It means Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland customers will need to travel to their nearest branch or use mobile banking to cash their cheques
Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland customers will soon no longer be able to cash cheques at their local Post Office.
This service is being axed by Lloyds Banking Group from December 31. It means customers will need to travel to their nearest branch or use mobile banking to cash their cheques. The app uses your phone camera to take a photo of the cheque, then it reads the details to pay the money into your account.
A Lloyds Banking Group spokesperson told The Sun: “Most customers use our app as the easiest way to pay in a cheque, by taking a photo on their phone and letting us take care of the rest. Very few customers are choosing to deposit cheques in at the Post Office.”
It comes after Lloyds Banking Group announced 135 new branch closures, with sites shutting between May this year and March 2026. This includes 60 Halifax, 61 Lloyds Bank, and 14 Bank of Scotland branches – and it’s on top of the 102 closures Lloyds Banking Group already had scheduled for 2025.
Lloyds said the closures are down to more people using online banking, and said there were ten million fewer in-branch transactions in 2024 compared to 2023. A spokesman said: “Over 20 million customers are using our apps for on-demand access to their money and customers have more choice and flexibility than ever for their day-to-day banking.
“Alongside our apps, customers can also use telephone banking, visit a community banker or use any Halifax, Lloyds or Bank of Scotland branch, giving access to many more branches. Customers can also do their everyday banking at over 11,000 branches of the Post Office or in a Banking Hub.”
It comes after Santander confirmed it is scrapping its text alerts service from this spring. This service allows customers to get weekly updates about their bank account balances and transactions, and it also alerts you to other activity, such as if you go over an account limit.
You have to sign up for text alerts either online, over the phone, or by visiting a Santander branch. But from May 12, Santander we’ll stop sending certain text alerts. You will no longer receive a text alert if your account balance goes below or above a limit you’ve set, or if you pay in or take out more money than a limit you’ve set. Santander, which has 14 million UK customers, will also no longer send weekly texts about your account balances and transactions.
But you will still receive alerts if there are changes to your account that could lead to you being charged – for example, if you get close to your overdraft limit or if you enter an unarranged overdraft. Santander says customers can monitor their account activity by registering for online or mobile banking, or by visiting a branch in person.