It's a weird thing in the US where you still can't just go online and send money to any recipient. When I rented a flat, I thought I'd just directly send money to my landlord. Nope, not possible. Not at all. Had to fill out checks. The only other option was to set up an automatic payment at my bank that would automatically send the landlord checks.

Another thing is that in order to get paid, I actually had to sign a permission to allow my employer to transfer money to my account with direct deposit. This means that there are means to transfer money without checks, but this option is somehow not readily available to anyone and the recipient has to sign a permission to allow it. Seriously, why do I have to sign a permission for someone to send me money?

I was absolutely baffled. In some ways, visiting the US felt like traveling back in time to 1980.