Credit Cards Replacing Cheques

11th May 2007

Credit cards and debit cards are fast becoming the preferred choice for making payments, with the cheque book looking destined for the history books, according to new research released by APACS, the UK payments association.

The research has discovered that on average, people now write out less than two cheques each month and receive no more than seven cheques per year. Many retailers now no longer accept cheques as a payment, with Boots becoming the latest retailer to ban cheques following on from similar moves by Next and PC World which also no longer accept cheques.

Many companies, both large and small, now prefer to deal with credit or debit cards because there is no need to handle physical cash and all the security risks involved with handling large cash sums. If you are buying goods or services over the internet, then a credit or debit card is likely to be your only payment option.

With more people using their credit cards more often, credit card fraud has risen as well, although the rollout of Chip and PIN security has made it more difficult for fraudsters to get hands on your money.