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Cheques are a more risky way of paying the bills, according to the bank.
Online payments are less at risk from fraud than cheques, new analysis from HSBC showed today.
The bank suggested that criminals prefer to commit ID theft through old-fashioned methods such as searching through bins for bank details or through intercepting cheques in the post. This is despite the recent development of electronic fraud techniques such as email phishing, where users are conned out of giving up personal details by fraudsters posing as banks or other organisations.
According to figures from APACS, cheque spending in the UK declined by 7.5 percent in the last year and has halved over the past decade. Meanwhile, online transactions have been going from strength to strength with the launch of the new Faster Payments service - which offers near-instant electronic transfers.
The payments association said that Faster Payments, which was launched in July, now handles almost two-thirds of internet and phone transactions currently conducted in the UK. It is also taking around one million transfers a day and will grow further in the future, APACS added.
However, HSBC's analysis suggested that fraud techniques have yet to catch up with this change. "Fraud is far more likely to happen if someone has got your details out of your bin, if they have been a little careless with their bank statements or other personal information," a spokesman said.
"Online payments are extremely secure. There is only a very minor amount of people who pay online, and use online banking to pay bills, that have ever experienced, or know anybody that has experienced, fraud as a result of their use of the internet."
He added: "Both methods of payment carry a fraud risk, in particular if you are accepting a payment by cheque."
HSBC is Europe's largest bank.
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