Cheque mate? Over a third have never used a cheque

Among all the talk of going digital, how many people are still using cheques? This is precisely what we’re exploring in this piece, asking consumers how often they write or cash a cheque.

According to results from a recent YouGov survey that polled consumers across 16 international markets, fewer than one in ten consumers across markets say they write cheques very often (4%) or somewhat often (8%). Close to two in five of them say they don’t write cheques very often (39%), while 45% of them say they’ve never written a cheque.

As for cashing a cheque, 12% of consumers across markets often cash a cheque while 46% of them don’t do it very often. More than a third of consumers (37%) say they have never cashed a cheque.

Data from the individual markets we survey reveals that Indians are the most likely across markets to say they write cheques often. Fewer than one in five Indians (17%) do so very often, while nearly a quarter (24%) do it somewhat often.

Consumers in the UAE (13%) and Australia (12%) write cheques very often as well, while equal proportions of those in the UAE (23%) and Poland (23%) write cheques somewhat often. Notably, Australia aims at phasing out the use of cheques by 2030, with government cheque usage to wind-up earlier, by 2028.

Consumers in France account for the largest proportion of those across markets who say they don’t write cheques very often (76%), followed by Britons (71%) and Hong Kongers (70%). In the US, 68% of consumers don’t write cheques very often as well - comparatively, 14% of Americans write cheques often.

Denmark accounts for the largest proportion of consumers (45%) who say they have never written a cheque. Nonetheless, Danes record a marginal 2% lead over bottom-placed Great Britain, where consumers are the least likely to say they write cheques often (5%).

Spaniards (42%) and Swedes (41%) follow Danes in saying they have never written a cheque.

Moving on to cashing cheques, consumers in India (38%) and the UAE (29%) are the most likely across markets to say they often cash a cheque. On the other hand, no one in Italy seems to be cashing cheques very often - just 2% of them write a cheque somewhat often.

Americans are more likely than Brits are (17% vs. 5%) to often cash a cheque. Brits (72%), in fact, closely follow French (73%) in saying they do not cash a cheque very often. Americans aren’t far behind, with 68% of them saying the same.

In Asia, Singaporeans account for the largest proportion of consumers (57%) who say they don’t cash cheques very often.

A majority of Poles (82%) have never cashed a cheque, followed by Swedes (74%) and Danes (71%). Nearly half of Indonesians (48%) have never cashed a cheque either - the most likely in Asia.

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Methodology: YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18+ years in 16 markets with sample sizes varying between 500 and 2040 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in January 2023. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.

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