Debit Cards Replacing Cheques at Retailers in UK

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

Interestingly, the findings also reveal that whilst the debit card is experiencing a hike in usage, credit card spending at retailers has plateaued over the last three years. This suggests that people are tending to prefer a ’pay now’ approach as opposed to a ‘pay later’ option, when at the tills.

UK retail spending*
	2007	2006	2005	2004
Debit cards	£109bn	£98bn	£89bn	£83bn
Credit cards	£61bn	£60bn	£61bn	£61bn
Plastic card total	£170bn	£158bn	£150bn	£143bn
Cash spending	£84bn	£81bn	£81bn	£84bn
Cheques	£7.4bn	£8.0bn	£9bn	£11bn

 

Sandra Quinn, director of communications at APACS says: “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.

“We are becoming increasingly reliant on our plastic cards at retailers as they offer us convenience, speed and access to services, such as the cashback facility, which other payment options cannot provide. Different situations suit certain payments and it seems that the high street is truly the place for the debit card.”