Figures revealed* this week show that contactless payment cards have been a huge flop with consumers. The figures from APACS - the UK payments association - show that in April only 15000 transactions were made in total across the 6200 contactless point-of-sale terminals installed. Each terminal was therefore used less than 3 times a month on average.

Despite contactless payment being so unpopular with the public, the big banks are pressing ahead with plans to make it much more widely available. One bank alone is aiming to have a million cards in issue by the end of the year.

Indeed, in a 'double whammy' for consumers, contactless payment is being promoted, despite its acute unpopularity, whilst at the same time banks are striving to stop the use of cheques, which remain hugely popular with the public.

Ron Delnevo, Managing Director of Bank Machine, has called on banks and retailers to start respecting consumer choice. A former Director of the UK Payments Council, Ron Delnevo states:

"APACS is relentlessly negative about cheques and positive about cards of any description. Any fall in cheque use is played up, despite their continuing huge popularity, whereas the flop over contactless payments is played down. APACS has called the contactless payment figures 'modest' when, in reality, they're dismal in the extreme. It is a hopeless start for the scheme.

The facts are simple. APACS and the big banks like cards because they involve lower costs for them and loathe cheques because they're less profitable. But ultimately this will lead to restricted options for consumers and that is something we passionately want to avoid."

Research** by Bank Machine confirms the enduring popularity of cheques, despite a few major retailers (notably Tesco) recently banning their use.

• 64 per cent of the British public does not want to see cheques replaced by an electronic equivalent

• over-55s are the biggest users of cheques, but 18-24 years olds still use them on average eight times per year

• the northern regions of both England and Scotland are the UK's strongholds of cheque use.

A total of 1.6 billion cheques, with a value of £1.56 trillion, were written in 2007. Laid end to end, they would stretch around the world almost five times***.

Background notes

* The figures on contactless payment cards were revealed in comments to Cardline Global by Paul Rodford - APACS's Head of Card Payments.

** Survey commissioned by Bank Machine, and conducted by YouGov which interviewed almost 2,200 adults, in November 2007

*** APACS figures

Bank Machine created the UK's independent ATM market ten years ago and now has 2,500 cash machines in locations including cinemas, garage forecourts and retail outlets - ranging from Selfridges to convenience stores.

It began by installing pay-to-use cash machines in convenient locations but has since been building a free-to-use network - with over 500 free-to-use ATMs installed in, for example, NHS hospitals, military bases and low income areas.

Based in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Bank Machine (a division of Cardtronics Inc.) now has nearly 100 staff

For more information about Bank Machine, please visit its website (www.bankmachine.com) or contact Quintus's Fran Cooke (fran@quintuspa.com) or Iain Wilton (iain@quintuspa.com) by e-mail or calling 020 7340 6260.