We Brits love our plastic cards - credit cards, debit cards, store cards. It is a bit irksome that French banks seem to charge a lot for a card (35 euros or more) and lots of shops and services will not accept cards, but are happy to accept a cheque for small amounts.
The government in its latest Finance bill is putting more pressure on the use of cheques by reducing the period of validity from 12 months to six. French people use on average 37 cheques per annum, whereas in Germany it is less than 1 and in the UK 11.
Probably the question is governed by the banks charging businesses more for processing cards than cheques. When we were in business in the UK we were charged about 50p for each cheque we banked, with all the need to fill in forms to pay in etc, but could negotiate a good rate for cards with our bank (or even a different bank). Readers with businesses will know how it works here, but we cannot help thinking with the reduced number of bank branches and restricted opening times it must be simpler and less time consuming to use cards.
Of course there is still cash, if you can get it from somewhere, though you cannot (legally) pay more than 1000 euros in cash.
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