A large percent of Americans get paid via check and then use a check cashing store to convert to cash, and then use that to pay for bread. You do not need a bank account in that scenario.
It's actually not. The US and the UK have the same percentage of adults using financial services (91%.) France, Germany, Spain, Luxembourg, etc. have a higher percentage; others have lower such as Norway and Portugal (and Switzerland!.) The average for the US and Europe is 92%. http://mckinseyonsociety.com/downloads/reports/Economic-Deve...
Not true - there is an initiative in the UK started years ago to phase out checks, but it faced a lot of backlash and delays and is not anywhere on schedule. Checks are uncommon in the US as well, by the way, but you can see from the statistics I linked that cash and checks are still used in both countries.
Not sure where you live, but how easy is it to cash checks at banks with whom you don't have an account? Apparently, check cashing outlets (CCO) handle substantial volume in the US and business is booming:
"Cashing a paycheck at a [check cashing outlet] gives customers access to their
money the same day. [Alternatively,] Banks limit access to $200 or so and can
hold the money for up to five days. Further, low-income and low-balance customers
get frustrated with a bank’s fees eating away at what little is in their
accounts or sending their balances more into the red with low-balance and/or
overdraft fees" [1]
About 8% of US households don't have a bank account. [1] The number seems to be slightly lower in the UK. I believe in some Western European countries it's required to receive government payments so the unbaked rate is lower in those cases.
