SMEs lose £550m a year in missing cheques
Up to £550m is lost every year by SMEs forgetting to pay in or losing cheques written to their business, research by Barclays Business banking has found.
Of those that have lost or forgotten to deposit a cheque, two in five (38%) admit to doing it only on one occasion, however one in five (20%) say that they forget at least once a week and an additional 15% reckon this happens once a month, losing an average of £740. This means that around 1 million businesses are missing out on hard earned funds on a regular basis.
The average value of SME’s missing cheques is £740 but male owners confess to losing more than this – £925 on average. This is £200 more than the national average and twice as much as the £417 women lose. More women (59%) say they have lost a business cheque only once, double the number of men (26%).
Barclays was the first UK bank to pilot mobile cheque imaging technology that enables Barclays’ customers to pay in Barclays’ cheques at any time and any place with just a few quick clicks. The innovative scheme enables customers to upload and pay-in a Barclays cheque from their smartphones or tablets – making one of the world’s oldest forms of payment more compatible with the demands of modern life.
Ian Rand, CEO of business banking at Barclays, said:
“No business should miss out on their hard earned takings but the £550m lost each year by SMEs losing or forgetting to deposit their cheques highlights the scale of the problem. We want to take the hassle out of cheque depositing for busy business owners so they can pay in their cheque instantly through their smartphone or tablet.”
Younger business owners are more likely to make this oversight once a week with one in three (34%) entrepreneurs aged 18-35 saying they forget or lose a cheque weekly. This falls to one in 10 (12%) for those aged 36-54.
Despite many changes in the way people can bank, cheques remain a popular method of payment. Latest figures from Barclays alone show that more than 90m cheques were paid in over the last 12 months, with a value in excess of £140bn. The mobile cheque imaging pilot, which Barclays has played a key role in bringing to the UK public, has so far seen more than 57,000 customers registered and over £3m paid into Barclays accounts.
Ian Rand, CEO of business banking at Barclays, said:
“With mobile cheque imaging Barclays has innovated to bring one of the oldest forms of payment into the 21st century and the feedback from our customers has been overwhelmingly positive.”
