05-12-2007
Validity of cheques highlighted by UK consumer group
News by Adfero for Simply Business - independent providers of business insurance, business finance, landlord insurance, buy-to-let mortgages & commercial mortgages.
As a form of payment, cheques still have a role to play in British society, a UK consumer group has claimed.
Although the decline in the use of the cheque has been widely reported, Which? believes that it is still a useful method of payment, as it is often used by small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) when settling invoices.
Moreover, Which? believes that cheques are also used by private individuals during financial transactions. "We carried out some consumer research ourselves earlier this year and we found that 72 per cent of people said they used cheques less than they did five years ago," said a representative for Which?. "[However,] the majority of people still said they found them really useful," she added.
In related news, Data released by Apacs, the payment association for the UK, shows that cheque transactions fell to 1.8 billion over the course of 2006 - a decline of eight per cent and reportedly the fastest on record.