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Wait, you can still pay by check in stores in the US? That was phased out in the UK like 15 years ago. And even before then, I only ever saw old people do it.

The US is weird.

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I think in part it's because its harder to transfer money between banks in the US - no equivalent of the faster-payments-scheme which allows a free transfer within a few minutes in the UK. Cheques do provide a layer of universal compatibility.

I think its also the reason behind the success of Venmo (and earlier PayPal) to allow for free/very low-cost money transmission.

It amuses me that venmo / cashapp (multi billion $ innovative startups that reimagined something) simply do what regualar banks do and have done for decades in the rest of the world.

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