WHILE it’s obviously the only way forward in our hi-tech world, it’s a shame that we are losing chequebooks.

Cheques will be phased out by October, 2018, provided adequate alternatives are developed, promises the board of the UK Payments Council. But Barclays, for example, has been sending its customers chequebooks with a message inside suggesting that customers bank online instead.

Debit cards and bank transfers all make the need for cheques rather obsolete but, for many people, this is still the method they prefer to use. There is something very reassuring about writing out a cheque, more in control of your finances. Receiving one is enduringly exciting.

In today’s online banking world it does make sense to use this method and it’s certainly very quick and efficient. But I for one will be sad to see cheques go – like real fivers, they are part of a more solid financial past.

UPDATE: The banking industry has advised that cheques are here to stay – there are no plans to phase them out and the project mentioned below was abandoned in 2011. In addition, a new, faster, image-based method of clearing cheques is being introduced from 30 October 2017, which will see cheque clearing times reduced from ‘six weekdays’ to ‘the end of the next weekday’.