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The Way We Pay 2007: UK Cheques reveals that in 2006 cheque volumes declined at their fastest ever rate, falling by eight per cent. Last year, only 54 per cent of adults made payments using cheques and only 47 per cent received a cheque payment. On average we now write 1.6 cheques a month and receive just one every two months, with half of adults no longer receiving any.

For personal payments, cheques have fallen from one in four non-cash payments in 1996, to just one in 14 in 2006. In the retail sector the decline has been particularly rapid, with cheques accounting for just three per cent of all non-cash transactions.

There were just over 4.9 million cheques issued each day in 2006, compared to 11 million in the peak year for cheque volumes, 1990. APACS predicts that by 2016 there will be only 2.5 million per day.

In 2005 each adult made 1.6 cheque payments per month, compared with 4.3 per month in 1991. The typical adult receives less than seven cheques on average per year. Only 5 million adults still use guaranteed cheques on a regular basis, compared to 16 million in 1996. Women make almost 52 per cent more guaranteed cheque payments than men.

Only one in eight regular bills is paid by cheque, compared with one in three as recently as 1995. By 2015 personal cheques will account for only 2.3 per cent of all non-cash payments made by individuals. The average value of a personal cheque payment is £223.

Only 4 per cent of retail spending by value is still paid by cheque, compared with over 60 per cent by debit or credit card. Business cheque use peaked in 1997. Since 2001 business-to-business cheques have seen rapid decline as businesses increasingly move to the use of automated payments for their trade suppliers.

Cheques do remain popular for certain types of payments. Around 23 per cent of all cheque payments are used to pay bills, and 13 per cent of personal cheques are used for person-to-person payments.

Personal cheque payments - breakdown

Sandra Quinn, director of communications at APACS, said: "Cheque use has really taken a tumble in the past decade as both consumers and businesses have increasingly made the move away from paper and opted for plastic and automated payments instead."

"Despite this we are not yet predicting the death of the cheque. Although volumes will continue to fall, we forecast that there will still be around 840 million cheques used in the UK in 2016 – if you placed these cheques end to end they would stretch around the world two and half times.”

To coincide with the publication of The Way We Pay 2007: UK Cheques report, APACS and the Cheque and Credit Clearing Company have launched a new, consumer-focused Cheques Fact Pack guide, which includes information about cheques and how they are processed and an explanation of how best to use them. This guide is freely available to download from the media section of www.apacs.org.uk.

The Cheque and Credit Clearing Company, which manages the cheque clearing system in Great Britain, has also launched a new, user-friendly website, www.chequeandcredit.co.uk. The website provides comprehensive, easy-to-access advice regarding all aspects of cheque payments and the clearing cycle. Frequent updates are planned surrounding new developments within the industry such as the changes to the cheque clearing processes – known as 2-4-6. The industry is on track to introduce these in November this year and, they will increase certainty and transparency for customers.

The Cheque and Credit Clearing Company is a membership-based industry body with a wide remit covering the processing of bankers' drafts, building society cheques, postal orders, warrants and government payable orders, along with the management of the systems for clearing paper bank giro credits and euro-denominated cheques.