An official date has been set to end the use of cheques to help prevent confusion among consumers.

The Payments Council has set a target date of the 31 October 2018 to close the central cheque clearing and over the next nine years will seek to promote and explain existing alternatives.

Cheque use has been in decline since 1990 and has fallen by 40 per cent over the last five years. However, there are still plenty of  situations where cheques are used extensively, including payments between individuals or to soel traders, small businesses, clubs, charities and schools.

The payments industry has to rise to the challenge of finding easy-to-use efficient alternatives for these payments and to ensure that they are easily accessible and well understood by cheque users.

The goal is to ensure that by 2018 there is no scenario where customers, individuals or businesses, still need to use a cheque.

Paul Smee, chief executive of the Payments Council, says, ‘Customers aren’t likely to see any immediate change as the target date is still a long way off. This announcement marks the start of extensive work that we need to do to ensure that everyone has a viable alternative should to cheque clearing close.

‘There are many more efficient ways f making payments than by paper in the 21st century, and the time is ripe for the economy as a whole to reap the benefits of its replacement.’