Britons’ uncashed cheques equate to £324 million

Nov. 9, 2010 - PRLog -- Latest research by the UK’s leading discount and voucher code website has revealed that there could be as much as £324,000,000 worth of uncashed cheques amongst UK adults.

www.MyVoucherCodes.co.uk polled a sample of 1,721 UK adults, asking them questions surrounding their usage of cheques and their banking habits. 54% of the respondents claimed to have an uncashed cheque at home and 61% either didn’t own or didn’t use a cheque book.

The respondents with uncashed cheques were asked to specify the value of the cheques they had and http://www.MyVoucherCodes.co.uk worked out the average amount that rested with each of the adults, which was £15.

With around 40,000,000 adults in the UK today and a potential 54% of those having an uncashed cheque to the value of £15, on average, that could equate to a total of at least £324 million worth of uncashed checks in the UK alone.

When asked why they had not cashed cheques they had been given, almost a third, 31%, put it down to lack of time, stating they just hadn’t been able to get to their bank. 3% said it was an amount ‘not worth banking’; whilst 11% said they kept forgetting about it.

Of those with uncashed cheques, 9% claimed to have had them for more than one year. Of these, 26% said they would feel ‘guilty’ cashing the cheque now, in case the person who had given it to them in the first place could no longer afford to part with the funds.

74% wanted to see the introduction of a service allowing people to cash cheques using online or telephone banking, whilst 62% said it was probable that cheques would be redundant by 2020.

Farhad Farhadi, personal finance expert at http://www.MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, commented on the findings;

“Previous research we’ve carried out found that many people thought cash could be obsolete by 2030, so cheques surely have their days numbered. I was surprised to see that so many people had an uncashed cheque at home and, more surprised at the fact that the average value was around £15.

“£324 million is a huge amount of money and even £15 can buy you a lot these days, so I would certainly suggest cashing a cheque as soon as you receive it. I’d agree that the process of cashing a cheque could be made easier, as many people really don’t find the time to visit a bank. Perhaps the next step will be improved online and telephone banking services, to make things easier for consumers.”

LINK http://www.MyVoucherCodes.co.uk

ENDS

For more information, or to arrange interviews, please contact Shannon Haigh or 10 Yetis PR Agency on shannon@10yetis.co.uk.

EDITORS NOTES

Mark Pearson, Chairman of MyVoucherCodes is a regular media contributor regarding online shopping and the credit crunch. At 29, his personal worth is more than £30 million. Mark was previously a trainee chef working for Gordon Ramsay at Claridges, London.

MyVoucherCodes has had sales exceeding £481m in the last year

Consumer savings on online shopping via MyVoucherCodes.co.uk up from £28m in 2008 to £52m in 2009.

MyVoucherCodes is the UK’s most popular discount site.