Paper check usage is down 83% over 25 years

Customers wrote just one check a year in 2024, on average

Major retailers like Target have stopped accepting checks in recent years as real-time payment systems are increasingly being implemented across the US. This shift is considered an improvement in safety—as checks are vulnerable to fraud—but can lead to some exclusion for those without access to digital devices.

Congress mandated that the Fed streamline check payments

When it was first created in the 1910s, the Federal Reserve System became a crucial link between the nation's regional banks. The increasing number of checks used by the thousands of banks across the nation required a central operator, and the Fed was uniquely positioned to help. Learn more about the role the Fed played in the history of checks.

Making sense of the parts of a check

Though individuals use checks sparingly if at all, half of businesses rely heavily on check-writing to pay suppliers and contractors. Get to know the parts of a check with this visual guide.

Some banks derive half of their income from overdraft fees on checking accounts

The fees are incurred when a customer withdraws more money than is left in the account, typically around $35 per overdraft. One in 11 Americans pays more than $350 a year in such fees, generating tens of billions of dollars each year for banks..

Near-universal banking masks a large underbanked shadow system

FDIC data indicates 128 million households have a checking account, the vast majority (96% in 2024). But more than 14% of households are underbanked, meaning they have accounts but also rely on nonbank services such as check cashing, payday loans, or prepaid cards.

ATMs drastically expanded access to checking accounts in the 1960s

The invention disrupted the local bank industry, allowing customers to access cash around the clock and when out of town. The innovation also reduced the headcount needed for bank services and created a new revenue stream via ATM fees for noncustomers. This 50-year anniversary retrospective revisits the cash kiosk.

The average household checking account balance is $16K, while the median is $2.8K

Average household checking account balances have doubled since 1989. Older, white, educated, and male customers tend to have larger balances on average, according to the data. See further data visuals here.

London bankers created the first clearinghouse to process checks in 1770

Until that time, each banker was required to bring that day's checks to every other bank for settlement. Perhaps understandably, the first place bankers opted to gather to clear and settle checks was a tavern known as the Five Bells. The innovation gave rise to what would become clearinghouses, key institutions that facilitate payments.

Only 14% of transactions are in cash, as of 2025

Credit (35%) and debit (30%) cards have long eclipsed cash as the primary method of payment in the US. It is a primary backup, however, with 90% of customers intending to use cash to pay or store value and 80% carrying cash.

Peruse a running sale of collectible checks

The George H. Labarre galleries hold regular auctions of collectible checks, along with other numismatic items (such as coins, paper money, and so on). See the antiquated iconography on old checks from railroads, regional banks, and businesses.

An estimated 91% of all Americans had used a coupon at least once as of 2022

Coupon use accelerated during the Great Depression, when the US unemployment rate reached nearly 25 percent. While coupons were invented in the late 1800s, they became more popular during the Depression as a way to stretch household budgets during the era’s economic hardships. Companies soon began distributing coupons via newspapers and women’s magazines.

Paper boarding passes have become rarer in recent years

Many travelers have shared their attachment to the documents as their utility fades. This sharply illustrated timeline reviews the development of the paper boarding pass as technology evolved.

AI could be increasing the opportunities for financial fraud

Systems that can reproduce near perfect counterfeits of legitimate financial documents are increasingly prevalent and sophisticated. The international Association of Certified Fraud Examiners estimate organizations lose about 5% of revenue to fraud each year.

See the average daily volume of data processed by the internet, from emails to Zoom meetings

During February 2025, over 333 billion messages were sent via email every day, or approximately 231,400,000 per minute. Over 150 million hours were spent daily on Zoom meetings worldwide, but almost 10 times that amount of video content was streamed in the same timeframe.

The US once had a $100K bill

There are currently seven denominations of paper money, with the highest value reaching $100. But there used to be more that have since been discontinued, including bills that sported the faces of President William McKinley and President James Madison.

Typists are among the fastest shrinking jobs in the US

Typists and word processors have a projected employment change of roughly negative 36.1% between 2024 and 2034, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Telephone operators, data entry keyers, and other occupations will likely see reduced employment opportunities as well.

The world spent up to $600B to avert the Y2K computer glitch

Early computer programmers used a two-digit code to record years rather than four. With the switch in the year 2000 from '99 to '00, analysts feared databases might fail and prompt outages and financial catastrophe. To prepare, governments and businesses spent an estimated $300B to $600B to mitigate the glitch.

What is the 240 paychecks retirement rule?

Many people think about the large sum of money they'll require to retire comfortably. It can be intimidating. The 240 retirement method breaks that thinking down into paychecks. Specifically, the framework argues that the average retiree will need 240 paychecks to retire. Learn more here.

Thousands of quarters and huge water bills: the economics of laundromats

There are approximately 30,000 laundromats in the US, serving the roughly 50% of apartment dwellers who do not have a washer or dryer. Shops profit when they can get their machines—roughly 30 to 40 per location, on average—to wash eight to 10 loads a day. Connections with commercial vendors help.

Six bills experts say you shouldn't put on autopay

Autopay has plenty of benefits, such as helping to avoid late fees and streamlining your bill paying process. But some experts say there are a few types of bills that you shouldn't autopay, especially if you're not confident you can pay these bills in full each term. The list includes utility bills and annual subscriptions. Read the full list here.

Modern payday lending came about in the late 1990s

In the early 1900s, unlicensed "salary lenders" used to give consumers one-week loans at annualized percentage rates of more than 100%. But wage garnishment and financially abusive practices led some states to create special licenses for lenders and implement rate caps to protect consumers. In the 1990s, a series of deregulations in various states opened the door for the modern payday lending industry to take off.

The number of publicly traded companies has decreased in recent years

In 1996, more than 7,300 companies traded publicly on US stock markets, but that number has recently dropped to 4,300. Economists point to two reasons: First, going public requires full disclosure of operations, exposing it to scrutiny from investors, competitors, and analysts. Second, the IPO process is expensive and time-consuming.

Calculate the value of a paper savings bond

An IRS tax refund is the only way to buy a paper savings bond, but if you have an old paper savings bond you can determine its current value with this calculator. The calculator only works for paper savings bonds of Series EE, Series I, Series E, and savings notes.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

Personal computers became more common in the late 1970s, making working from home more viable

As the internet and email became more popular in the 1990s, more infrastructure that would eventually support remote work was created. But the practice was still relatively uncommon until the COVID-19 pandemic, when white-collar workers first took to working from home en masse.

In June 2025, apprehensions of illegal border crossings at the US-Mexico border reached an all-time low

Total US-Mexico border encounters fell to just 25,228—the lowest monthly figure ever recorded by Customs and Border Patrol—with only 8,024 Border Patrol apprehensions and a single-day low of 136 detentions on June 28.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

Use this tool to calculate the dollar value of your parental mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care, then see resources that help generate solutions.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

Fireworks-related ER visits are on the rise—in 2024, they increased by 52% as compared to the prior year.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

44% of Americans say they pray at least once a day—discover how your state's religiosity stacks up against the rest of the country.

To reduce wrinkles in clothing, research recommends gentle wash cycles with more water and tumble drying with smaller loads and longer times.

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day

In its famous catalog, Sears sold $600 DIY house kits from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in an estimated 100,000 'Sears and Roebuck homes.'

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

See a ranking of the best (and worst) Federal Reserve Chairs since 1914 out of the 16 men and women who have held the office since.

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

Before the current East Wing ballroom project, only two White House renovations in the past 100 years cost more than $10M.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Elk Cloner, the first computer virus to spread in public, was written as a practical joke by Richard Skrenta, a Pittsburgh high school student.