ASDA trials the end of the cheque book
Asda is testing a cash and plastic-only policy at 21 stores within the M25 following a steady decline in cheque usage.
A spokesman said: “The idea behind it is to see whether it speeds up time at the check-out. Cheques do take time and we know queues are a bugbear. Paying by cheque is more time consuming than by card or cash.”
According to APACS cheques now account for only 6% of retail spending compared to 60% for debit and credit cards.
APACS head of public relations Jemma Smith said: “There is a generation of people who have grown up without having a cheque book around. We have moved away from cheques and cash and are increasingly turning to plastic, particularly our debit cards.”
Recent figures show that 6 million cheques per day were issued in the UK in 2004 compared to 22.8 million credit and debit card transactions.
The peak for cheque usage was in 1990 when 11 million per day were issued in the UK, APACS said.
Asda’s decision follows Shell who stopped accepting cheques at its forecourts in Britain on September 5 last year, saying the move was “in line with the general trend within the retail sector”.
Tesco said its chain will continue to accept cheques and had no plans to stop doing so in the foreseeable future.
