Mon, 1 Aug 2011

Cheque out

Plans to phase out cheques have been quashed by the UK Payments Council, which had been working for two years on plans to replace the method of payment.

The move follows concerns that there was not an effective paperbased alternative to replace the system of cheques.

A spokesperson for the UK Payments Council insisted the move was ‘not a u-turn as we never said we would definitely phase out cheques. We had [said] that if a viable alternative had been found in 2016, then we would phase cheques out by 2018.’

He added: ‘Cheques are safe and not going anywhere, but we will look at alternatives and how to improve the system.’

The council admitted confusion after it announced in the same month that cheques were to stay, having recently begun phasing out cheque guarantee cards from 30 June 2011.