GenX American here. I’ve been having a lively debate with friends (my age or younger) who insist on writing checks/cheques for all their usual household bills (mortgage/rent, utilities, car loan, etc.). They think they will be hacked if they pay bills through their bank’s app or allow direct debit. They write checks to send gift money through the mail or to put into a card for a wedding gift. I’m not one of those people. I’ve been paying all bills online back to mid-2000s. Finally got landlord to accept a bank transfer for rent 5-7 years ago. My utilities are direct debited. I use Apple Pay heavily for in store and some online purchases with debit/credit cards. I use US payment apps such as Venmo to transfer money to friends. PayPal is often used, too. Having your salary/wages paid direct into your bank account is extremely common here, though. So how do YOU pay for things an American would use a check/cheque for? Which apps do you use to transfer money to friend to split a dinner or the like?
Comments
UK
Most bills – direct debit
Otherwise bank transfer – both to business and between friends
Not sure if I have a cheque book anymore (there may be one in the junk drawer but it’s probably from the early 2000s
ETA I brought my first house in the 1990s – all bills were by direct debit (aside from council tax – which you paid at the post office). Bank transfer between friends I’d say maybe 6-7 years, prior to that it was paypal for about 10 years before that
(I’m technically not in the EU, but still…)
All my regular bills are paid automatically from my bank account. Any other bill I get is paid online through my bank app or mobile payment app.
I’m in my early 30s and have never received a paper bill in my adult life. I’m pretty sure this is the norm for most Norwegians.
My bank app has the funcionality of venmo and paypal, I guess (I’ve never used venmo). So I just use my bank app on my phone or laptop to pay for everything, transfer money to friends, etc. (you can transfer money using friends phone number). I use google wallet on my phone to pay at physical stores.
Last time I needed cash, hmmm… I cant remember! I have like 50 euros in my purse JUST IN CASE for the last 5 years or more. I also have a physical bank card, but I just dont use it. I use my phone.
Bigger cash payments are illegal in my country (because people hide taxes that way).
Finland.
Most bills are delivered directly to my web bank, where I can decide to either pay recurring bills automatically, or manually. Sometimes bills might be delivered either by email or (very seldom) on paper, and to pay those I log in to my web bank account and type in the relevant information and pay them (although they usually have a bar code that you can scan with your phone and then you don’t need to type in the information). The money goes from my bank account directly to the company’s bank account.
If I’m paying something to private people (like if I sell something on FB or similar sites) I usually use MobilePay, which means you don’t need to know the other persons bank account number, just their phone number. Some older people (like my dad who’s 80+) might still prefer the older way, where you need to know the bank account number, but that’s getting to be increasingly rare.
As far as I know having your salary paid in any other way than to your bank account isn’t even possible. When I started working in the middle of the 90s, it was already the only option. I have no idea what would happen if somebody doesn’t have a bank account. Usually your parents get you one when you’re a baby.
Direct debit in Finland. I’m 54 and never have used a cheque in my life. All bills come directly to my online banking and can be paid directly from there.
Your paranoid friends would have a hard time in Denmark. Checks were phased out way back in 2016. Most major recurring bills you pay by means of Betalingsservice (literally Payment Service) which I guess is similar to a giro transfer. You’d originally get a paper bill in the mail (still sometimes do) that you’d take to the post office for processing. These days you mostly get the bill by e-mail; you just punch the numbers into your online bank and set it to recurring and forget about it. Smaller bills like phone or streaming you usually pay by card.
For money transfer and splitting bills we use MobilePay; I think they do in Finland too? It’s a Danish app. In Sweden I know they use Swish for the same thing. I’m guessing they’re all pretty similar to Venmo or Cashapp.
Direct debit, ach, wire, government back QR code based system for payments of utilities and all.
Same for revenue taxes and all in fact.
Way safer than chèques and all, way more practical too
Denmark:
Checks don’t exist here, and they haven’t been in widespread use for 20 years or more.
Recurring bills are commonly paid by direct debit.
Single occurrences by a bank transfer utilizing an old postal system/banking sector common thing now known as “betalingskort” previously known as “girokort”. Or just by card or even MobilePay app.
