The Maltese are still very fond of cheques, writing almost 4.8 million of them in 2018 – roughly 12 for each and every man, woman and child.
Out of all the payment transactions, 17.3 per cent are done by cheque, over 10 times the European Union percentage. And the influx of new payment methods has not really dented people’s love of cheques: quite the contrary – there were 591 more issued in 2018 compared with 2017.
And the government is not helping to cut down on the number handled: figures for 2018 were 20 per cent higher, mainly because of 200,000 tax rebate cheques sent out as a Budget measure. Had it not been for these cheques, the number would actually have gone down by 11.2 per cent.
The survey was carried out during the first quarter of 2018 by the Central Bank of Malta, assisted by the National Statistics Office.
It found that there has been a significant increase in alternative forms of payment over the past five years – the last time that the survey was carried out. There were considerably more people who had access to online payments, direct debits and prepaid cards. However, people still prefer debit cards, credit cards – and yes, cheques.
Cash is used to pay for 59.3 per cent of all bills
The CBM study, conducted by Charles Saliba and Mary Ann Muscat, stressed that cheques are not an efficient way to pay, with a long clearing cycle, and very labour intensive and costs processing. However, since this is ‘free’ to the user, they remain an attractive form of payment.
There is another problem, however: the business community might not be too keen on accepting “non-paper means of payment”, it said.
People also seem very resistant to change, with over half the respondents saying that they had not changed the ways in which they pay for things – excluding cash and cheques – over the past five years.
The method of payment chosen is mostly driven by convenience (60.2 per cent) followed by efficiency (36.7 per cent) and safety and security (30.7 per cent), but the CBM report said an education campaign was sorely needed to compare the features, advantages and risks of each form.
Cash remains king, and is used by 86.7 per cent of households for groceries, 69.1 per cent for consumables and 46 per cent of non-consumables.
And in spite of all the different payments methods being recommended by the utilities company, cash is still used to pay for 59.3 per cent of all bills. However, inroads are being made with 37.1 per cent paying these bills online.
Will things change? Asked how they anticipate making payments in the future, a significant percentage said that they intended to make more use of debt and credit cards in the future.
There was also a major difference when the responses were analysed by age group with the younger much more predisposed towards online payment and direct debits than those over 55.