Bank offers free cash delivery service to customers

Tesco Bank customers who are self-isolating or shielding will be able to receive cash delivered to their home free of charge.

The bank said its new service is available to its savings and personal current account customers.

The service uses the Tesco Travel Money home delivery service provided by Travelex – but gives customers sterling instead of foreign currency.

Customers can have a minimum of £20 and a maximum of £500 delivered to their home by Royal Mail Special Delivery.

The bank said it has created a contact centre process to help identify which customers might benefit.

Sigga Sigurdardottir, Tesco Bank’s chief customer officer, said: “Many of our most vulnerable customers still prefer cash as a payment method but cannot get to an ATM as a result of Covid-19.

“This service allows us to get cash to them at home safely which they can then use with friends, family or volunteers who are helping them with their shopping.”

Nathan Best, the commercial director for the UK and North America for Travelex, said: “We are delighted to partner with Tesco Bank and switch our travel money delivery business to get cash directly to those who need it most. By working with Tesco Bank we are able to help some of the most vulnerable in society with the ability to deliver cash directly to their door.”

Recent figures from ATM network Link have shown cash machine use plunged during the coronavirus lockdown compared with a year earlier.

In April, the Post Office said it had switched its travel money delivery business to help send cash payments directly to vulnerable people in England who were shielding and receive benefits such as pensions.

State benefits such as pensions can be paid into Post Office Card accounts, and the Department for Work and Pensions said in April that it had initially identified 27,000 vulnerable customers in England who were shielding at home.