Why charities are still clinging to using a giant cheque

Before internet banking became the main way to pay and send money there was another way to do it — by writing a cheque.

According to the Image Clearing System (ICS), cheque volume has declined 49% from 2021 to 2025.

Personally, I only get a cheque as a birthday or Christmas gift from an elderly relative, but there seems to be a group of people who still want to cling to using this old-fashioned form of banking — charities who love an oversized piece of card with big numbers on.

It is seen as one way of showcasing fundraising activities by proudly posing by a giant cheque.

On Monday, Carlos Baldry, the organiser of the Wellingborough-based Rust Bucket Rally, did just that and presented a large cheque of £135,000 at Northampton General Hospital to help fund two years of bereavement counselling by the Cambridgeshire-based charity Petals.

Although it was not legal tender he said it was “the physicality of handing something over”.

“All the money we have raised, over the years, we never see it, as it’s done online,” he said.

“This way it’s ceremonious, it makes it more visible, it resonates a bit more with people.”

He said after the event “every one of us came away thinking how lovely it was. You don’t normally get that on a Monday morning”.

“I’m 50, so I still know what they are and none of us want to let go of the past.”