Over the last decade I’ve moved through five apartments and held positions at four different employers.
Three of those rentals required me to hand over a paper check for rent, and my first employer was the sole one to compensate me with a payroll check. As a contractor, I received payment by check only three times in a span of three years.
I understand how to fill out a check, yet I can count the number I’ve written in the past 18 months on one hand — just three — and it’s been nearly seven years since I had to deposit a biweekly paystub.
Apparently, that experience isn’t universal across the country.
Bloomberg reports that Americans averaged 38 checks written or received in 2015. By contrast, nations like Australia and Germany are almost entirely check-free.
Up until roughly a decade ago, checks remained the most common payment method after cash.
So Who’s Still Writing Checks?
Older adults are far more likely to use checks for everyday purchases such as groceries or fuel, and that tendency increases for residents of rural areas, Bloomberg’s research indicates.
It may be unexpected, but the unbanked — people without a bank account — also play a role in the U.S.’s higher check usage compared with peer countries. That’s because individuals without bank accounts are more apt to receive payment via paper check.
Businesses add another piece to the puzzle. Bloomberg notes that roughly half of business-to-business payments are still conducted with checks.
Checks Persist — But For How Much Longer?
As checks waned, debit and credit cards surged in popularity. Now, peer-to-peer platforms like Venmo and PayPal are gaining ground.
Just 10% of seniors and 20% of baby boomers have ever tried a peer-to-peer payment app, while the share rises to 62% among millennials. And 71% believe that kids under 10 may never need to learn to write a check.
Yet the future may not be so clear-cut.
Bloomberg reports that although check usage in the U.S. continues to fall, the pace of that decline has slowed recently, and banks still move substantial sums by check.
“Our customers wrote almost a billion checks last year. Checks will be around for a while,” Michelle Moore, head of digital banking at Bank of America, told Bloomberg. “But P2P is what really is growing phenomenally year-over-year.”
Riley Hart (@riley_hart) is a staff writer at Savinly.
