Is it the end of the road for cheques?
March 8, 2008
For the middle aged and older consumers amongst us the use of cheques in the past was an everyday occurrence in some cases. Many people used to use cheques for everything from paying for the shopping to making purchases at the local petrol station. However, with credit and debit cards taking over as increasingly popular methods of payment it seems that paying by cheque is quickly becoming a thing of the past.
Carrying around a large cheque book isn’t the most convenient – or even the most comfortable – experience, and writing cheques could be a time consuming and cumbersome method of making payment, but there was a time when those that did not want to carry around cash had no other choice but to do this. However, with plastic fast taking over fewer and fewer people are using cheques at all, and the waning popularity of cheques as a method of payment has been reflected in the number of retailers that have now stopped accepting cheques as payment.
Many supermarket giants such as Asda and Morrisons, as well as some petrol stations such as Shell, have now stopped accepting cheques as payment, as have other popular retailers such as Boots. According to officials it is too costly and time consuming to process cheque payments given their slide in popularity amongst consumers. The reduced level of cheque payments being made means that for many retailers it is no longer worth the cost of processing and the time involved.
With cheque usage nearly halving between 1990 and 2004 industry officials state that an increasing number of people don’t both with cheques and many have grown up with plastic rather than paper. One APACS official stated: ‘There is a generation of people who have grown up without having a cheque book around. We have moved away from cheques and cash and are increasingly turning to plastic, particularly our debit cards.’
When Boots banned cheques in 2006 officials from the pharmaceutical giant stated that cheques not only increased queues and processing times for transactions, but also increased the risk of fraud. This month will see Tesco ban the use of cheques, and Marks and Spencer is to rapidly follow suit, with a ban that starts at the beginning of March. An official from Tesco stated: ‘Phasing out the use of cheques in stores will result in quicker service and improved security for our customers.’
Many people have paid their bills, such as utilities, by cheque in the past, posting a cheque out after receiving quarterly bills. However, with many companies now penalising those that do not pay by direct debit with extra charges this could also soon become a thing of the past. Whilst cheques are still accepted in many places, and are useful as a method of payment when ordering by post, it looks as though the popularity and the general acceptance of cheques across the UK are continuing to decline.
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