American citizens use venmo and other aps to transfer money. As far as I know you don’t have simple bank to bank money transfers?
Also what’s up with the checks. I was born in 90s and haven’t seen a single check in Europe in the last 20-30 years. Bit confusing since America is always at the forefront of innovation yet lag here.
Am I allowed to say lag or is this just a different way of making payments but going to a bank and giving a check sounds much longer than transferring money straight to a bank account.
EDIT: What comments say:
1. Checks aren’t as common but are still in use.
2. A lot of people are mad at me for asking a question in r/AskAmerican. They think I’m looking down on them or something. Not the case, just trying to learn and understand. ✌🏼
27 comments
I personally haven’t used a check in many years. I don’t know anyone that does
One can use a bank transfer in the US. The premise of your question is false.
I don’t get the hate against checks lol, its just an antiquated way to transfer money. Why does it matter if people want to still use checks?
The US until recently was most certainly NOT at the forfront of banking tech. Chip cards were barely a thing a decade ago. Tap to pay has only become prevalent in the last 5ish years in my area.
False premise is false. I have used maybe one actual check in the last 20 years to pay a charity who didn’t accept cards and have been receiving my pay via direct deposit my entire adult life, I entered the workforce in 1995…
We colloquially call what we get paid a paycheck, even though more often than not it is a direct deposit.
I transfer money between bank accounts all the time.
The only thing I use checks for is paying my local property taxes and at the DMV.
I have three different apps on my phone to send people money by phone number or name.
Time to be criticized for something that isn’t even remotely true again, huh, gang?
You “know” incorrectly about bank to bank transfers.
I could only pay my car insurance in Germany through their weird, square shaped bank checks. Maybe that’s changed since I left, but that was definitely within your 20-30 year timeframe.
My kid’s daycare insists on getting paid via check, but if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have written a check at any time in the last 10 years.
We also have bank transfers. And you can mobile deposit a check. You just snap a couple of pictures of it, it takes two seconds.
I haven’t physically been inside a bank in like 15-20 years.
Like you said, we have apps to do instant payments. The most official is probably Zelle, which is owned by a consortium of banks and directly integrated into banking apps. What is the practical difference between this and “simple bank to bank money transfers”? The Fed is also going to launch their own instant payment network this summer which might become the default.
I don’t use checks or own a checkbook.
> I was born in 90s and haven’t seen a single check in Europe in the last 20-30 years
Cool, I was born in the 80’s and likewise don’t see checks in common use here in the US anymore.
> As far as I know you don’t have simple bank to bank money transfers?
We absolutely can do that, you’re misinformed and the premise of your question is false.
> As far as I know you don’t have simple bank to bank money transfers?
What about them?
My guess is this is rooted in that meme “bum ass Canadians don’t have cashapp” where it completely ignores Zelle and our absolutely free, digitized method of money transfer?
We consider our bank account number personal information not meant to be shared.
I work in finance and it is considered very sensitive, especially since routing numbers are public information.
My bank’s online portal does have a bank transfer option. I used it once like…10+ years ago to send my sister some money directly before the ease of apps like Venmo, CashApp and Zelle came out.
>American citizens use venmo and other aps to transfer money. As far as I know you don’t have simple bank to bank money transfers?
This is for all intents and purpose a bank transfer.
>Also what’s up with the checks. I was born in 90s and haven’t seen a single check in Europe in the last 20-30 years. Bit confusing since America is always at the forefront of innovation yet lag here.
Almost nobody uses checks. Many businesses don’t even accept them. Many employers won’t even issue paper checks for paying employees, they’ll either direct deposit it or give you a reloadable card where your pay goes.
These types of posts are pretty funny. We get shit about using a 3rd party app to send money. But also get shit for not using a 3rd party app for messages.
All of this is false.
Although some here might still refer to their ‘paycheck’ even when it’s directly deposited into the bank. It’s just a leftover word from the old system.
