What types of transactions do people write checks for?
According to the Federal Reserve’s most recent DFI study, most checks are written for remittance or bill payment (25.7 percent of check volume). The next most popular reasons for check writing are point-of-sale purchases (19 percent) and salary and benefits payments from businesses and governments to consumers (17.8 percent). The Federal Reserve System also estimates that consumer-to-consumer payments accounted for 11.2 percent of total check value in 2000 (Federal Reserve Board, Retail Payments Research Project, 2001, Updated 2002).
