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Key Takeaways Why paper checks aren’t dead yet: Most small business owners still rely on them — what’s behind the choice?
The surprising persistence of paper payments: Even in 2026, checks remain a go-to tool for many businesses.
It may seem hard to believe, but in 2026, most small business owners still use paper checks.
The research shows this. According to a 2024 study from the Atlanta Federal Reserve, as much as 83% of small firms — those with up to $10 million in annual revenues — use paper checks. Another study by an outside payment processing firm found similar (75%) results. And Mineral Tree, a global payments processing company, said that in just the past 12 months, 57% of businesses paid more than one-quarter of their vendors via check.
My own experience corroborates this. I visit and talk to countless small business owners every year. And while many rely on electronic payment for certain vendors, most are still doing their check runs the way they’ve been doing them for years — even decades. You would think that, as younger generations take over, things would change? Nope.
How can so many business owners still be using paper checks in this modern day? Is this ignorance? No, just a good business practice.
It’s not hard to understand. There are obvious reasons to stick with paper checks. For example, there are both the initial and longer-term service costs, as well as the short-term disruption of moving to an all-electronic payment system compared to the return-on-investment for not doing so. Many business owners don’t have the internal resources to implement such a project. Others don’t want to rock the boat with their suppliers. And then there’s simple demographics: the majority of small businesses are run by older business owners — those over the age of 50 — that are not only set in their ways but not anxious to turn things upside down to fix something that for them isn’t really broken.
But as good as these reasons are, there are even better reasons why so many small business owners are sticking with paper checks.
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