Time to cheque out

In these days of digital banking, personal cheques are fading from the banking landscape.

As a sign of how things have changed, back in the 1980s cheques accounted for 85% of non-cash payments. Today, fewer than 0.2% of all consumer payments are made by cheque.

Already, we introduced changes from September 2022. We no longer issue new personal cheque books, and Community First personal cheques will no longer be able to be drawn or deposited.

Like many banks, Community First uses the services of a third party payments aggregator to process cheques, and our provider recently announced they are no longer able to offer this service from September this year.

Community First, along with a number of other financial institutions are affected by this change. As the number of cheques in use are so low, it’s not viable for us to seek out an alternative provider.

Here’s what will change from 25 September 2023:

• You will be unable to bank a personal or business cheque from another financial institution at Community First, and
•  We can’t accept or issue bank cheques.

We understand this sort of change can be hard to navigate for some.

Community First members can still deposit other financial institutions’ cheques into a Community First transaction account or savings account using a debit card or credit card through Australia Post’s Bank@Post. Please note that the maximum amount that can be deposited by cheque via Bank@Post is $999,999. A fee will apply for this service.

We continue to provide a range of digital alternatives to cheques including electronic funds transfer (EFT), credit and debit cards, BPAY®, PayID and of course, our mobile app.

® Registered to BPAY Pty Ltd ABN 69 079 137 518