Checks feel familiar. For decades they've been the default way businesses pay people back — rebates, claims, incentives, insurance settlements, marketplace earnings. That familiarity creates an illusion of reliability. But familiarity isn't the same as a good experience, and the data in Onbe and NRG's 2026 Payouts Landscape Report makes the gap hard to ignore: checks are inconvenient, confusing, and increasingly a source of friction for the very people businesses are trying to pay. For brands still leaning on paper, every check issued is a small bet against consumer expectations — and it's a bet that's getting harder to win.

Consumer friction is widespread

Nearly half (49%) of consumers who received a paper check said the experience came with some kind of inconvenience. That's not a rounding error or an edge case; it's essentially a coin flip on whether a payout goes smoothly.

The specific pain points explain why:

• Long delivery times (22%): A check has to be printed, mailed, and physically travel through the postal system before a consumer even has the option to deposit it. For anyone expecting fast access to funds — a claim reimbursement, a rebate, an earned payout — that lag reads as a broken promise. 
• Trips to a bank or ATM (16%): Depositing a check still requires a physical errand for a growing share of consumers who do most of their financial lives on a phone. That friction falls hardest on people without easy branch access.
• Delayed funds availability (14%): Even after deposit, banks can hold checks for days before funds clear — turning what should be a moment of goodwill (a refund, a bonus, a reward) into another waiting period.
• Fear of theft or loss (13%): Paper moving through the mail is vulnerable in a way digital payments simply aren't. Consumers know this, and it shows up as real anxiety about whether their money will actually arrive.

Individually, each of these is a minor annoyance. Together, they add up to a payout experience that actively works against the reason the payment was sent in the first place — to build goodwill, satisfy an obligation, or reward a customer.

Checks are losing relevance

Consumer behavior is already shifting away from paper, and the trend line points in one direction. Twenty-one percent of consumers say they plan to use checks less in 2026 — a meaningful signal that the modest tolerance checks still enjoy is eroding, not holding steady.

The generational divide makes the trajectory even clearer. Monthly check usage sits at just 9% among Gen Z, compared to 30% among Boomers. That's more than a 3x gap, and it's not a static difference — it's a preview of where the entire consumer base is headed as spending power and payout volume shift toward younger generations. A payment method that already skews toward an aging, shrinking user base isn't a stable foundation for a payout strategy; it's a countdown.

Checks are costly and risky for businesses

The consumer-facing friction is only half the story. On the business side, checks carry a cost structure that's easy to underestimate because so much of it is hidden in operational overhead rather than a single line-item expense.

Industry data cited in the report puts the fully burdened cost of issuing a check at $4 to $20 each — a range that reflects printing, postage, reconciliation, stop-payment and reissue requests, escheatment handling, and the customer support load generated by "where's my check" inquiries. At volume, that spread turns a seemingly simple payout method into a meaningful line item on the cost of doing business. 

Fraud exposure compounds the problem. According to AFP data referenced in the report, checks remain the most fraud-targeted payment method in the U.S. — more exposed than ACH, cards, or wire transfers. Every check in transit is a target, and every fraud incident brings direct financial loss along with the reputational damage of a payee whose payment was intercepted or altered.

Strategic takeaway

Put these two halves together — rising consumer friction and rising business cost and risk — and the conclusion is straightforward: businesses that cling to checks are compounding a problem on both ends. They're paying more to deliver a worse experience, to a shrinking share of consumers who actually prefer it.

Every check issued is also an opportunity cost. It's a payout that could have arrived instantly, been trackable end-to-end, and reinforced trust in the brand behind it — but instead added a delivery delay, a bank trip, a fraud risk, and a support ticket to the ledger. Multiply that across thousands or millions of disbursements, and "we've always done it this way" becomes one of the more expensive habits a payouts program can keep.

How Onbe closes the gap

This is exactly the problem Onbe was built to solve. Onbe helps businesses remove checks from the payout workflow entirely — replacing paper with a single, digital disbursement platform that spans prepaid card, ACH, push-to-card, and digital wallets, so payees can receive funds the way they actually want to be paid.

That shift addresses both sides of the equation at once:

• For consumers, digital payouts eliminate the delivery lag, the bank trip, and the fraud anxiety that checks carry — replacing them with fast, trackable, and secure delivery that matches how people already manage money on their phones.
• For businesses, moving off paper reduces the fully burdened cost per payout, cuts exposure to check fraud, and lowers the volume of "where's my payment" support tickets that come with a slower, less visible payment method.

Onbe also manages the exceptions that make businesses hesitant to go all-digital in the first place — unbanked or underbanked recipients, incomplete payment information, failed transactions — so a digital-first strategy doesn't mean leaving anyone behind. The result is a payout experience that aligns with where consumer expectations already are, and where they're only continuing to move.

Checks aren't disappearing overnight, but the direction is clear. Businesses that modernize their payout strategy now aren't just cutting costs — they're getting ahead of a consumer base that's already moving on.

Learn more about what matters most to consumers during the payout experience in Onbe & NRG's 2026 Payouts Landscape report or talk to Onbe about where to start