FIVE years hence, paying by cheque at a car dealer will have become something from the past.
Already, since 2004, the number of cheque payments across all sectors has fallen by a third. This is a trend even more noticeable amongst car retailers.
Dealer management systems specialists Pinewood reckons that Chip & PIN has finally done for the torn-off strip of paper. Where dealers install such systems, they don’t accept cheques at all.
It’s been a rapid switch, alright. ‘As recently as 10 years ago, the majority of payments made at dealerships were by cheque or bankers draft,’ said Pinewood MD Neville Briggs.
‘The movement to, firstly, credit and debit card payment and, more recently, Chip and PIN has been very pronounced, and dealers are embracing our technology wholeheartedly.’
Pinewood’s Pinnacle is currently the UK’s only DMS with built-in Chip & PIN processing, and offers a range of benefits. Security, for one: the customer’s plastic doesn’t have to be taken out of their sight.
It also saves time, by automatically reconciling within the DMS all debit and credit card transactions. Before, staff had to tediously do this manually at the end of the day. Few, therefore, will be mourning the loss of the cheque…