Im almost 40, never used a cheque in my life. That’s ancient to me.
Everything is automatically paid directly from the bank. Everything else is online.
Old millennial estonian. Never seen a check book in my entire life.
Bills are all automated payments from my bank account. In Estonia e-bills are the default, I’m not even sure if you have the option get anything on physical paper any more. Maybe if you specifically ask the service provider.
For in-store purchases I use Apple Pay and for online purchases it’s either credit card or Paypal. I haven’t needed cash for many years.
Giving money to friends is just a regular bank transfer that you can do on your bank app or bank website.
I’m 34. Never seen or used a check in my life. Have paid all bills in my life with online bank transfer (bank app since I have a smartphone).
I’ve paid most of my bills online since early nineties. It was possible since late eighties, but at that time it was more like a batch system than online. Then there was a phase when I used those automats like an ATM but only for bills for reasons, then went back to paying online. No auto charges for me, except for a few streaming services.
Everything that I need to pay is automatically taken off of my bank account.
Checkbooks aren’t a thing here. We don’t have a specific money transfer app, we just use bank transfers for that. For online shopping and stuff like that I think most people use paypal.
For regular, constant amount stuff like internet bill – i set up recurring bank transfer. Everything else – normal bank transfer. Yes, i could set up direct debit but that requires paper stuff so I just can’t be arsed. I have never seen a cheque in real life. Online purchases via either card or BLIK
Bank Transfer for invoices, plastic for restaurants and purchases in shops. Cash is rare (mainly for tips), cheques getting phased out
Salary paid to the account. Bills directly debited or bank transfer made or on app. In stores I tend to psy with app sometimes card. Transfer to friends and family by BLIK (most common way to do it in Poland). I haven’t even seen a check in my life. I also hardly use cash at all.
From Norway:
I use an app called Vipps for money transfers between friends and family and to pay for anything where they don’t have a terminal set up.
Bills are usually set up to be automatically withdrawn from my account, and if not, they show up in my bank app, and I just click “approve” to pay.
I’ve never seen a check in real life. Cash is rare.
Pretty much everything over SEPA Direct Debit (rent, utilities, insurances, memberships, regular donations, transfers to savings account).
Foreign streaming services like Spotify or Dropout by credit card, since they don’t support SEPA Direct Debit.
In-person shopping is mostly by debit card (called Girocard in Germany), unless card is not accepted.
For small transfers among friends, I use SEPA Instant Transfer through my bank’s website. Instant transfers recently became free by law, they used to cost 25 cents.
My salary is deposited to my bank account. I have worked jobs in the past, in Cyprus, where I would be paid by cheque. Those were academic project-based jobs and cheques were very common in that context.
Poland
Most bills are paid by regular bank account wire transfer. For monthly bills (light, water, gas, rent) people set up recurring payments that the bank transfers automatically at the set day. This is free of charge. Some older people without bank accounts pay their bills at the post office in cash.
Some companies allow you to put a debit/credit card on file and charge your card periodically. This sometimes adds an additional fee.
Direct debit doesn’t exist.
As for in-store payments, cash and debit cards are the most popular. Google/Apple pay is also becoming more popular, aswell as our own BLIK system (similar to Venmo/Zelle/etc but developed by an alliance of banks).
Only through the bank apps and other online financial services. I’ve only seen a cheque book once in my life, in 2000 and even back then, it was seen as obsolete. My aunt gave it to her kids to play with because she didn’t use it anymore.
For the stuff like split costs, in Poland, we have BLIK. It allows us to send the immediate transfers just using a phone number. Super convenient.
In Romania it depends but my parents get the bill in the mail and go to a special store to pay it
Hungary:
We have checks but not the way they’re meant in the States. Basically, you can opt for (or the company does anyway) having a “csekk” sent to you, which you then either pay at the post office or you n a payment app at home (there are multiple ones; many banks have them). Some companies let you pay through their own app (that’s how I pay phone).
For other things, bank transfer (so, my wife pays our internet this way, for example – company sends an email saying to pay, she checks the website and then pays).
