Payment methods 'have revolutionised'

Thursday, April 15th 2010

The 1990s was "the decade of the debit card" and paying by card has "flourished" in recent years, according to a new report.

Published by the Payments Council yesterday (April 14th), The Way We Pay 2010 found there had been a revolution in payment methods during the 1990s.

Mike Bowman, head of policy and markets at the Payments Council commented: "Now there are no fiddly bits of paper and time-consuming signatures there's no tutting from the queue behind."

It is now completely normal for consumers to purchase small, low-value items on their credit or debit cards, he added.

And cheque usage has dropped in the past 20 years, with only 0.8 per cent of retail transactions using this method.

Mr Bowman predicted the cheque will continue to decline in use and explained its fall has been faster than expected.

But Michelle Mitchell, charity director at Age UK, explained that many older people will still be seriously affected if cheques were no longer in use.