Reinstate cheque guarantee cards

Responding to calls in the media for banks to bring back cheque guarantee cards, Graeme Francis, Age Cymru's Head of Policy and Public Affairs  says:

"Age Cymru has long argued that cheques are too important to older people as a means of payment to be allowed to fade away.

"Despite the U-turn by the Payments Council over scrapping cheques in July - after the cheque guarantee card was scrapped in June, we are in a position where confidence in cheques as a secure system of payment has been compromised.

"There is no question about it at all that banks simply must bring back the cheque guarantee card.

"We need to renew confidence in the cheque system to ensure that older people have the comfort of knowing they have a safe, tried and trusted means of paying for goods and services in their day-to-day lives."