Direct deposit doesn’t work for those of us whose income comes from varied sources and who have to invoice those sources before getting paid. Except for regular government handouts, I haven’t held a job for 20 years that could pay me by direct deposit.
Georgia (USA - not Europe). Direct deposit. I don’t think anyone in my office (about 70 people) gets a check.
Australia and previously New Zealand. I haven’t received a pay cheque for about 13 years. I also pay all my bills by direct deposit and receive many of them electronically as well.
Following on what 1920s said. Prior to arriving in America some four years back(and having lived most of my life in Australia and New Zealand) I hadn’t seen a cheque for at least ten years. I wasn’t even aware banks still issued them
I have direct deposit. Supposedly, it is now mandatory at my company, but I did know of one coworker who still got a paper check because she claimed she was unable to get a bank account. They have to pay a person somehow, it seems.
Do people in other countries who are not so good with their money have trouble getting bank accounts?
I still get paper paystubs mailed to my house, which is nice. I did not opt for direct deposit at one old job for a long time because they did not mail or hand out paystubs–instead, they e-mailed them to an e-mail account that I had no way to access. I figured that the company could eat the cost of issuing me a paper check until they got a way for me to access that account so I could see my paystubs. (They eventually did.)
Working in Japan
Every company I’ve worked with (except for two) has done direct deposit, since checks are pretty much non-existant here. The exceptions were both English schools that simply paid me in cash at the end of each month (nothing shady was going on, they still took out taxes and other withholdings).
All my bill payments are automatic withdrawl as well, which is extremely convenient. The alternative is also pretty easy, and not one I saw in the US. Each month (if you’re not doing automatic payment), your bill comes with a barcode printed on it. You just bring the bill to your local convenience store, where they scan it and take your payment.
ETA: One of the “you know you’ve been in Japan too long” jokes is “You’ve forgotten how to write a check.” followed by “you had to stop and think for a minute what a check was.”
First off, direct deposit for years, as long as I’ve been working at my company, it’s ubiquitous. I think payroll would probably be raising a stink if they had to issue printed checks to a few people every week. 
Followup question regarding this stuff about nobody WRITING checks in Japan - what about rent? That’s one situation here where checks are still fairly commonplace as far as I know - each tenant making out a personal check for the monthly rent, dropping it off somewhere or giving it to the building manager or the landlord directly.
I can’t speak for Japan but in Australia I have an automatic electronic funds transfer setup for my rent. Actually I don’t, my employer pays my rent and then takes it out of my salary, but prior to that arrangement I had an automatic payment setup. I used to own a cheque book, about 14-15 years ago, even then I didn’t use it often. On the very rare occasions where I still need a cheque, I go to the bank and get a bank cheque. I need one of those less than once a year.
I’m curious how the military pays. When I was in the army, they handed out cash in the U.S., or scrip overseas. Surely they have direct deposit now?
Nope, the landlord would give me his/her bank name and account number, and I’d transfer the money to their account from the ATM the first of each month.
Direct deposit was required after you arrived at your first permanent duty station back when I was in the Air Force…1988-1992. In basic we were issued something like an atm card, and got cash from a machine. At technical training school, we got paper checks, cashable at the base exchange. Basic was about 6 weeks, tech school was a few months, so not really worth setting up a bank account at either place.
Laws vary from state to state, of course, but our HR rep told us that the company cannot legally mandate direct deposit.
When my husband was in te Army in 1977, he got direct deposit except for the one time his pay got screwed up and he got a cash emergency payment. We’ve had direct deposit at every job since then and can’t imagine any other way anymore. My current job requires direct deposit, a pay stub-type accounting is mailed to your home every payday.
Thank you all for the great input!
So basically, most people get dd, with the checks being fewer and farther between.
My first thought was that your employer suspects there are one or more ghost employees on payroll. One solution being to require someone to pick up the checks for a couple of pay periods with photo ID.
As for me, I’ve always chosen DD when it was offered and my current employer requires it. I still get a voided check and stub in the mail every payday though. I’m guessing that if there were an employee that couldn’t get an account for some reason that their check just wouldn’t be voided.
Direct deposit here. I started full-time work in 1985 and pay cheques weren’t even an option then.
I have no idea as to the legal aspects, but, ours really could not, either, because those employees without bank accounts still had to get paid somehow. After all, my company was not willing/able to set up bank accounts for those employees. Therefore, although they told us we had to switch, in reality, there was nothing they could do to enforce it.
Just so you know, Worm, it’s more common for people who can’t get a bank account in the U.S. because their credit is just. that. bad. that few or no banks will trust them not to bounce the account more times than their fees are worth. I knew a kid in college who couldn’t get his own account for this reason and thus had his checks deposited into his girlfriend’s account… well, when he was employed and not mooching off the girlfriend, this was the scenario. He’s a rare example, if only for the fact that it was a combination of bad credit and being really irresponsible with everything.
Why can’t they just get a plain savings account without any credit or cheque facilities?
These days, most savings accounts need a minimum balance, the smallest I’ve seen has been $300 that has to stay in the account.
With that, there’s also a maximum number of withdrawals allowed per month (usually 3) over which there’s a fee or it’s just not allowed.
Having paychecks deposited into the savings account and then withdrawing most of it kind of defeats the purpose (in the bank’s rules) and isn’t practical for someone who has to pay cash for everything.
It’s usually quicker and costs less (in the long run) to just take the check to a currency exchange. These folks may in fact have a savings account, but they just deposit the cash and therefore limit the number of withdrawals for just the “big stuff”.