OPINION: Banks fail seniors in push to go cashless

Well, well, well . . . as they say, there’s a first time for everything. A bank teller told me last week it’s “not my job to handle cash”. I’d gone to pay a weekly bill. Yep, could be, and probably should be, done by internet banking. But I don’t do internet banking. I had been forewarned the man may say something, just as he had — though not as curtly — to the elderly lady ahead of me. When asked, or told, I should be making these transactions via the internet, I said face-to-face banking (like everything else in my life) was my preference. “Not big into machines,” I said, adding “they may take your job one day.” To which I was told: “It won’t take my job, but thanks for your concern.” Our exchange of “suggestions” mustn’t have been too private, another lady in the queue rolled her eyes at me as if to say “what the ....?” Now unless it’s a crime to pay accounts by cash, I will be back this week, banking on a different reaction. Some people prefer paying it by cash — and face-to-face. That’s their prerogative. I just hope, for his own sake, that little Johnny wanting to open a bank book (do they still exist?) didn’t take his life’s savings in five cent coins to the same bank and teller I did. * FOOTNOTE: While the Australian Banking Association said it has no plans to phase out cash, it is urging people to get an internet or phone banking password. “We’re asking people to think about safer ways to do their banking during COVID-19,” a spokesperson for the Sydney-based ABA said. “We’ve taken steps during the pandemic to make sure banking is as safe and simple for customers as possible. “This has included increasing the limit on tap and go debit cards and making it easier to move from passbooks to debit cards.” * Peter Sweeney is a journalist with The Geraldton Guardian.