$3.5m cheques left unbanked

There are $3.5 million worth of Kiwibank bank cheques issued in the past seven years which have not been banked or cashed, and the biggest of them is for $50,000.

Cheque use was in steep decline, said Mark Stephen, Kiwibank’s chief customer officer, and Kiwibank would stop issuing bank cheques on February 28. It has already stopped issuing personal chequebooks.

‘‘The number of cheques written by Kiwibank customers has reduced 36 per cent since we made the announcement to go cheque-free in May this year,’’ Stephen said.

He urged people who had unbanked cheques to dust them off and head into a branch, or to a smart money machine to deposit them, as each cheque had a date after which it was no longer valid.

Not all of the cheques were for thousands. The average amount of the bank cheques that were yet to be presented was $360.

The number of cheques deposited to Kiwibank accounts had reduced 25 per cent since May this year, Stephen said.

There were two types of cheque in use. The first were bank cheques, which were created for customers in branches by staff.

Then there were personal cheques written by customers themselves on cheques from their chequebooks. But fewer people

wrote cheques these days.

‘‘With over 99 per cent of Kiwibank transactions already made using alternative payment methods, this continuing decline was anticipated as part of our transition to going cheque-free,’’ said Stephen.

That decline had been paralleled at other banks, though none had yet announced plans to stop issuing chequebooks, though all now only issued chequebooks when asked by customers.

The number of cheques written each year fell from 53 million in 2013 to 18 million last year.

The total number of unbanked Kiwibank cheques was not known, and neither was the total value of unbanked cheques across the entire banking system.

While Kiwibank knew the value of the unbanked bank cheques it had issued, it had no idea how many unbanked personal cheques had been written, or how much they were for.

‘‘In regard to cheques still to be deposited, that amount can only be guessed at,’’ Stephen said.

‘‘There are just over 3100 unpresented Kiwibank bank cheques issued over the past seven years,’’ said Stephen.

‘‘On average, 94 per cent of Kiwibank bank cheques issued are presented within two months.

‘‘Normally we would expect around 98 per cent to be presented within the seven years that they are valid, and the last 2 per cent are unclaimed.’’

Kiwibank would continue to honour bank and personal cheques until they expired, even after it stopped issuing them.

Lost cheques could be replaced.

When Seniors Minister Tracey Martin expressed concerns about Kiwibank’s plans to scrap cheques, the bank said it was offering customers training on other ways to make payments.

‘‘There are just over 3100 unpresented Kiwibank bank cheques issued over the past seven years.’’ Mark Stephen

Kiwibank chief customer officer