Check vs Bank Transfer 2026: Just 26% of Invoices Paid by Check [Data]

Key Takeaways

Just 26% of B2B invoice payments in the US and Canada were made by check in 2025, down from 81% in 2004 (AFP 2025 Digital Payments Survey).
Issuing a business check costs a median $2 to $4, plus $1 to $2 to receive one, versus $0.26 to $0.50 for an ACH bank transfer (AFP 2022 Payments Cost Benchmarking Survey).
91% of organizations still use checks for at least some payments, up from 75% in 2023, even as the dollar volume keeps shifting to bank transfers (AFP 2025 Payments Fraud and Control Survey).
Checks are used by 83% of “Small” businesses, versus 65 to 66% of “Large” and “Very Large” firms, which rely more on ACH (Federal Reserve 2024 Business Payments Study).
Checks are the most fraud-targeted payment method: 63% of organizations were hit by attempted or actual check fraud in 2024, versus 38% for ACH debits and 30% for wire transfers (AFP 2025 Payments Fraud and Control Survey).
UK check volume fell to just 91 million in 2024, down 17% year over year and now just 0.2% of all UK payments (UK Finance, Payment Markets 2025).

Just 26% of B2B invoice payments in the US and Canada were made by check in 2025, down from 81% in 2004, according to the Association for Financial Professionals’ (AFP) 2025 Digital Payments Survey. The gap left behind has gone almost entirely to ACH bank transfers, which now cost a fraction of what a check does to send and settle in a fraction of the time. This is the full comparison: how the check-versus-bank-transfer split has actually moved over two decades, what each one costs per payment, which one gets targeted by fraud more, and whether small businesses are really the holdouts the data suggests.

How much of B2B invoicing is still paid by check?

Less than a third. In 2025, organizations report that 26% of the payments they make to other businesses go out by check, a 7-percentage-point drop from 33% in 2022 and the lowest figure the AFP survey has recorded since it began tracking this in 2004, according to the 2025 AFP Digital Payments Survey Report: A Triennial Publication, based on 223 corporate treasury and finance practitioners across the US and Canada, fielded in May 2025. The decline on the receiving side tracks closely: 25% of incoming B2B payments arrived by check in 2025, down from 75% in 2004.

Figure 1: Share of US and Canadian B2B payments made by check, surveyed every three years, 2004 to 2025. Source: AFP 2025 Digital Payments Survey Report: A Triennial Publication (223 respondents, May 2025).

The decline has not been a straight line. Check usage actually ticked up slightly between 2010 and 2016, from 67% to a brief plateau near 50-51%, before resuming its drop through 2019, 2022, and 2025. AFP attributes the more recent, steeper decline to two forces reinforcing each other: newer digital payment tools becoming easier to adopt, and growing concern about check fraud specifically, which the same survey documents separately (see below).

How much does a check actually cost compared to a bank transfer?

A lot more. The median cost for a business to issue a check is $2 to $4, and the median cost for the recipient to process one on arrival is another $1 to $2, according to AFP’s 2022 Payments Cost Benchmarking Survey of 350 finance professionals, sponsored by Corpay. An ACH bank transfer, by comparison, costs a median $0.26 to $0.50 to initiate or receive, whether a business is sending the payment or getting paid. Even before counting the staff time spent printing, signing, stuffing, and mailing a check, the per-payment gap is roughly 6 to 15 times in the bank transfer’s favor.

Figure 2: Median per-payment cost, shown at each range’s midpoint. Actual reported ranges: check issue $2 to $4, check receipt $1 to $2, ACH bank transfer $0.26 to $0.50. Source: AFP 2022 Payments Cost Benchmarking Survey (350 respondents).

That cost gap compounds fast for any business sending more than a handful of invoices a month, and it is one of the clearest reasons treasury teams give for pushing vendors and customers toward electronic payment. It also explains why the AFP cost survey found that transaction fees and total processing cost are consistently cited as businesses’ top payment pain point, ahead of speed or security concerns, across every size segment measured.

Do small businesses actually rely on checks more than large ones?

Yes, and the gap is wide. In the Federal Reserve’s 2024 Business Payments Study, a survey of 2,005 US businesses across firm sizes and industries fielded in the third quarter of 2024, 83% of firms in the “Small” revenue segment reported using checks to make or receive payments in the past 12 months, the highest share of any size group. “Very Small” firms were close behind at 78%. Usage drops off from there: “Medium” and “Large” firms both came in at 66%, and “Very Large” firms at 65%.

Figure 3: Share of US businesses using checks versus ACH bank transfer in the past 12 months, by revenue size segment, 2024. Source: Federal Reserve Financial Services, 2024 Business Payments Study (2,005 US businesses).

ACH bank transfer shows almost the opposite pattern. Just 53% of “Very Small” firms used ACH in the past year, but usage jumps to 76 to 78% across “Small,” “Medium,” “Large,” and “Very Large” segments alike. The two lines cross for one reason: smaller businesses often deal with vendors, landlords, and clients who still expect or prefer a check, while larger organizations with dedicated finance staff have both the volume and the leverage to standardize on ACH. This is also the segment where cost matters least in absolute terms and most as a share of overhead, which is part of why BillyPaid’s invoice generator builds a payable link into every invoice by default rather than treating digital payment as an upgrade.

