Irish News: Business

The use of cheques fell by 10 per cent during the second quarter of this year as people switched to faster, more convenient methods of payment. People in Britain and Northern Ireland wrote an average 290,000 fewer cheques each day during the three months to the end of June, compared with the same period of 2009, the payments council said. They turned instead to faster payment methods , such as debit cards and the Faster Payments system to transfer money between accounts.

Debit card usage rose by 12.4 per cent during the period, while the level of transactions carried out on the Faster Payments system soared by 67 per cent as more banks made the service available to their customers. The increased use of debit cards also reduced the amount of cash people used. The amount of cash withdrawn from ATMs, generally seen as a proxy for the amount of cash used for transactions, was lower than during the same quarter of the previous year.

Credit card spending was also weak, rising by 3.9 per cent, barely ahead of inflation, due to the ongoing shortage of credit, as well as increased debit card useage. Repayments continued to match new spending on credit cards as consumers shied away from increasing their borrowings.

Maxol Direct Comment

General Manager – Paul Hackett, confirms that Maxol Direct has seen similar trends in the home heating oil sector particularly with the continued growth in online ordering. “Certainly we’ve noticed a decline in cheque and cash payments in favour of more convenient card payments and we offer ongoing incentives for customers to pay by Debit Card. It’s fast, it’s secure and our customers enjoy the lower cost benefits."

"We're also noticing that customers are more focused than ever on budgeting their home heating requirements. This has led to an increase in interest in our Diamond Account which allows customers to spread the cost of their heating oil bills throughout the year by BACS Direct Debit."