KEY POINTS:
Over the past five centuries, the humble cheque has wormed _ and occasionally bounced _ its way into our affections as a convenient alternative to cash.
But nowadays the hand-written negotiable instrument is having a hard time competing in cost and convenience with electronic forms of payment.
In Britain, where the first cheque was drawn in 1659, retail chain Tesco has banned the use of cheques in its 2000 stores, and Marks and Spencer is introducing a ban today, the Observer newspaper reported this month.
The stores, with other retailers including Boots, Asda and Sainsbury's, are insisting on cash or plastic instead.
Only one in eight British bills is paid by cheque, down from a third in 1995, and it is predicted just 2.3 per cent of all non-cash payments will be made by cheque in Britain by 2016, the paper says.
In New Zealand, Bankers Association figures show cheque use is falling almost as fast as electronic transactions are rising.
More than 177 million Magnetic Ink Character Recognition transactions _ the banking category that includes cheques _ took place in 2006.
That was down on the 2005 total of 185.5 million.
The number of debit and credit card transactions through eftpos terminals increased from just over 800 million in 2005 to 857 million in 2006.
Association chief executive Alan Yates told the Weekend Herald eftpos transactions held an obvious advantage over cheques for retailers as they provided "instant approval" of funds.
Cheque transactions were more labour-intensive than their electronic counterparts, as they required manual processing.
But despite the declining numbers, Mr Yates was not willing to predict the death of the cheque. "Whether or not they will ever disappear, I don't know.
"There are still 170 million; that's still a lot of cheques processed every day."
It would be a brave bank that tried to abolish the humble cheque.
"If banks did get rid of cheques, I think there might be a few people quite upset about that _ judging by those volumes."
Westpac Bank spokesman Craig Dowling said "paper payments" _ cheque and deposit slips _ had been declining at a "fairly consistent rate" of 8-10 per cent a year.
But they remained popular for bill payments and supplier payments.
He said the bank would continue to offer cheque services in future, although declining general use of cheques meant it was possible that costs might rise.
Retailers Association chief executive John Alberton said cheques would almost inevitably become a thing of the past, as businesses liked the "immediacy" of electronic transactions.
New Zealanders had increasingly moved towards electronic purchases since the advent of eftpos in the mid-1980s. Mr Alberton said most cheque transactions were likely to be business-to-business dealings.
