Why do cheques still take so long to clear?

I actually asked them, that if I realky want my money and ask for x amount cash, yu will have to prepare a cash order process it and then someone will bring, another person check and then issue me(not to mention the time I have to spend on ordering collection etc) -that costs you more and you are giving me free compared to couple.of clicks transfer costing me $28...

Guy said, many people have provided this feedback but ANZ policy hasn't changes yet.

 

I actually can't remember the last time I saw anyone paying for goods or services using a cheque.

 

I'm with Westpac as well. I've got the larger limit, Hubby hasn't.

 

I wouldn't trust him with large amounts of cash either.

 

Would you believe in US cheques are common and used all the time, same as faxes I got rid of fax machine years ago

Crazy

 

I think I saw something on youtube about some American guy recommending online banking. Wow, so (not ) advanced!

 

I was there in 1983 you couldnt use credit cards and they didnt have ATMs , even in California where they were created 60 years earlier. To use a credit card to get cash, you had to go into a a bank and write a personal cheque and show your credit card . WTF. I was amazed at how backward they were.

 

Walk into a branch of your bank with card and PIN and additional ID. Staff can transfer unlimited value through EFT over the counter.

 

Cheques get scanned in for processing by the tellers (special machine that does it). Someone will then come collect the cheques to safely destroy.

Delay is because banks don't want to invest money in improving cheques because there is not enough people using them.

 

Presented cheques are batched for the issuing paying bank and part of the daily settlement system. The depositors bank hands these to the paying bank. These are "filed" and I imagine these days its all scanned. Once they were stored May still be ??? If a fraud allegation came up they can be retrieved. Ironically NOBODY checks signatures for most cheques. Only a issue if a customer raises issue with false presentation of a cheque and banking rues allow a settlement chargeback within XX days. Thats why cheques have clearance times. IDK if this limits a customer complaint to a short period - Imagine not. No idea if the physical retention is the same now but last case I saw approx 4+ years ago ATO were able to access copies for a dispute.

 

Banking IT systems these days make it faster than it used to be and the clearance time of cheques now means balances are better unable to be drawn against than in past years.
Probably the greatest limit to cheque clearance time is fraud. Cheques are a lousy form of reliability. Most banks even have a settlement time for Reserve Bank cheques and bank cheques as its not hard for crooks to print a fake and access a MICA encoder. Or to alter one they intercept. Cops raided bikies recently and found MICA machines the cops said were worth a lot for use in crimes Banks keep adding security devices to negotiable paper but the crooks are good at catching up. Once bank chqs were able to be drawn against same day. Now they also get three days.