Australia's largest department store has stopped accepting cheques as customers opt for faster payment options.

Myer is the latest retailer to announce it is phasing out the centuries-old paper payment method after recording a steady decline in customers using cheques at stores across the country.

It follows a similar move by David Jones, which does not take cheques for merchandise sales.

Both chains still accept cheques from customers wishing to pay off their store accounts.

Myer spokeswoman Melanie Ward said the decision brought the department store in line with other retailers.

“It's just for those in store transactions, if you're picking up a product or a piece of merchandise then we won't be accepting cheques at the register,” she said.

“We've found customers are increasingly preferring to use other payment methods and this decision means we can spend more time helping our customers rather than processing cheques which is quite time-consuming and costly.”

Seriously, I cannot remember the last time I saw a cheque.

Cheques had outlived their use-by date 25 years ago.

It's really only tradition and habit that have kept them alive this long.

I'm surprised that they would ever have allowed customers to collect goods before the cheques were cleared.