Writing a check in the American way is something I haven’t seen either here or back when I lived in Japan. That’s 25 years since I wrote a check.
Slight story – back when they gave out stimulus checks for Covid, I got the check mailed directly to me here in Hungary. However, I couldn’t cash it – no bank would touch it with a stick. So I had to send it back to my parents (who have all sorts of power of attorney and control of a joint bank account with me) and they cashed it and put it there for me to access.
Germany
Born in the 80s, have never seen a chequebook. Salary goes to my bank account, rent, utilities are deducted via SEPA. Online payments, shopping, etc I pay with credit card or Paypal. Friends: Paypal. Everything in store: apple pay.
Poland – usually by bank transfer or by debit card. It is possible to pay in cash at post office or some other places (mostly elderly people use it and my parents who don’t like technology).
Checks haven’t been a thing in Europe for, I don’t know, 30+ years? Everybody has a bank account, obviously, and transfers between them using the standardized IBAN numbers are usually free (within the Euro zone) and incredibly common. They’ll become near-instantaneous (no longer taking a business day) at the end of the year, too.
My wages are deposited into my account each month and I pay my bills by transferring money into the relevant merchant accounts. There are all sort of auto payment schemes as well (transferring the same amount every month, for things like rent, or event granting select parties the right to request money, for varying amounts like the gas and water bills.)
If we are splitting a bill, I’m happy to give you my IBAN and you can transfer the money there. PayPal is not uncommon, but not needed for simple things like this. Other apps (Zelle or Venmo, e.g.) are very uncommon.
Last check used in 1980
Last cash used in 1998, except special occasions like garage sales
Restaurants or on Holidays creditcard
Most transactions through phone (app or NFC) and if they really don’t have electronic payment debetcard
Recurrent costs (Water, electricity, insurance,…) via direct debit
Online bank transfer through the provider’s website or app. For shopping, I use Google Pay or BLIK.
I’ve never seen a paper check in my life. You might as well say you communicate with your friends via telegraph for how antiquated it sounds to me.
> Which apps do you use to transfer money to friend to split a dinner or the like?
My bank app. If they have phone transfers enabled (which most of us do), I can send them money by entering only their phone number.
german millenial here (born 1989).
I have never seen a check in my whole life. everything here is done with direct debit, mostly via bank app
Bank app.
If a person dont believe bank apps he can use government post office, which exist in every big enough city or bank office and use physical money to pay.
If you want to transfer someone money you can ask for this person bank account number and bank name. Only bank account number is safe. There are % to transfer from bank to bank but usually its not big. Also you can pay him on his phone number.
I haven’t written a check in 10 years, although I still have a checkbook. I pay utilities by direct debit on my bank account. People who don’t trust banks here pay their bills at the post office, never by check.
Cheques? It is very long time ago I saw one over here in The Netherlands…. I would not be surprised if they are completely phased out.
Even more, I don’t think it will be accepted to pay mortgages and alike any way different as digital. They are paid by “incasso” (you allow them to take per time period a fix amount from your bankaccount. They do something wrong, one button in the bank app and you have your money back).
Salary is transferred directly to my bank account.
GenX Belgian here: in my whole life, I have only used maybe 10 cheques (that is because I got a set of 10 when I turned 18 and had an “adult” bank account, and my mom insisted it was sooooo handy… I am not even sure I used them all. The last one I used ? Maybe in 1997/1998 ?).
I pay almost everything via electronic means: direct debit for utilities and mortgage (we have a very efficient sytem where you authorize your bank to pay invoices automatically for services like electrity, internet, mobile phone, insurance, etc), bank cards for everyday purchases (with direct debit), credit card for “big” unusual purchases (expenisive electronics, holidays, big pieces of furniture, etc). I rarely carry cash – 100 euro at most.
