Cheques start to check out

British consumers have fallen out of love with their cheque books, according to new figures.

Britons wrote an average of 290,000 fewer cheques each day during the three months to the end of June, compared with the same period of 2009, according to the Payments Council.

People instead turned to faster payment methods, such as debit cards, which increased in usage by 12.4 per cent. Cash withdrawals from ATMs fell 3.2 per cent.

Sandra Quinn of the Payments Council said: "The payments revolution continues apace in the UK. Cheque usage is shrinking … but we're years away from cash falling out of fashion."