Cheque use halved in ten years

The number of cheques written by individuals has halved from 2.0 billion to 1.0 billion in the last ten years, according to a report by APACS, the UK payments association.

The Way We Pay 2007: UK Cheques reveals that in 2006 cheque volumes declined at their fastest ever rate, falling by eight per cent. Last year, only 54 per cent of adults made payments using cheques and only 47 per cent received a cheque payment. On average we now write 1.6 cheques a month and receive just one every two months, with half of adults no longer receiving any. For personal payments, cheques have fallen from one in four non-cash payments in 1996, to just one in 14 in 2006. In the retail sector the decline has been particularly rapid, with cheques accounting for just three per cent of all non-cash transactions.

Cheques do remain popular for certain types of payments. Around 23 per cent of all cheque payments are used to pay bills, and 13 per cent of personal cheques are used for person-to-person payments.

Sandra Quinn, director of communications at APACS, said: “Cheque use has really taken a tumble in the past decade as both consumers and businesses have increasingly made the move away from paper and opted for plastic and automated payments instead.

“Despite this we are not yet predicting the death of the cheque. Although volumes will continue to fall, we forecast that there will still be around 840 million cheques used in the UK in 2016 – if you placed these cheques end to end they would stretch around the world two and half times.”

To coincide with the publication of The Way We Pay 2007: UK Cheques report, APACS and the Cheque and Credit Clearing Company have launched a new, consumer-focused Cheques Fact Pack guide, which includes information about cheques and how they are processed and an explanation of how best to use them. This guide is freely available to download from the media section of apacs.org.uk.

The Cheque and Credit Clearing Company, which manages the cheque clearing system in Great Britain, has also launched a new, user-friendly website, chequeandcredit.co.uk. The website provides comprehensive, easy-to-access advice regarding all aspects of cheque payments and the clearing cycle. Frequent updates are planned surrounding new developments within the industry such as the changes to the cheque clearing processes – known as 2-4-6. The industry is on track to introduce these in November this year and, they will increase certainty and transparency for customers.

The Cheque and Credit Clearing Company is a membership-based industry body with a wide remit covering the processing of bankers' drafts, building society cheques, postal orders, warrants and government payable orders, along with the management of the systems for clearing paper bank giro credits and euro-denominated cheques.