We also have very efficient system called “Payconiq”: it is integrated with apps of most local banks. The recipient of a payment opens the app, types the amount they should receive, and the app then shows a QR code. The payer then just scans the QR code with their banking app, and bingo, payment is done, in direct debit. The limit is 250 euro for private accounts, and 1200 euro for payments in shops. Personally, that has now become the standard among my friends when we have to split a bill and we are all phiscally at the same spot. If not, we use direct payments with bank transfers: all we need is the bank account number (called IBAN), so it is perfectly acceptable to send a message like “hey, the concert tickets were 40 euro each. My IBAN is BE00011110001111, thanks !”.
Cheques have virtually disappeared since 2000 (I think) when banks decided to give up any kind of legal gurantee for them (before that, there was some kind of insurance offered by banks against check conterfeits, fraud, etc). So it became de facto a high risk payment and almost all shops and businesses decided to refuse them. The only type of cheques still in use are “certified cheques” but they are reserved for very high amounts, and you cannot write it yourself, you need to go to your bank, the bank then checks if you have the amount you need on your account and will block it when they issue the cheque. It is often an expensive service on top of that (I guess something like 20 euro per cheque). You typically use that only for buying a car or a house (or appartment, or piece of land, etc).
Fun culture difference: in France, cheques are still very common. I have already had some funny interactions while on holiday in France or with French friends, where they assume I have cheques at hand (I speak French natively, with a barely noticeable Belgian accent, so strangers in France will assume I am French), and are flabbergasted when I reply I don’t have any cheques. It is like “but…but…but… how can you even survive without cheques ? How do you manage your payments ???”. I rented a holiday home from an old person in Britanny , and they guy was very suspicious about it and was very afraid of any hidden costs for electronic payments (which are free within Europe). I guess it is a generational thing and their usage is declining, but cheques are surpringly still common in France.
Romania here
I receive the bills via email and paid them from my bank app, recurrent or manual, as I wish.
I have never seen or use a check.
UK > Portugal. I haven’t written a cheque in over 20 years and don’t have a chequebook. Everything household related comes out on a direct debit so we don’t even think about having to pay them. I use Multibanco here in Portugal to pay for things online, sometimes use Paypal to buy stuff from the EU. If I want to send a mate some money then I use Multibanco – just by entering a telephone number.
Pretty much everything through a bank app. Like many others mentioned here, I’ve never used (or even seen I think?) a cheque.
From NL and cheques were something ive heard about as a kid in the beginning of the 90´s but dont think i´ve actually seen in real life, let alone used. Bills are paid automatically from my bank account, random money i need to send to other people is sent with a bank app, and in shops i use my debit card (could use my phone but dont like it), and sometimes cash which i do keep on hand. Banking stuff is extremely easy in here and any shop or government institution will allow you to pay directly by app.
Denmark: We don’t have that paper crap anymore. I haven’t gotten an important physical letter for at least a decade, every important communication is electronic. Paychecks automatically into “eboks” which is a sort of email provided by public services, other important stuff goes there too, taxes, doctors, bank, etc. There’s a unified ID called MitID that allows login and ID confirmation for pretty much everything where it makes sense.
We set up automatic billing using either bank or some other service like MobilePay if the provider supports it. Everything I pay is done automatically each month / once a year, I never touch any of it, it just happens.
My mother had a cheque book in the 80’es.
We pretty much don’t use cash anywhere, the entirety of Europe is digital, I’ve been forced to pay with cash once in the last two years, that was a bar in Switzerland where the amount was too small for them to let me pay with CC.
I am not sure how Americans do this. But here in The Netherlands banking is very digitalized. Most of my monthly payments are automatically paid. And in shops and so on I pay with my debet card. I rarely using coins and banknotes.
Poland.Im 47 and never used check in my life …
All payments are made online, in bank app.
Finland. I pay my bills in my banks website. there’s also a phone app for that but I’m somewhat a luddite and haven’t got to that. Recurring bills get paid automatically. I can set that online.
Between friends and when buying second hand stuff, I use an app called Mobilepay. Sometimes cash.
For most cases, you couldn’t even buy a car by check in Germany, for which (and other large purchases) the state bank of Germany has a special check on offer.
So you either pay in cash, by some card, by SWIFT remittance or by one of the many payment providers like PayPal, Klarna or Revolut.
Sweden here.
