Payment by cheque to become almost unknown at dealerships within five years

24 July 2008

 

Cheques will become almost unknown as a method of payment at dealerships within five years, according to dealer management systems specialist Pinewood.

 

Since 2004, the number of cheques accepted by general UK retailers has fallen by 33 percent; Pinewood says that this trend is even more noticeable among motor dealers.

 

Pinewood recently introduced integrated chip and PIN payments for its Pinnacle DMS, and says that many dealers adopting this technology do not accept cheques at all.

 

Managing director said Neville Briggs said: "As recently as 10 years ago, the majority of payments made at dealerships were by cheque or bankers draft but cheques are likely to disappear altogether very soon in the same way as other retail environments. A good example of this trend is that many fuel retailers no longer accept cheques as a form of payment.

 

"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."

 

Dealers adopting integrated DMS chip and PIN payments access a range of benefits. Importantly, payments can be processed without taking a debit or credit card out of sight of the customer – something that is still widespread in dealerships thanks to the use of old PDQ card machines.

 

Also, it solves one of the most time consuming daily accounting problems found in dealerships by automatically reconciling within the DMS all debit and credit card transactions, until now an unrewarding task left for dealership accounting staff to complete manually at the end of each day.

 

Pinewood's Pinnacle is currently the only DMS available in the UK with integrated chip and PIN processing.

 

 

For further details please contact Simon Wells at
Paperchase Public Relations on 01283 711311
or e-mail simon@paperchasepr.co.uk