This week, it was reported that Barclays is expanding its mobile cheque service. The high street bank is opening up the service to another one million of their customers, meaning they will no longer have to go into a branch but can pay in cheques, but can do so by taking a photo on their smartphone instead.
The imaging service was previously only available to customers with an iPhone but has now been rolled out to those who use an Android phone or iPad to manage their finances. Currently, only cheques from one Barclays customer to another can be paid in using the technology pilot, but there are talks of other banks aiming to have a similar system in place soon. Lloyds Banking Group is one example. Last month, they began a trial of their own mobile cheque image service among staff.
Cheque payments are one of the last banking transactions to go digital in the UK. This is because it was only recently that a change in regulations came in, meaning that banks were now allowed to use photos of cheques, rather than the paper document.
Mobile Banking Apps
Mobile phone apps are already the most popular way for customers to transact with their banks and the extension of the mobile cheque service will only underline the findings of a recent survey, which found most Britons (55%) believe the UK will become a cashless society in the next 15 years. The study, from data firm Equifax, found that 16% of Britons think cash will no longer be in use in five years’ time, with almost a quarter (23%) believing it will fall out of use in the next five to 10 years.
Equifax’s identity and fraud analyst John Marsden said: “With contactless payment methods becoming increasingly popular, the UK economy, in London especially, has been transformed in recent years, moving ever closer to a cashless society.”
Financial Exclusion
Many temporary workers or migrant workers who are new to the UK can often experience problems when they first want to open a bank account, meaning they are at risk of being excluded from a cashless society.
In order to provide a solution to this problem, temporary workers could be offered an alternative to traditional banking, such as Suits Me®. Suits Me® is a membership scheme that offers all its members a Mastercard® debit card that can be used in stores, online, and over the phone. It also offers online banking-like facilities.
Suits Me®
If you would like to know more about the Suits Me® card, or would like to know if your recruitment agency offers a Suits Me® membership, then visit www.suitsmecard.com or contact us on hello@suitsmecard.com.