For rent, insurance and other predictable, recurring bills, I use direct debit (automatic payments).
For other bills, I either receive them as electronic bills directly in the banking app or in a digital mailbox such as Kivra which is linked to my bank account so they can be paid in the app. I very rarely receive paper invoices these days, but they can also be paid online by manually entering the giro and OCR numbers.
Checks were phased out decades ago, though some banks still accept them for a fee. It seems extremely primitive and unsafe to me, like you can just write “I giveth thee mine money” on a piece of paper and that’s somehow a valid form of payment?
Czechia: utility bills are paid in form of monthly “advance”, basically a bill calculated from your usage in previous years. These are paid by wire transfer every month, so you basically pay a “subscription” every month. Most people just set up automatic payments that happen every X day of the month. Each year, the company then sends the full bill and you either pay up the rest if your advance were not enough for your usage, or you get money back jf you used less.
If you rent, you might have all bills included in the rent and you pay everything together, the landlord will then provide yearly bill instead. Sometimes, water and heat are included in the rent, but electricity is not and you pay directly to the energy company.
This is because apartment buildings usually have a service provider for heat (central city heating or apartment building heating), water, cleaning and maintenance, but electricity (and gas if you have it) is per apartment.
If you have a house, you pick whatever companies and plans you like and always pay them directly as explained before.
There are distributor companies for the electricity and gas and the providers, thus you use the same pioes/wires, but can pick from multiple providers.
Checks weren’t ever used here and are not supported by banks at all for few years now.
UK.
I have a cheque book but I can’t remember the last time I used it, it will be years ago.
All of my bills are paid by direct debit. The company has my bank account details and take the money whenever it’s due. Where I can I set the date to be the day after payday.
Any ad-hoc bills, like a plumber, I pay by bank transfer through my banking app.
If I did what your friends do nothing would ever get paid because I’m not organised enough.
All my bills are taken directly from my bank account through a direct deposit. Gifts and the likes cash or immediate bank transfer.
I was given a cheque one for a rent deposit when I left the house and that was the first and one time I ever saw a cheque.
In modern society we hardly even carry cash, i had my last checkbook in the early 2000. All bills are paid electronically and mostly automatically. Official post is likewise digital. I have two coins in my wallet, so I have for the shopping cart. If you need to sign something this is also mostly done digital nowadays.
Also GenX American, living in France for the past six years. We use electronic payment or a debit card for everything and have done so increasingly for the past 20 years. The only time I write a check is when a French vendor/service does not accept electronic payment. Surprisingly there are quite a few businesses still operating the old way who won’t accept electronic payment, sometimes I can get around it doing a direct bank transfer if they’re willing to give their info. I see some people still using checks at the grocery store.
Nearly all banking and bill payments in the UK and are now paperless, and I imagine in a lot of Europe too. Very few people still use cheques. Household and utility bills are usually paid by monthly direct debit or standing order which you can set up via a banking app. Cash is used less and less when our and about, with the majority of people now using tap and pay with mobile/cell phones or with a bank card. Personally I never carry cash now.
I have to admit that I have paid some bills with checks here in France. But I’ve done it only for really big purchases or when I want to be a dock about it (like a vet who insisted on billing me 2 months later with an invoice and a threatening letter, good luck getting your money in the next month).
Spain: it’s all direct debit for utilities, tax, etc. Sometimes card if you really want to. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a check in Spain, in fact.
Germany.
I’m 45 and have a vague memory of my mom using cheques in the supermarket before you could pay with cards.
All daily purchases are paid for by card, or cash for the few places that still don’t accept card payments. All contactless commonly, even in restaurants where I’ve seen it be common in the US to give your card to the server.
Things like utilities, phone, insurance etc. are all paid by direct debit. Always have.
On the rare occasion that there’s a one-off bill from like a plumbing business, we wire the money using SEPARATE transfer. The bank app allows you to take a photo of the bill and handles the rest.
The last time I have used cheques were about the last century.
Rent and insurances: Mostly “Dauerauftrag” or “Einzugsermächtigung”. The first is a regular money transfer I order my bank to do. The latter is an allowance I give the recipient to drag the money from my account. If there is something wrong, I can stop that and recall the money.
