Looking for spare cash? Lost or unbanked medicare cheques.

With having a baby recently, there seemed to be quite a few medicare cheques getting posted out to me over the last couple of months.  Prioritising going to the bank to bank a $35 cheque amongst everything else that needs to be done in the day, can sometimes be a struggle. I tried getting the husband to bank his medicare cheque, but that just ended in him carrying it around in his wallet for the next two months!

I thought it may have just been our family with medicare cheque banking issues, but I recently spied off a family member carrying around an unbanked medicare cheque from September last year and a business client asking if I could bank their medicare cheque whilst doing some business banking for them.

It seems that I am not the only one having problems with the medicare cheques and a friend even told me that they had quite a few at home that had remained unbanked. 

So, I thought I would update everyone on changes made last year to Medicare payments to make life just that little bit easier for you. Did you know that Medicare can now transfer the payment directly into your bank account instead of posting out cheques? And they are promising that you will receive the rebate within the next business day! 

This is fantastic news. I've already made my phone call to Medicare to update my bank account details. While I was on the phone to Medicare, I also got them to check whether I had any un-presented cheques and there was actually one worth $100. So it definitely pays to give Medicare a call.

To receive your Medicare payments in your bank account call Medicare or complete the form on the link http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/forms/1579a

You should also note that some medical providers also allow you to swipe your debit card to receive the refund straight away!