According to an article in Bank Technology News, the United Kingdom may stop clearing checks by 2018. A number of large retailers in the UK have already stopped taking checks or are phasing them out with only three percent of retail spending by check in the UK in 2008, a decline of by about 66 percent over the past two decades.
The trend toward cards and electronic payments has become strong enough that the largest banks in the UK have arranged a vote to stop clearing checks. Estimates of check clearing cost are roughly $1.66, or about four times as much as electronic payments and would lead to substantial savings for banks.