Is check usage actually rising or falling right now?

Both, depending on what is being measured, and the distinction matters. The AFP Digital Payments Survey tracks the share of total payment volume that moves by check, and that figure has fallen steadily to 26%. But AFP’s separate 2025 Payments Fraud and Control Survey, based on 521 corporate practitioners, asked a different question, whether an organization uses checks at all, and found that 91% do, up from 75% in 2023. More than 75% of organizations surveyed say they have no plans to reduce check usage over the next two years.

The two figures are not a contradiction. Most organizations keep a check option available for the vendors, landlords, or one-off payments that still expect one, even while shifting the bulk of routine, recurring B2B payments to ACH. Seventy percent of organizations in the fraud survey make less than a quarter of their total payments by check, meaning checks remain in the toolkit as a fallback option long after they stop being the default.

Are checks or bank transfers a bigger fraud risk?

Checks, by a clear margin. Among organizations surveyed by AFP in 2024, 63% experienced attempted or actual fraud involving checks, the single most-targeted payment method in the survey. ACH debits followed at 38%, and wire transfers at 30%, both well behind checks despite carrying larger average transaction values in many cases.

Figure 4: Share of organizations reporting attempted or actual payments fraud, by payment method, 2024. Source: AFP 2025 Payments Fraud and Control Survey Report (521 respondents, underwritten by Truist).

Mail theft is a specific driver of the gap: 23% of organizations in the same survey reported check fraud that originated through interference with the US Postal Service, a vulnerability a bank transfer simply does not carry since no physical instrument travels through the mail. That said, checks remaining the top fraud target has not been enough on its own to push most organizations to drop them; as the previous section shows, the majority still keep checks in active use.

Is the shift away from checks a US-only story?

No, and the UK shows the same direction of travel at an even steeper pace. UK check volume fell to 91 million in 2024, a 17% drop from 110 million in 2023, according to UK Finance’s Payment Markets 2025 report. Checks now account for just 0.2% of all payments made in the UK. The longer trend line is dramatic: from 1,213 million checks written in 2009, volume fell to 627 million by 2014, 272 million by 2019, and 91 million by 2024, a decline of more than 92% across fifteen years.

Figure 5: UK check payment volume, in millions, 2009 to 2024. Source: UK Finance, Payment Markets 2025 (published October 2025, covering 2024 data).

The pattern is consistent enough across both markets that a business operating in either one is safe assuming the same direction applies to its own invoicing mix: fewer counterparties expect or default to a check each year, and the ones that do are increasingly the exception rather than the norm.

Check vs Bank Transfer at a Glance

Measure	Check	Bank transfer (ACH)
Share of US/Canada B2B payments, 2025	26%	Majority of the remainder
Median cost to issue	$2 to $4	$0.26 to $0.50
Median cost to receive	$1 to $2	$0.26 to $0.50
Organizations targeted by fraud, 2024	63%	38% (ACH debits)
UK payment volume, 2024	91 million (0.2% of all payments)	Not tracked as a single category

Table 1: Check versus bank transfer, side by side. Sources: AFP 2025 Digital Payments Survey; AFP 2022 Payments Cost Benchmarking Survey; AFP 2025 Payments Fraud and Control Survey; UK Finance, Payment Markets 2025.

The Bottom Line

The data points in one direction even where the story looks mixed on the surface: bank transfers have taken over the majority of B2B payment volume, cost a fraction of what a check does per payment, and get targeted by fraud far less often. What has not happened is a full disappearance of the check, since most organizations still keep one available for the vendors and clients who expect it, and small businesses in particular still lean on checks more than any other size segment. For a business deciding how to get paid rather than how to pay, the practical takeaway is the same one the cost and fraud data both support: make the cheaper, faster, better-secured option the default. A BillyPaid invoice includes a payable link for bank transfer and online payment on every document by default, so a client with a preference for paying electronically never has to ask for one. For the wider picture on how fast invoices get paid once sent, see BillyPaid’s Late Payment Statistics 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do businesses still pay invoices by check in 2026? Some, but far fewer than in the past. Just 26% of B2B payments in the US and Canada were made by check in 2025, down from 81% in 2004, according to the AFP Digital Payments Survey. At the same time, 91% of organizations report they still use checks for at least some payments, per AFP’s 2025 Payments Fraud and Control Survey, so checks have not disappeared, they have shrunk to a smaller share of total payment volume.

Is a bank transfer cheaper than a check for paying an invoice? Yes, by a wide margin. The median cost to issue a business check is $2 to $4, plus $1 to $2 for the recipient to process it, versus $0.26 to $0.50 to initiate or receive an ACH bank transfer, according to AFP’s 2022 Payments Cost Benchmarking Survey of 350 finance professionals.

Are checks or bank transfers more likely to be targeted by fraud? Checks. In 2024, 63% of organizations experienced attempted or actual fraud via checks, compared to 38% for ACH debits and 30% for wire transfers, according to AFP’s 2025 Payments Fraud and Control Survey of 521 corporate practitioners.

Are small businesses more likely to use checks than large companies? Yes. In the Federal Reserve’s 2024 Business Payments Study of 2,005 US businesses, 83% of firms in the “Small” revenue segment reported using checks in the past 12 months, compared to 65 to 66% among “Large” and “Very Large” firms, which lean more heavily on ACH bank transfers.