreed there was a lack of trust between online banking and the elderly, and the short amount of time between announcing and removing cheques from banks had only exacerbated this distrust.