You give both allowances only once, and they will run until you revoke them, or a set date has arrived.
One time bills, like speeding ticket. Via money transfer. Old way via paper, today I use my banking app. which is very secure, I need to use my password or fingerprint 3 times on two different apps to confirm it. A number of bill, which still comes on paper, have a QR code. I just scan that, and just have to confirm the transfer, No need to fill out anything.-
We also have PayPal or Apple Pay, which I use for online orders, or Klarna, which is a bank, and works alike a credit card.
In shops, and supermarkets, I use my debit card.
A lot of Germans prefer cash, but I try to avoid that.
Oh, we also have credit cards. Not I, but they are a thing.
There are ways to abuse that system, but real hacking happens mostly because of “user-error”. Like carrying the debit card pin with you.
I pay all bills online, the idea of waiting in line for the privilege of giving companies money is not on my list of things I like to do.
Nobody uses checks anymore in EU. Everybody is online. In Denmark there’s a identifting app that’s linked to your device and you have to open with personal information that you use when doing bank payments so you can’t get hacked.
i’m in romania. i wrote my first and last check about 20 years ago. i’m not sure if there are any places that accept checks (except banks… probably).
all the utilities can be paid through the banks (either manually in the bank account or with direct debit), through the apps of each company or there are bill aggregator apps (i don’t know if there’s a proper name for this) where you can see all your bills and pay there through your card. personally, i avoid direct debit, i like to pay all of the bills on a specific date (it happened once to not have enough money in the account and the bill remained unpaid without me knowing).
there are some machines in public places where you can also pay, but i’ve never seen a single one getting used. older people (60+) pay with cash at the post office for some obscure reason that i’m missing.
Swede here. When I had to start paying my own bills in the 1990:s first thing I did was to opt for a Giro-service. I got my utility bills on paper in a standardized format, and once a month, I tuck all of them in an envelope together with a small spreadsheet note where i put the individual id’s for all of the bills, and put my signature on it. Then i sent this envelope with all the bills and the signed note to my bank who deducted the money from my account.
Meanwhile more lazy people at this time got Autogiro instead for utilities like rent, and electricity. This is probably like direct debit. The bill is sent to your bank and the bank is pre authorized to withdraw the money from your account, every month, you have to do nothing.
If it was urgent I could then pay any bill with cash at either post office or a bank. This happened if I was late for some reason or had a bill, usually some airline ticket, that had to be payed same day.
Then this system evolved, first, I still got the bills in paper, but instead of putting them in an envelope, I logged the individual bill IDs at the banks website. This happened in late 1990:s
Later when smart phones became popular I could scan the paper bills with an app,
Later I got rid of the paper bills, the bills are now sent to my bank as e-bills, and I just log in to approve and pay.
Autogiro, the most lazy option has prevailed all along and is still very popular for fixed expenses.
Today I do not know how and where I could pay a bill using cash, at all. Most bank branches do not handle cash anymore. There are virtually no post offices any more, those few who exist, just handle post, not bills.
I know my dad used paper cheques some time around 1990. But it is the only time I ever seen those.
We use the Swish app for transactions between friends and to pay for stuff in places that do not accept credit cards like flea markets. Otherwise VISA/MC is the most recognized form of payment, cash second and Swish third place.
Automatic bank debt, so I won’t ever forget and I don’t have to waste time to pay them
To be honest an intercepted cheque would be dangerous to their financial health as it would have their account details and their signature which in America with their chip and sign way of doing things would be dangerous.
I pay my bills through direct debit, top up my laundry card through PayPal and pay my credit card through my banking app
Ireland. Direct Debit for utilities and other regular bills; credit transfer for some annual bills like car tax, NCT (annual car test). Groceries I’ll usually use my Revolut card. I use Revolut if I’m abroad for non-euro currencies (UK, Denmark), and also for transfers to friends (splitting dinner costs) and also for transfers to my children. Can’t remember the last time I used cheques. Found a half-used cheque book in my files some years ago, can’t remember if I chucked it out or just put it back.
