Europe developed its own systems that are almost completely different to the US. (Even Mastercard and VISA networks were different, and there’s effectively two versions of each network running in the world at the moment).

They’re still old and have plenty of issues, just different to the US.

Having used both systems, the EU's is nowhere near as problematic as the USA's.

Not even close. In the states things just feel and work as if you've jumped 15 years back in time.

And I'm not even going into identity theft territory which is orders of magnitude less common in Europe.

I know americans don't like hearing this and always downvote me into oblivion, but it's the truth.

This time won't be any different, but maybe someone will be exposed to an alternate reality and reevaluate their biases.

I don’t get the downvotes either. The US banking system objectively sucks. There is no excuse for system-wide ultra-low cost instant inter-bank transfers.

Why the hell are we writing checks in 2020?

The only thing that keeps it from happening is lack of political will.

And seriously, why the downvotes? Who is here actually defending the US banking system? Speak up!

I didn't downvote anyone but I was really tempted by the preemptive whining about inevitable downvotes. That's really bad commenting practice.

It was not preemptive. It was an edit after it was already at -5 in 10 minutes.

Plus after a while it just gets annoying to be punished for just stating reality.

I'm in the US and I've never written an actual check in my life (did write some fake ones in consumer economics class in high school though). For transferring money between friends, just use venmo or zelle.

What awesome features am I missing out on?

You are missing out on:

The ability to limit the frequency and amounts of direct payments. Pay for cable with direct deposit? Why allow the company to debit more than a hundred a month?

You miss Banks giving you virtual on demand credit card numbers for free, not as a service you have to pay with another company.

You miss by having anything years later than everywhere else, like nfc payments and contactless card payments. I had people think I was insane 2 years ago for paying with a contactless card. Many would think I was defrauding them in some way. This was in large cosmopolitan cities. Not the sticks.

You miss free transfers without the ridiculous low amount limits Zelle has and no restrictions on whether the recipient is a business or not.

You miss the ability to have all direct debits initiated by you on your home banking. Meaning someone having your account number is never a real issue.

And the list goes on.

Just to say that it's usually a lot worse. Meaning I get a lot more downvotes.

Maybe awareness is improving...

Nothing wrong with having checks as an option...

Cheques were phased out in Netherlands in 2001. Even at that time it was hardly used. Cheques had a very high risk of fraud, plus expensive to process.

I don't get why you'd use something like that. Due to new EU regulation I can transfer money to other Dutch banks within 5-10 seconds. It should be EU-wide, but it seems the Dutch banks would some loophole to delay that. Anyway, what is the point of a cheque? Just pay immediately, this ensures your balance is way more accurate.

But you don't know the best thing.

In the USA checks have your account number. A number you are supposed to keep secret to prevent ACH fraud.

The first thing Banks ask you if you try to address any fraudulent transaction is whether you've shared that number with anyone.

The number that is in every check!

It's insanity.

Because the person you make a cheque to might not have his banking information on him ? And it often goes with "please only deposit this cheque only after day X so I don't end up in the red".