Key Payment Facts (2010)

In 2010:

Almost 4 in 10 of non-cash payments were made by debit card.
38 million adults used cash machines regularly.
Cheques declined by more than 150 million from the year before.
Cash accounted for almost 61% of consumer payments by volume.
51% of adults used internet or telephone banking to initiate payments.
Payments made through internet or telephone banking grew faster than those made by any other payment method.
Automated payments accounted for 71% (excluding CHAPS) of bulk payment values.

In the future it is projected that:

In 2013, Direct Debits will be used for more than two in three of all personal regular bills.
In 2014, there will be more payments made by non-cash methods than by cash by volume.
In 2014, automated credit volumes will exceed 3 billion for the first time.
In 2020, cash machines will account for 79% of the value of all personal cash acquired.
In 2020, cards will account for 70% of non-cash payment volumes.
In 2019, automated payments will account for 87%(excluding CHAPS) of payment values.
In 2010 there will be just under 4.47 million cheques.

In 2010:

By the year-end there were 63,137 cash machines a 0.4% increase on 2009. 97.6% of cash withdrawn was from free-to-use cash machines.
There were 21,686 pay-to-use machines at the end of 2010.
The total value of all withdrawals from cash machines declined in 2010 to £186 billion – an average of £5,891 per second.
70% of cash withdrawn by individuals was through cash machines.

In 2010:

There were 165.3 million cards in issue – 55.6 million credit cards, 6.6 million charge cards, 84.6 million debit cards, 18.3 million ATM-only cards and 0.2 million stand-alone cheque guarantee cards.
Credit and charge cards were used to make 2.0 billion purchases in the UK to a value of £136 billion.
Credit and charge card purchase volumes are projected to increase to 2.9 billion by 2020, with spend in that year of £196 billion.
There were 33.1 million regular users of debit cards, each making 190 payments on average during the year in the UK with an average transaction value of £45.
The number of debit card payments is forecast to grow from 6.4 billion to 12.8 billion payments between 2010 and 2020, and spending to increase from £292 billion to £616 billion over the same period.
36.6 million adults purchased goods and services over the internet, equating to 72% of the adult population.
717 million card payments were made online with a total spend of £54 billion.

Did you know?

If all the cheques processed in 2010 were laid end-to-end, they would stretch almost 2.9 times round the world. This compares with 9 times around the world in 2000 and in 1990, the peak year for the number of cheques processed, 12 times.
The average value of a cheque in 2009 was £981, more than double the figure in 1990 (£482).
Of a typical day’s cheque clearing in 2009, more than half were written £76 or below and 33 had a value in excess of £1 million; £25 was the most common amount.

In 2010:

Cheque volumes declined by more than 150 billion from the year before.
Cheques represented 5% of all non-cash transactions made by individuals.
There were 598 million cheque transactions made by businesses.
Cheques represented 20% of all non-cash transactions made by businesses. (2009 figure)

Did you know?

In 2010 the Faster Payments Scheme processed 426 million payments for a value of £164 billion. Payments include those made over the internet, phone and by standing order.
In 2010 Bacs were responsible for processing over 22 million items per clearing day, with an average value of £716.
The carbon footprint of an ongoing Direct Debit is just 0.76g CO2 per payment – a tiny proportion in comparison to cheques, which generate carbon emissions of 49.3g CO2 each time they are used.
In 2010, in excess of 127,000 CHAPS items were processed each clearing day for an average value of £243 billion.

In 2009:

There were 6.4 billion automated payments in the UK, 2.8% more than in 2008.
Automated methods accounted for 40% of all non-cash payments in the UK.
Direct Debits were used to pay 67% of all regular personal and household commitments.
The average value of a personal Direct Debit was £82.
Automated credits were used for 88% of all payments from businesses to individuals.
Bacs Direct Credits were used for 98% of all payments for state benefits and pensions.
The average value of an automated credit payment from businesses to individuals was £445.
The Faster Payments Service processed 137 million forward dated and single immediate payments.
13 million adults in the UK made payments by standing order.
By the end of the year, around half of inter-bank standing orders were processed through the Faster Payments Service.
CHAPS volumes fell by 4.7%, but still accounted for 92.5% of total clearing values.
3.2 billion Direct Debits and 2.3 billion Bacs Direct Credits were processed in 2010.

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