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Time To Throw The Chequebook Away

20/01/2010

By Adrian Stafford-Jones, Managing Director, Albany Software

According to the latest payment industry figures, published in 'The Way We Pay 2009: UK Cheques', cheque usage has dropped to its lowest rate yet falling by 12 percent last year. The total number written by individuals has fallen by nearly half in 6 years; from 1.35 billion in 2003, to 711 million last year.

And with cheques synonymous with longer clearing times - making a potential late payment even later - and exacerbating cash flow issues in what are difficult economic trading conditions, businesses are now recognising just how beneficial Direct Debits and Faster Payments are in facilitating automated payments that improve cash flow whilst saving time, cost and resource.

Since the launch of the UK Faster Payments Service (FPS) in May 2008 it has now processed more than 180 million payments totalling over £70bn, and the authors of the FPS report - VocaLink and PricewaterhouseCoopers - are expecting the majority of corporate payments to migrate from CHAPS payments across to FPS once Direct Corporate Access is fully integrated in all member banks.

With this in mind, it is difficult to understand why any company would choose to continue to send and receive cheque payments, when investing in simple software allows businesses to set up secure, validated Electronic Funds Transfers in an instant.

It's time to throw the chequebook away.

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