Due to the sheer weight of opposition by the general public, the plan by the Payments Council to gradually phase out cheques has been cancelled.

The Payments Council consists of Banking members so it is not that surprising that they would like to get rid of this costly service in favour of various much cheaper to run, electronic options.

Various consumer groups have played a tremendous part in reversing the Council's plans to do away with cheques completely by 2018. Though the cheque user rate is declining big time, there are still millions of consumers either not comfortable making payments over the net, or potentially on their phone and for these people, many of them silver non surfers, the cheque will always be the preferred mode of payment.