All my income goes straight to my bank.
“So how do YOU pay for things an American would use a check/cheque for?” – I may be wrong, but most Europeans won’t even know where to begin answering this question. Checks were not common, they existed, but were never used and have been phased out since. Most people have never seen a check in their life, most things are done: via wire transfer, direct debit or credit card. PayPal and Amazon Pay are widespread too.
We do SEPA for everything here. I can’t imagine doing it any other way. You just get it deducted from your account every month, and then you iust have to check if the amount is correct.
With SEPA, you have up to 2 months (8 weeks) to decline the payment if it’s been authorised so it isn’t as if you don’t have any control over the payments if they screw up. If you didn’t authorise it (fraudulent payment), you have up to 13 months.
Cheques are something of the past and also pretty unsafe tbh.
slovenia:
recurring payments bills are sent to the web bank and then I confirm the payment or not and pay them
individual bills come with QR code. i can scan it with banking app and do the payment.
or if the bill does not have the QR code, I can do the SEPA payment manually in banking app
last time I used the cheque was in 2002.
the whole thing is really smooth. for sending cash to friends most of us can use an app that is linked to our phone number.
Recurring bills are almost always paid via “automatische incasso”, direct debit. Payments in stores are usually done with debit cards. Either with the physical cards themselves, or via your Apple or Google wallet. Cash as a payment method is less popular, and credit cards are rarely used.
Online purchases are usually paid with iDeal, a platform that let’s you make payments with your debit card. In the rare cases iDeal is not supported I use my credit card.
For money transfer between friends people usually use “betaalverzoeken”, payment requests. You’ll see the term Tikkie as well, which is the name of the first app (developed by ABN AMRO bank) that offered this service. Every banking app offers this functionality now though. The receiver of a betaalverzoek/tikken can pay it using iDeal. Besides betaalverzoeken/tikken, it’s also possible to just make a bank transfer. It’s simple and free, but not as popular nowadays because tikkies are even quicker and easier.
In Europe (at least in my country) all payments are automatic and all systems are digitalized and incredibly secure, salaries are deposited in the bank and the mortgage is charged automatically, electricity and water are also charged, the system works securely, for a few days in the bank’s app the payment appears as “held”, if you do not recognize that amount you can cancel the payment without problem.
For basic and daily payments (such as going to a bar or sending money to a friend) POS cards are normally used, if you have to send money to a friend you use instant payment systems. In my country there is Bizum that makes payments very quickly just by entering the phone number and the amount.
There are also people who pay with cash, but at least in my circle it does not exist, the banks make sure that the systems are secure and the cards have rotating validation data in addition to being able to deactivate the cards, each movement is validated with FaceID, here using checks is something from the 20th century, something very old and almost out of use.
checks? did they timetravel here from the 1800? all my bills just get auto payed from my bank app. have not even used cash since like early 2000 when i was a kid. i dont even know if checks have ever existed here in norway, i have never seen or heard of anyone using it in my entire life atleast
NL everything gets paid electronically. We have ideal, tikkie or pay with app. On holidays we might use visa/mastercard but we hardly use creditlines. I have for emergencies a few euro’s but i cannot remember when i last used cash. Cheques don’t exist anymore
Edit: next year payments >3000 euro cannot be done cash anymore
I use direct & instant bank transfers using my mobile banking app. It is free of charge. I have never ever used or even seen a check.
All online: rent to landlorn in her bank, internet electricity administration for the building water hesting, online. I think i maybe have spent 200 euro cash this whole year. ( and yes I live in Romania and yes it is possible )
(Germany + Italy)
I stopped using checks maybe 20 years ago.
Direct debt are so much easier to manage.
Probably the bias comes from the different identification needed to open a bank account, in different countries.
In the SEPA area you need a photo id and a lot of other documents. If a direct debt is set by mistake, the person wrongly receiving the money is responsible (even if his account has been hacked).
I’m 47, Czechia, and have never seen a cheque in my life.
Monthly payments go out with permanent bank orders, everything else paid with online card payment with my mobile or watch.
I almost never take out cash, maybe once every two months.