While the US has quickly evolved through various means of electronic payments; paypal, venmo, Apple pay, Google pay, credit cards, and crypto, checks remain a widely-used form of transactional payment.
You guessed it, not in Spain. No, in Spain and most of Europe, the most common form of transactional payments are either cash or electronic transfers. Most accounts in Europe use a uniform account format; International Bank Account Number (IBAN). Because the account number, or IBAN, is uniform you can transfer money across countries just easily as you can to a friend. You use an IBAN to pay the rent, pay your utilities, chip-in for dinner… anything. Transfers usually take 1 day to clear, though if the recipient is member of the same bank it can take as little as minutes.
Depending on the account type you have, there may, or may not be any fees for the transfer. Some accounts have a limit of fee-free transfers, others allow unlimited transfers to recipients in the same bank or network, etc.
So if you ever visit Europe and they ask you to pay via an electronic transfer, don’t panic ๐
