# Cheques blanked?

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2007/06/26/cheques-blanked/
- Published: 2007-06-26T10:04:00+01:00
- Author: John Grain

**A short article caught my eye in the Times last Friday. Tucked away at the bottom
of one of the inside pages, was a piece about how the supermarket chain Morrisons
and Transport for London are both to stop accepting cheques from customers next 
month. This follows on the heels of other major retailers such as Boots, W H Smith,
Asda, Argos, Next, and many others who have already implemented such a measure.**

Apparently, extra processing time and greater fraud risk has driven these decisions,
together with the fact that cheques now account for less than ten per cent of non-
cash transactions (down from fifty per cent in 1990).
Anyone who has read Malcolm
Gladwell’s book ‘The Tipping Point’ would probably agree that the cheque clearly
appears to be on its last legs, if not yet in its final death throes. And don’t 
be too upset – it has had a good innings as the first one was written way back in
1659.

So I wonder how many organisations are actively planning for its final demise? It
may take a good while yet, and there might not be any need for concern, but the 
implications for direct mail in the long-term could be very significant.

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Always look for a silver lining though – I suppose it could mean the death knell
for those spectacularly unimaginative ‘giant cheque’ presentations for the local
paper.
 

 * **[Another chance to have your say about the future of cheques](https://fundraising.co.uk/2011/04/27/another-chance-have-your-say-about-future-cheques/)**(
   27 April 2011)
 * **[IoF and Rapidata to research decline of cheques and alternative giving methods](https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/02/16/iof-and-rapidata-research-decline-cheques-and-alternative-giving-methods/)**(
   16 February 2012)
 * **[Institute of Fundraising asks for views on future of cheques](https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/05/03/institute-fundraising-asks-views-future-cheques/)**(
   3 May 2012)