Decline is cheque usage accelerates 16 February 2015 4:40PM John Kavanagh The rate of decline in the use of cheques picked a little last year, as consumers continued the switch to cards and electronic payments.According to the latest Reserve Bank cheque payment data, bank customers wrote an average of 12.8 million cheques a month in 2014 - down 15 per cent on the previous year.For the past five years, the rate of decline in the use of cheques has been around 13 per cent a year. Last year's results suggest that the move to other forms of payments has accelerated.Last year's cheque volume is close to half the average number of cheques written each month in 2010 - 22.9 million a month.