• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Amish 365
  • About
  • Amish Recipes
  • Amish Culture
  • Amish Marketplace
  • Navigation Menu: Social Icons

    • Email
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Amish Recipes
  • Amish Culture
  • About
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
  • subscribe
    search icon
    Homepage link
    • Amish Recipes
    • Amish Culture
    • About
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
  • ×

    Home » Amish Life

    Do The Amish Use Banks?

    Published: Mar 15, 2023 · Updated: Mar 16, 2023 by Kevin Williams | Leave a Comment

    As the nation's financial system experiences the jitters right now in the wake of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, it is tempting to seek solace in the Amish, thinking that they don’t use banks. Which brings us back to the question of: do the Amish use banks?

    Jump to:
    • 💳 The Amish and Credit Cards
    • 🏦The Amish and Bank Loans
    • 💰 The Amish and Debit Cards
    • 💸 The Amish and Paper Checks
    • Traditional Branch Banking Still Popular
    • 🙋 FAQ about the Amish and Banking Practices

    Amish wait at walk-up/drive-through banking in Berne, Indiana

    Well, first of all, there’s no sweeping generalization and answer that I can give about the Amish and banks. Yes, there will be some ultra-conservative Amish, especially old timers, that still operate on an all-cash and barter basis. But the days of most Amish stuffing their money in their mattress or in cookie jars are pretty much gone. Most Amish embrace banks in some form.

    But even in some of the most conservative Amish communities, the Amish generally use banks.

    A better way to answer the question of whether the Amish use banks is to ask how they use banks. It is the extent to which Amish people use banks that varies the most more than whether they use them.  I’d say the majority use banks for bare-bones checking and savings accounts. You’re not going to find many Amish people using online banking, they’re instead going to balance their checkbook, the old-fashioned way with paper and ledger.

    The industry publication, Banking Dive, describes the relationship of banks in Amish country to their customers like this: Banking some of Pennsylvania’s most conservative people means forging creative solutions around mobile banking, photo IDs, flood insurance and even picnic-table business deals.

    Do the Amish Use Banks?
    An Amish customer completes a transaction at the counter of Bird-in-Hand's bank branch.

    Now, as smartphones begin to proliferate, especially among Amish young people, you will see online banking being embraced by some. But this is, for now, still the exception rather than the rule. Here's a brief primer on other banking services the Amish may or may not use.

    💳 The Amish and Credit Cards

    Overall, the use of credit cards among the Amish is not common, and most communities prefer to use traditional forms of payment that align with their values and beliefs. Some Amish business owners may use credit cards as a cash flow tool, but that is the rarity rather than the rule.

    Amish businesses generally don't accept credit cards, but that is changing slowly. Some New Order Amish businesses and Old Order businesses in heavily touristed areas do now accept cards.

    🏦The Amish and Bank Loans

    There was a time when many Amish would buy family farms with cash and simply pay one generation to another. But as farming has declined and land transactions have become more complicated more and more Amish do use a bank's mortgage products. The CEO of Bird-in-Hand bank, which caters to a largely Amish clientele describes their loans to Banking Dive: "It’s a hard-working market — a people-that-pay-their-bills market,” he said, adding that historically, the Amish are known for their frugality, which translates to few write-offs on loans.

    💰 The Amish and Debit Cards

    Debit cards that are linked to a checking account are now commonplace among the Amish. It saves a trip into town to get cash and is safer than traveling by buggy with a pile of cash under the seat or in one's wallet.

    The debit cards can also be used at ATMs to get cash, something that is increasingly common.

    💸 The Amish and Paper Checks

    The Amish, as a general rule, still write a lot of paper checks and the Amish still accept paper checks, despite many non-Amish businesses gradually phasing out their acceptance.

    Buggies have to travel long distances to branches in town

    Fountain Acre Foods, an Amish-owned business in Indiana, has a "wall of shame", where customers who write bad checks have their names and addresses posted. That is a social shaming. deterrent to writing them there.

    Other Amish do occasionally get burned by accepting checks.

    An Amish farmer in Pennsylvania recounted to CNN how future New York Congressman George Santos paid him for puppies with a check that bounced:

    “I told him I don’t take checks. All I can take is cash. And he said, ‘You expect me to carry that much cash to buy a bunch of puppies on a trip like this? I do not have cash. The only thing I can give you is a check,” the farmer recounted. “I thought to myself, it looks like I am done!”

    As he expected, the check bounced – leaving the farmer on the hook for a bank fee. He was never repaid.

    Traditional Branch Banking Still Popular

    Among the Amish cash is still king. Most Amish prefer that and prefer the convenience of community banking. So much so that Bird-in-Band bank, as detailed in Banking Dive, has mobile units (resembling library bookmobile) that go out in the small Amish countryside communities so that customers can save themselves a long horse and buggy ride to the main branches in town. The bank describes them as:

    The buses go to 16 locations in the county, Monday through Friday, and serve as an extension of the bank’s three bricks-and-mortar branches. The buses provide ATMs, a walk-up customer-service window and the ability to open accounts and conduct transactions in areas where Amish people live and do business. 

    The Amish, in general, are still leery of other financial products like insurance and investments, but for bare bones banking, they are coveted customers.

    🙋 FAQ about the Amish and Banking Practices

    How do the Amish bank without a photo ID?

    Many banks find creative ways to safeguard their Amish customers, from reaching out to the local bishop for ID verification of church members, to using certified Amish directories, and using other items as an ID such as a land title document or tax forms.

    Do the Amish pay taxes?

    Yes, the Amish income taxes, state taxes, federal taxes, all taxes. The Amish are in no way exempt from paying taxes and most happily do so. Self-employed Amish are exempt from paying into social security, but that is the only major exemption.

    « Amish Peanut Butter Easter Eggs
    Oven-Fried Breadcrumb Chicken »

    About Kevin Williams

    Hi, my name is Kevin Williams and I am owner of Oasis Newsfeatures and editor of The Amish Cook newspaper column.

    Reader Interactions

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    Primary Sidebar

    Kevin Williams - The Amish Editor Amish Cook Column

    Hi There, I'm Kevin!

    Welcome to Amish365, where I share my knowledge of Amish cooking and culture! I’ve spent almost three decades exploring Amish settlements and kitchens from Maine to Montana and almost everywhere in between. I’ll occasionally throw in stories of my travels, journalism adventures (I’m a Pulitzer prize-nominated journalist), fascination with grocery stores and Kmarts, and much more!

    More about me →

    Latest Amish Recipes

    • Delicious Amish Ham Meatballs
      Delicious Amish Ham Meatballs
    • Why Do The Amish Worship At Home?
    • Finished Ham Loaf
      Amish Ham Loaf
    • What is Shunning? And Do the Amish Still Shun?
    dutchcrafters

    Download The "Almost Amish" Ebook

    Footer

    Footer

    About

    • About The Amish Editor
    • Download "Almost Amish" Ebook
    • Amish Communities
    • Amish Marketplace

    Contact

    • Work With Us
    • Contact

    *As a member of various affiliate programs I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Copyright © 2000 - 2020 Amish 365 | Powered by Touch The Road