Rural lobby’s call to retain chequebooks

WELLINGTON: Some rural communities fear the phasing out of cheques this year is coming too fast, too soon.

They say reliable internet must come first before they rip up their chequebooks.

SharronDavie Martin, who lives on a farm in Loburn near Rangiora, in Canterbury, sometimes has to pay $500 a month for her internet, even though she has serious problems with using it.

She said she received a tax fine because unreliable internet hampered her ability to do GST returns for her and her husband's business and others in the family.

``I'd been away and was doing it on the day it was due and couldn't get on the internet. So I couldn't lodge my return and also I couldn't pay it. I was penalised 200 and something dollars, $190 for our own business.''

Mrs DavieMartin said the fine was eventually waived but the experience was ``a pain''.

``Every time I got on it, [the internet] would drop out before I could manage to do the entire return, and then I had to start from scratch and then I couldn't get on at all.''

Banks are moving to phase out cheques nationwide. Kiwibank stopped using them in February last year and BNZ, ANZ, ASB and Westpac are curtailing their use in a few months.

Mrs DavieMartin is also a Rural Women New Zealand board member.

A recent survey by Rural Women NZ found 60% of respondents were worried about banks removing chequebooks.

Thirtytwo percent of respondents used cheques to pay tax and 80% paid their monthly bills with cheques.

DavieMartin is leading the charge against their phasing out, demanding action from the Government and banks.

The Government's rural broadband scheme is expected to reach 99.8% of the population, but is not due to be finished until 2023.

Rural Women NZ was writing letters to banking chief executives, asking them to keep cheques until every rural household has access to reliable internet and consistent cellphone coverage. — RNZ