Consumers favour cards over cheques

The use of cheques by consumers is being increasingly shunned due to the popularity of debit and credit cards, one financial expert has claimed.

According to the Association of Payment Clearing Services (APACS), while cheques are still popular for use with certain payments, such as paying the window cleaner and as birthday presents, cards are the most popular with increasing numbers of consumers using them every year.

A spokesperson for APACS (female), said: “Part of it is a generational thing. Many of the older generation continue to use cheques and are very used to them.”

She added that “the younger generation, particularly those under 20, probably don’t even bother carrying a cheque book around with them”.

Meanwhile, findings from the APACS, there were over 4.4 million business and personal cheques issued each day in 2007, compared with 11 million in the peak year for cheque volumes, 1990.

The body predicts that by 2016 there will be only 2.3 million cheques per day.

Tags: book, favour, personal cheques, payment, debit and credit, older generation, business

Plastic card spending grows

The amount of money we spend on debit and credit cards has increased three-fold in the last ten years, reaching record levels.

Figures from the UK payments association Apacs show that we spent a combined total of £321 billion on plastic cards in 2006.

That compares to the £87 billion that was spent in the same way back in 1996 and debit cards have seen the biggest rise.

Debit cards accounted for 61 per cent of all plastic card spend, totalling £195 billion – five times the amount spent in this way in 1996.

Credit cards accounted for 39 per cent of plastic card spend, with £126 billion being spent in this way – twice the amount of 1996.

“The last ten years have seen a rapid rise in the popularity of plastic, with debit cards showing particularly strong growth,” said Sandra Quinn, Apacs’ director of communications.

“Consumers enjoy the ease and convenience plastic cards bring and today most retailers and supermarkets take plastic, as do an increasing number of professional service providers.

“Over the next ten years it is expected that spending on plastic cards will continue to dominate the payments arena, accounting for 89 per cent of growth in UK payment volumes by 2016,” she added.

Spending in the retail sector saw the gap between cash and card payments widen between 2005 and 2006.

Tags: card, Association, professional service providers, payment, card payments, apacs