Key Cheque Facts and Figures

• There were just over 3.8 million cheques issued each day in 2008, compared to  11 million in the the peak year for cheque volumes, 1990.  By 2018 there will be only 1.6 million per day.
• In 2008 each adult made 1.1 cheque payments per month, compared with 2.9 per month in 1998.
• Each adult receives, on average, fewer than five cheques per year.
• Only 4 million adults still use guaranteed cheques on a regular basis, compared to 10 million in 2000.
• Only one in 12 regular commitments is paid by cheque, compared with one in 5 as recently as 2000.
• By 2018 personal cheques will account for only 1.3% of all non-cash payments made by individuals.
• The average value of a personal cheque payment is £267.
• Only 3.9% of retail spending by value is still paid by cheque, compared with over 60% by debit or credit card.
• Business cheque use peaked in 1997 at 1.2 billion transactions and had fallen to 692 million by 2008 as businesses increasingly move to the use of automated payments for their trade suppliers. 
• Over the next ten years business cheque volumes are expected to drop by 51%.
• Credit clearing volumes peaked in 1998 when 178 million bank giro credits were cleared.  In 2008, 86 million were cleared, less than half the volume in 1998.

• 92% of the items going through the credit clearing are for bill payments.

• Euro clearing volumes peaked in 2003 when 729,000 euro cheques were cleared.  By 2008, only five years later, this volume had dropped by nearly 40% to 445,000.