Chip and Pin spells the end of cheques

September 13, 2006

By Peter Kenny

The use of the chip and pin credit card has been an overwhelming success in the fight against credit card fraud. Other than the security scare recently with Shell garages in the South of England, overall, credit card fraud is down substantially.

A spin off from chip and pin credit cards is their ease of use at point of sales. Chip and pin is the reason we have faster transactions and shorter queues at point of sales in retail stores.

Consumers are now more likely to use their chip and pin credit card rather than their chequebook with figures showing a fall in cheque transactions of 35 per cent in the first quarter of 2006.

Retailers are now starting to notice the benefits of chip and pin is not just restricted to fraud and some have to restrict the use of cheques in their stores.

The large supermarket chains, Asda and Tesco, have already restricted the use of cheques in-store while Shell has completely banned them from use in their 900 petrol stations throughout the country.

Boots are the latest large retailer to announce restrictions on the use of cheques in their outlets. Starting with a trial in their 46 stores in Sussex and Surrey, Boots will not accept payments by cheque from September 26th and this trial will run until the end of November. Only payments by cash and credit card will be accepted.