I’ve seen this come up over and over again. Where are they getting this misinformation?
Not true at all. Any bank can do an EFT. Sometimes certain people or things prefer a check, but that doesn’t mean transfers aren’t possible
We have bank transfers. You have been misinformed.
Most people get their Paychecks direct deposit, which is a bank transfer. Most bills are paid for via automatic debit which are bank trans transfers. Many people have automatic transfers from checking accounts to savings accounts or vice versa. Many do bank transfers person to person if they are doing business with someone.
Checks are pretty uncommon, I basically only use them to pay for big ticket house stuff like plumbing, HVAC, etc. Reason for this is that I don’t want to go to the bank and take out like three thousand dollars in cash for a new furnace or whatever, and vendors don’t like to use credit cards because of fees.
There’s no way to homogenize the experience of numerous services. Schools, banks, local governments.
Authority is decentralized. We have 11,000 independent banks and credit unions. No one is forcing them to offer the same exact services and features.
This is news to me, OP. Where on earth did you get your information?
My bank doesn’t even have physical offices for customers. Everything is done online. Mortgage, utility bills, and credit cards, retirement savings, etc. get paid online via bank transfer. I haven’t seen a physical paycheck in at least 20 years—it’s all been directly deposited into my checking account. For my freelance work, I bill using PayPal because it allows my clients to use a credit card if they prefer. They never send checks. PayPal deposits the money into my bank account. I can use PayPal or Zelle to send money to individuals (and don’t really see why that’s so inferior to whatever system is used in MyCountry).
I don’t usually even bother with cash unless I’m making a purchase at the cannabis dispensary. Almost everything else can be done using a card (chip reader or tap to pay) or Apple/Google Pay.
I said this a few weeks ago. Just because Americans *can* doesn’t mean Americans *will* or even *want to.* This is especially true in parts of the country that develop a little slower. I have been offering things such as online bill payment, credit card payments, etc for at least 10 years now. To this day, I’ve only had 3 clients who want to pay that way. (And they’re only doing it to be extremely extra super duper petty! Even they don’t want to pay me over the phone!) Several hundred people still prefer to mail me a paper check every month. I also have tons of blue collar foreman-types who walk actual cash into the office every Friday. There are a whole bunch of reasons they prefer to pay this way. Most commonly cited is that their professional liability insurance requires it.
In contrast, I haven’t paid a bill or a friend without bank transfer in… enough years that I lost count.
Who told you we don’t have bank-transfers?
Others have already said it but I do want to reiterate, your entire understanding of our banking and payment system is wrong.
I have no idea where you got the idea we don’t have bank to bank transfers from. That sounds so ridiculous I’m not sure why you thought this was even true. If you mean *instant* bank to bank transfers, we have that too, despite what so many Europeans want to think.
I don’t think I’ve ever written a physical check in my life. The only physical checks I’ve ever cashed or deposited were from my grandparents around my birthday.
The only time I ever use a check is to pay my house cleaner who is an older European lady and only accepts checks or cash.
The only times I ever use cash are for the snack shack at my kids’ baseball games (though they do accept card/venmo) and the donut shop nearby that doesn’t take cards for purchases under $10.
Everything else is handled electronically.
They’re not mad at you for asking questions. They’re mad at you for making false assumptions. Next time maybe just ask questions instead of assuming negative shit.
If you were truly trying to learn or understand, your post could have been 0% condescending. Rn almost all of it is condescending as hell.
If you have the same bank, it is easy to do bank transfers on an app. The issue is that there are so many banks that it’s common that everyone doesn’t bank the same place. That’s what Zelle is for. I don’t use Zelle but I have Venmo and cash app.
I only write checks to my contractor and my lawn guy. Both of these people are over 50 years old and don’t have Venmo and I’m not taking out cash to pay them. Checks still have a place. If you’re thinking of how we are paid, we still call our direct deposit/ach payments our “paycheck”. Same reason why we use the word telephone even when we mean mobile or cell phone.