12 May 2008


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Debit cards replacing cheques at retailers

Cheque spending in the high street has fallen by 7.5% as retailers stop accepting cheques at the tills, according to credit and debit card companies.

Figures released by APACS, the UK payments association, show plastic cards accounted for 65% of all UK retail spending last year.

Spending on debit cards rose by 11%.

The statistics, which cover all retail transactions in 2007 (both online and offline), show debit card spending at 42% (£109bn) of the total £261bn spent, against cheques at 3% (£7.5bn) and cash at 32% (£84bn).

While debit cards are experiencing a hike in usage, credit card spending at retailers has plateaued over the last three years.

Sandra Quinn, director of communications at APACS, said: “As retailers are increasingly deciding to stop accepting cheques, it is expected that a large proportion of those payments will migrate to debit card payments.

"This will simply accelerate a change that is well underway as over the last three years we have seen debit card spending rise 31%, cheque spending fall 33% and cash spending reach a point of equilibrium.”

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