High street banks offering home delivery on up to £500 cash for those in self-isolation

High street banks are offering to deliver cash to people’s homes to support those who have been told to self-isolate.

Barclays and Tesco Bank have both said customers can get up to £500 delivered to their doors via special delivery if they’re unable to leave their homes due to the pandemic.

The cash is sent via Royal Mail special delivery, however the service is only available to those classed as vulnerable.

NatWest also offers a cash-to-home service for those who are unable to visit their local cash point if they’re disabled, elderly or struck down with Covid-19. 

Lloyds Bank – which also owns Bank of Scotland and Halifax – said it allows a trusted person to pick up £100 on a customer’s behalf.

To register a trusted person, the friend of family member must visit a branch for an interview, along with a valid ID such as driving licence.

The bank will then call the customer to confirm details.

Santander said it will not deliver cash to customers but it does offer a carer’s card. This allows up to £1,500 to be transferred from a person’s bank account to a payment card.

The card can be used by up to two trusted people for essential payments such as food shopping or utility bills.

The Post Office offers ‘payout now’ and ‘pre-authorised cheque encashment’.

For payout now, the person can ask their bank to send a barcode voucher for a specific amount of money via text, email or post. 

Once the barcode voucher has been received, it can be given to a trusted person and then exchanged for cash in a post office branch. 

With cheque encashment, someone must contact their bank and give them the name of the individual who will cash their cheque at a post office using a ‘fast track cheque encashment’ service.

The cheque is made payable to ‘The Post Office’ and the person collecting the cash must be named on the back.

The latest measures come amid rising Covid-19 cases in the UK, and a crackdown on bank and ATM closures amid warnings the most vulnerable people could be left without access to cash.

More than 9,000 free-to-use cash machines have disappeared from our high streets recent years – however, Chancellor Rishi Sunak is understood to be considering a shake up for outlets such as pubs.

Under the changes, banks will have to foot the bill for offering cashback to customers, rather than the local businesses themselves.

This means more outlets will be able to offer the service – without having to pay the charge – which is equivalent to 40p for every £10 handed over.

It will mean that where there are no longer any banks or cash machines, you will be able to go into a local pub or shop and ask for cash in exchange for payment with a bank debit card or cheque.

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According to the Access to Cash Review, 8million people believe they would struggle without cash.

John Howells, chief executive of cash machine network Link, said: “Offering cashback is going to be a cheaper alternative to banks than running branches and cash machines that lose money – and supports people that otherwise might have to travel miles to access cash. It is a win-win situation.”

Link has pledged to open 200 ATMs this year. But this is scant compensation considering the 500 cash machines a month being removed. According to consumer body Which?, a quarter of the dwindling 60,000-strong network of surviving ATMs now charge up to £2 to access money.