You can use cash cards to withdraw money from your account at a bank branch or using an ATM. However, they cannot be used to make payments to sellers in person (for example, to pay for goods in a shop), online or over the phone. Providers offer current account cash cards to young people under 18 or people on low incomes to make it easier for them to get their cash 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from ATMs. Pete Martin, for example, is 16 years old and uses his cash card every week to withdraw money from an ATM, as he rarely goes to his bank branch as there is an ATM at the local shopping centre. Some savings accounts also offer cash cards. Visa and MasterCard are two payment systems that operate on computer networks that allow payments to be made from card holders’ accounts.

Debit cards give account holders access to cash from their account and can be used to pay for goods in-store, online, over the phone and through the mail. They work in the same way as electronic cheques because they are taken directly from your account. However, unlike cheques, debit cards are paid immediately. These debit cards are known as Visa debit cards, MasterCard maestro debit cards or Solo debit cards. Sellers display the brands of debit cards they accept at till points and on their websites. An authorisation means the seller is assured that the payment will be received. This is why sellers encourage customers to use debit cards, even though they have to pay a small fee to their bank to accept debit cards.

A pre-paid card is like an electronic wallet. The cardholder loads money onto the card and then uses it to pay for items or services. For instance, let’s say we have a customer, Petra, who lives and works in London and uses an Oyster card to pay for trips on the London bus or tube. To top up the Oyster card, she inserts the card into a machine and chooses how much money to put on it. She puts cash or a debit card into the payment machine and the cash is added to the Oyster card. Every time Petra touches the card reader while travelling on the bus or tube, the cost of the journey is deducted from her card and the Oyster card calculates the lowest rate to charge for the journey. When the balance is low, she repeats the process of loading money onto the Oyster card or sets up an auto top up so that the balance is topped up when the balance is below a certain limit.

Some pre-paid debit or prepaid cards can be used for a low limit of contactless payments per transaction. These cards allow cardholders to hold their card close to a reader instead of entering a PIN into a device. The benefit of contactless payments is that transactions can be processed very quickly. Sometimes the system will ask for a PIN as a security check to prevent fraud. Visa and MasterCard both offer a touch-free service on their cards, and there are more than 100 million touch-free cards in use in the UK today. Contactless payments were introduced as a way to replace cash. In fact, by 2017 billions of pounds were being spent every month using touch-free payments (Ansayan, 2017). Some contactless payments can also be made using your smartphone. For instance, Apple Pay uses mobile technology to allow customers with an Apple iPhone to make touch-free payments instead of credit and debit cards. You can also set up your smartwatch to make a contactless payment, for example through Apple Pay or Google Pay.

A banker’s draft looks like a cheque and is processed through the clearing system. However, it’s signed by the provider instead of an individual. This means that payment is guaranteed. Typically, bankers’ drafts are used to pay large amounts of money where a personal cheque wouldn’t be suitable. For example, let’s say you’re buying a new car using the money you inherited from your grandmother. The car dealer will accept a bank draft for the entire amount and let you drive away with the new car. If you wanted to pay with a personal cheque, they’ll ask you to wait 10 days to make sure the money has transferred before you can take possession of the car. Your provider will charge you for issuing a bank draft, but you’re willing to pay the extra cost for the ease of taking possession of the car right away.

Despite the downsides of cheques, and the benefits of alternative payment methods, the number of cheques being written and received has decreased each year since 1990. According to the C&CCC, in 1990 there were 11 million cheques being written every day. By 2013, that number had dropped to 2 million. In a survey of UK account holders conducted by the C&CCC in 2019, just 29% of those surveyed said they had made payments using cheques, and only 33% said they had received payment using cheques. The UK Payments Council announced plans to phase out cheques by 2018 in 2009, but many people and organisations objected; the plan was criticised by Parliament's Treasury select committee. Some argued that cheques are still useful and important, for example for small businesses and for the many elderly who don't feel comfortable using methods like electronic payments. The Payments Council decided in 2011 that cheques will continue to be used for the foreseeable future.

Even though cheque imaging has made it much easier to clear cheques, people or organisations who accept cheques still can’t be sure that they’ll get the money right away. Providers can’t honour cheques (i.e. make the payment stated on the cheque), if the person who writes the cheque doesn’t have enough cash in their account to pay for the transaction. In this case, the cheque is marked ‘unpaid,’ and sent back to the person (the payee) who wrote it. This is called ‘bouncing,’ and it’s very rare – only about 0.5% or so of all cheques come back unpaid each day. Until 30 June 2011, cheque guarantee cards were offered by providers, meaning cheques up to £50 or £100 (depending on the value of the cheque) were guaranteed to be paid. However, since the scheme was discontinued in 2011, there’s no guarantee that cheques will be paid, so people only accept cheques from people they know they can trust. Some businesses, including many big retailers, refuse to take cheques.

Cheques are secure (they can only be paid into the same account as the person/organisation specified on the cheque), easy to carry and use, and for some small businesses, cheques are their go-to method of payment.

Mobile banking allows account holders to provide payment instructions via the internet on their mobile phone. Account holders can download a mobile banking application from their provider that includes security features. Banking apps allow account holders to check their balance, digitally pay cheques, set up direct debit and standing order, and transfer money between accounts. Since April 2014, customers have been able to use the faster payments service via their mobile using a service called paym. Account holders need to nominate the account to which the paym service will be connected, and register the mobile number with their paym (paym, 2018).

CHAPS is a same day automated payment method used for very large amounts of money. John Martin was buying a new family home and needed to make a payment of £150k to his solicitor's business account to cover the cost of the purchase. John went to his bank branch and filled out a form to pay his provider. He was charged £25 by the bank to make the payment. John thought it was worth as the payment was secure and would be paid directly into the solicitor's business account on the same day.

The best part about electronic payments is that they’re fast, secure and easy to make. Most of them are free as long as you have enough money in your current account to complete the transaction. You can also set up automated payments to make recurring transactions. This means that you’ll never have to worry about making a transfer or paying your bills on time without any extra effort on your part. There are various types of electronic payments available to suit different customer requirements.

Payment services like PayPal allow people to make payments to each other without having to exchange current account information. For example, if Debbie wants to buy something on eBay using PayPal, she can set up a PayPal account and link it to her current account. This way, she can tell PayPal to make payments, and PayPal will withdraw the money from her account. PayPal also allows you to link your PayPal account to a debit or credit card. When you want to pay using PayPal, you can tell PayPal to pay someone else's or organisation's PayPal account by giving them your email address or phone number. Payment services like PayPal are very secure because sellers never see the buyer's personal financial information. PayPal also safeguards users from unauthorized payments made to their account.

A standing order is a set amount of money to be paid into another account on a regular basis. For example, on the 5th of each month, you can pay £50 into a savings account from each of your current accounts. Raj and Tamsin were saving for their holiday. Instead of transferring the money manually, they went to their branch and filled out forms to create a standing order of £50 each month. Their bank will follow these standing orders until they are told to stop making the payments. With standing orders, these transactions happen automatically and there is no need for any further action from you or your current account provider. You can set up a standing order by giving instructions to your current account provider in writing, by phone or online. You can cancel the order at any time and at no cost as long as you have enough money in your current account to cover the payment.