AMERICANS STILL WRITE A lot of checks – 14.5 billion of them, worth $25.8 trillion, in 2018, according to the most recent Federal Reserve figures. But before there were so many different ways to pay, we wrote a lot more checks – in 2000, more than 40 billion, worth about $40 trillion.
It has become much more convenient to bypass checks. Not only have ATM and debit cards grown more ubiquitous, but online banking and payment apps such as Zelle and Venmo are also no longer just for the tech-savvy.
