Change to Heritage Bank cheque books
14 February 2024
Effective 1 March 2024, Heritage Bank will stop issuing 50 and 100-page cheque books for non-personal products (Business Cheque, Club Cheque and Business Overdraft accounts).
After this date, any cheque books provided for non-personal products will consist of 25 pages, the same as cheque books for personal individual and joint account memberships.
Importantly, there is no change to the use of your existing 50 and 100-page cheque books. You can continue to use these as normal. If you need a new or replacement cheque book after 1 March 2024, only 25-page cheque books will be available for both personal and non-personal memberships.
Why are we making this change?
In late 2023, the Federal Government released its Strategic Plan for Australia’s Payments System1 and announced the Government’s intention to wind down the cheques system by no later than 2030.
There has been an almost 90 per cent decline in the use of cheques in the past 10 years, as people and businesses have swapped to more convenient and faster ways to make payments.2
As cheque use declines, the cost of processing a cheque will continue to increase. We are moving to 25-page cheque books to minimise the impact of any additional costs for our members.
What alternative payment options are available?
There are many alternative fast and secure ways to make payments, including:
- Fast payments & PayID
- Electronic Funds Transfer
- Direct debit
- BPAY
- Credit or debit cards
If you have any questions, please get in touch with our team so we can assist.
1 Source: A Strategic Plan for Australia’s Payments System, The Australian Government the Treasury. https://treasury.gov.au/publication/p2023-404960
2 Source: Winding down Australia’s cheques system, Consultation paper December 2023, The Australian Government the Treasury. https://treasury.gov.au/consultation/c2023-471331