Australians are paying one billion dollars a year in surcharges to banks and card companies by using electronic payment systems.

This emphasises the benefits of cheque payments, particularly for large payments, because depending on the bank and the type of cheque account, a payment using a personal cheque is either free, or carries a small nominal charge - usually one or two dollars per cheque (ten dollars for a bank cheque) – regardless of the size of the payment.

This contrasts sharply with electronic transactions, which are usually not free, and which are surcharged on a percentage basis, and thus can suck quite a large fee out of a single large card payment – or accumulate a large sum from fees from repetitive small card payments.    No wonder the banks want to eliminate cheques, when they can charge payers so much more for transactions if the payer pays by card!

See the following article -

https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/sneaky-way-aussies-ripped-off-015400037.html

So, as well as being safer, cheques are also generally cheaper.

Please share the petition with others who may be interested in retaining cheque payments in Australia:

https://www.change.org/save-cheques

Thankyou.

David Miller.