[eon1]

Really? I had a discussion with an American about this a while ago and they seemed stunned at how easy and efficient tap'n'go sounded compared to what they had available. I mean, we're fairly behind in most things here, but if you tried to pay for groceries with a cheque, in 99.9% of places you would be (rightly) laughed out of the store.

[flukus]

From what I understand (which could well be wrong), it's not uncommon for Americans to get literal pay cheques either.

Here we've had direct bank transfers for my entire adult life (15+ years).

[6nf]

I'm 37 in Australia and I've literally never had a chequebook in my life. I think one time I used a bank cheque for a real estate transaction but that was a decade ago.

[nly]

In the States its not uncommon to just have your card swiped in grocery stores and not even have to sign. Effectively they've just made the old insecure magstripe & sig system more convenient (and insecure).