UK payments association APACS said the number of cheques being written to individuals has halved in ten years, from two billion to one billion a year. In 2006, cheque use declined at its fastest ever rate.

The Way We Pay 2007 report found cheques now represent just one in ten of all non-cash transactions.

But APACS said it was premature to sound the death knell on payment by cheque.

A spokeswoman said:

"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 a half times."