Originally Posted by
David-A
Firstly, I totally accept you point about generalisations, the same is true everywhere! I posisbly should have flagged that I was talking about cheque usage in general terms percentage terms, not as a hard and fast rule.
I was informed, although knew that I didn't know how much confidence to attach to the information, that cheque payment of sallary was still a significant percentage (say 40-60%) in America.
[You say smaller companies may still do paper cheques for payroll. It is not clear how predominant that is, but I'd certainly say in the UK that is now almost unheard of, at least for any companies own staff. Unless you are paying people cash, it will almost certainly be direct to their bank account even in most tiny businesses.]
Cheque usage in the UK I'd say is now mostly people making highly irregular payments.
I.e. you might give a builder/decorator a cheque or use it to pay for school photos/trip or to refund a friend who paid for something for you etc. Although you might well just make a BACS payment for this, increasing people will.
Business may still use cheques a lot more, though this is largely driven by antiquated control systems not being up to card management etc.
Anyway, thank you for confirming I was right to doubt the 40-60% figure. I found it hard to believe that every payday people would drive past their banks.....
I understand your confusion. The only thing I can say is that the 40-60% number may be correct. I really don't know. It might still mean that money-wise and number wise a million more companies in the U.S. do direct deposit than in the UK. (I'm just making that number up for arguments sake)
Many people simply do not realize the enormous size of the United States and the number of people who live here. The entire United Kingdom would fit into some states many,many times.
The US population is estimated at 305 million. The UK population is estimated at 61 million.
The total US land area is 3,718,710 sq miles (9,631,420 sq km). The total UK land area is 94,526 sq mi (244,820 sq km).
It is easier to bring in automation when you are dealing with smaller populations and geographic areas.