Cheque use continues to fall in France and now accounts for just 3% of non-cash payments – down from 20% in 2007 - but fraud remains relatively high.
The value of payments made by cheque fell by 13.4% in 2023 compared to 2022, according to figures from the Banque de France’s Observatoire de la sécurité des moyens de paiement (OSMP).
There was also a decline in cheque fraud in 2023, to €364million – 8% less than the year before.
However, the fall was less than the value of cheques, so per transaction the rate of fraud was 0.078% compared to 0.073% the year before.
“Cheques remain the most frauded method of payment, with 80% of frauds reported being related to cheques,” Anna Meylacq, of bank comparison website Panorabanques, told The Connexion.
Read more: French banks applying ‘irregular’ charges on clients, fraud office check reveals
Where does cheque fraud happen?
“Almost all the fraud comes from cheque books being stolen at the moment they are delivered, with criminals still looking for them when they raid letter boxes.”
In 2003, banks were allowed to use new procedures, including holding back cheque payments so they can be verified, and the OSMP said these had helped to deter fraud.
Banks are also being urged to hand over cheque books in the branch, rather than sending them through the post.
The rate of cheque fraud is relatively high compared to other payment methods.
Direct bank transfers of large sums by virement were the most secure method of paying, with 0.001% of transactions made by crooks, followed by no-contact bank card transactions at 0.011%. The fraud rate of mobile phone non-contact payments was 0.021%.
However, instant payments (virement instantané) is an area where French banks have been slow to catch up with some other countries, with a 0.04% fraud level.
Normal bank card payments, the most popular way of paying in France, have fraud rates of 0.053%, a level which has been steady for years.
Ms Meylacq said that in spite of the problems with cheques, banks will find it very difficult to make people pay to use them, or to get rid of them altogether.
The right to have a chequebook
“Being able to pay and be paid by cheque for free is seen as an acquired right and as such should not be touched,” she said.
“Around me, people in their 20s say they do not have chequebooks, but almost everyone else does, even if they only use it once a year.
“In everyday life they are useful to pay for school expenses, and things such as deposits on holiday accommodation, and I do not see that changing.
“In rural areas a garage or a farm shop must have a very good internet connection to be able to use a card machine, and that costs, and is not always available.”
The only banks in France which do not offer chequebooks to retail customers automatically when they open accounts are online ones.
Read more: More French banks offer virtual payment cards: How do they work?
BoursoBank, Fortuneo and Hello Bank all only send out chequebooks if customers request them, and Hello Bank says that 10% of its account holders still do so.
Cashing cheques with online banks is also more complicated than going into a traditional branch and putting the cheque and paying-in slip into a machine.
Customers must either scan or photograph the cheque, and then send it in by email, with payment taking longer than in most physical banks.
Non-French online banks operating in France, such as N26 and Revolut, do not offer chequebooks at all.
Ms Meylacq said cheques could still be part of French life in 40 years time.
“Banks have been grumbling about the expense of the cheque system for 20 years and they are still here, and so far there has been nothing to replace them.
“We might get an entirely new way of paying to replace cheques but there is nothing on the horizon at the moment.”
What banks think of cheque use
The Fédération Bancaire Française, the main bank trade body, told The Connexion that it would not comment on tariff issues, saying “but there is no demand for things to change.”
Asked if banks would like to see even fewer cheques used, the FBF replied: “The facts are that clients are using fewer cheques – down 13.4% in 2023, equal to a 50% fall since 2017.
“The banking industry is making more modern, digital payment methods available, which are safer with less fraud, and which match client payment patterns, such as bank cards, instant payments (virements), and the Wero wallet.”
*France remains one of the European countries where cash is a favoured method of payment.
Dutch business consultants BearingPoint surveyed cash use across the EU’s trading zone, and found 51% of all transactions in France were done with cash.
Only Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Ireland had higher cash use.
By contrast, in Sweden only 28% of transactions were cash, and in Denmark 35%.
A separate survey for Monnaie de Paris, responsible for making and regulating coins in the country, found 80% of French people said they remained “strongly attached” to cash and, on average, French people had €55 of cash in their wallets, in case it was needed.
