Are cheque payments becoming a thing of the past?

There was a time when paying for something by cheque was the norm for most people, but with the soaring popularity of credit and debit cards in the UK it seems as though cheque transactions are becoming a primitive payment method that will soon be left trailing.

This is being reflected by the number of retailers that are now turning away cheque transactions, and the latest to jump on the bandwagon of saying no to cheques is Sainsbury’s.

The supermarket giant has announced that as from the 1st August this year it will no longer be accepting cheque payments from customers. Although this does reduce the range of methods that customers can use to make payment for goods, the vast majority of customers tend to use debit cards, credit cards, or cash anyway. The no cheque rule will be applied in all 800 of the supermarket chain’s stores.

According to officials from the supermarket chain it makes sense to stop accepting cheques because so few people use them and because processing them can be time consuming. A number of other high profile retailers have also decided that they will stop accepting cheque payments, and this includes WH Smith, Morrisons, Boots, Asda, and Shell. Again, the main reasons seem to be lack of use by customers and time consumption for the companies in question.

With more and more retailers stopping cheque payments it is likely that an increasing number of transactions will now be made using credit and debit cards, which could see the number of card transactions made each year in the UK rocket even further.

Speaking about cheque use one Sainsbury’s spokesperson stated: “Like other retailers they are being used less and less by our customers.”

Tom Smith
27th August 2007

Tags: dated, credit, payments, spend, debit, cheque