Esther McVey is urging the boss of Lloyds banking group to restore cheque deposits at banking hubs and Post Office branches - and put the needs of customer’s first.
The banking group – which also includes Halifax and the Bank of Scotland, stopped the service, arguing that customers were still able to pay in cheques at a branch or scan them from the app on their phone.
Tatton MP Esther McVey is one of 120 cross-party MPs who have signed an open letter to Group Chief Executive Charlie Nunn asking him to personally review the decision.
Ms McVey said: “There seems to have been little consideration on how this decision to stop cheque deposits will affect those living in rural areas, the elderly or disabled people who will struggle to get to a branch, or the many customers who have no access to internet banking or who chose not to bank in this way.
“I’ve been raising this particular issue with banking bosses for some time now after the proposal to stop cheques was first mentioned to me by one of my outreach postmasters who runs services in community buildings across Plumley, Chelford, Little Budworth, Goostrey and Delamere. He told me more than 130 cheques are paid in via his outreaches each week alone. If these numbers were replicated nationally across the 11,805 Post Offices, that is 1.5 million cheques that customers will have to pay in elsewhere.
“I am glad momentum is now growing and the campaign to overturn this is gathering pace and is being supported by many of my colleagues.”
Ms McVey said customers expect banking hubs to offer the full range of services and facilities a branch would.
She added: “Many older residents, small businesses and charities still rely on cheques and this decision is unfair on them. While the use of cheques are declining, they are still used by many and therefore my constituents deserve to and rightly expect to be able to pay them in at any banking hub, Post Office or bank.”
Lloyds is the only major British bank that does not allow its customers to deposit cheques at Post Office branches and Banking Hubs. Data shows that 44 per cent of current accountholders still use cheques, and according to Age UK around half of people aged 65 or older, use cheques regularly.
