RESULTS of a survey on how we pay for things are music to the ears of an award-winning Gwent company.

Notes and coins remain the UK's favourite method of payment, according to the annual Alliance & Leicester Cash Usage Survey.

It found that cash has been used by 94% of the population to pay for goods and services in the last 12 months. The runner-up was cheques, used by 60% of respondents.

Newport company Tellermate, four times winner of a Queen's Award for Industry, makes hi-tech cash-handling machinery that aims to improve productivity and efficiency of businesses which depend on cash transactions.

These include banks, supermarkets, restaurants, leisure centres - and even the corner shop.

As well as being an equipment supplier, Tellermate is also moving into products and services which embrace all aspects of handling cash.

The Alliance report also showed that cheques appear to be losing out to other methods of payment. While the number of cash users is virtually unchanged (95% in 2000 and 94% in 2001), cheque-book usage has fallen 5% over the past two years (from 65% in 2000 to 60% in 2002).

In the meantime, credit and debit card usage have both grown by 6% since 2000, to 47% and 49% of payments respectively.