Card payments land in 2 days. Checks take 18 days.
Median days to get paid by payment method: card 2 days, Venmo 6, Zelle 7, bank transfer 14, check 18. Checks are still the most common way clients pay.
Published on
Data from
Written by
Balint Bogdan
How a client pays makes a big difference to how long you wait. Card payments arrived in a median of 2 days. Bank transfers took 14 days, and checks 18.
Checks were still the most common way to pay in this data, which is why so many invoices take weeks.
The numbers
| Method | Share of all payments | Median days to get paid |
|---|---|---|
| Check | 30.3% | 18 |
| Bank transfer | 17.6% | 14 |
| Cash | 17.5% | 12 |
| PayPal | 0.7% | 9 |
| Zelle | 7.0% | 7 |
| Cash App | 1.4% | 7 |
| Venmo | 3.7% | 6 |
| Card | 4.1% | 2 |
Online payments, timed to the minute
For payments made online, Tofu could measure the exact time between sending and paying. Card payments had a median of 1.5 days, and 39.1% were paid within 24 hours. Bank transfers (ACH) had a median of 8.5 days, and only 2.4% were paid within 24 hours.
Card fees are the usual worry. In 66.5% of online payments, the client covered the card fee.
| Method | Payments | Median days | Paid within 24 hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Card | 31,915 | 1.5 | 39.1% |
| Stripe Link (saved card) | 29,868 | 1.7 | 34.8% |
| Cash App | 1,090 | 1.0 | 45.7% |
| Klarna | 1,042 | 1.1 | 43.6% |
| ACH bank transfer | 1,419 | 8.5 | 2.4% |
How to read this
- Shares are out of all paid invoices; 17.6% had no recorded payment method and aren't shown.
- The invoices come from US service businesses (trades like cleaning, landscaping, plumbing and IT), not only freelancers. The patterns are useful, but the exact numbers will differ for your clients and your country.
- Checks are far more common in the US than in most of Europe, where bank transfer is the usual default.
- This shows a pattern, not a cause: clients who pay by card may also be the ones who pay quickly anyway.
What you can do
- Offer card payment alongside bank transfer.
- Decide how you'll handle card fees: price them in, or let the client cover them.
- Make the fastest option the easiest one to find on the invoice.
“Pay by card in one click with the button above, or by bank transfer to the details below.”
See how Brisk invoices get paid →
Questions & answers
What's the fastest way for clients to pay an invoice?
In Tofu's data, card payments were fastest, with a median of 2 days. Venmo took 6, Zelle 7, bank transfer 14 and checks 18.
Is it worth paying card fees to get paid faster?
That's your call, but the gap is large: online card payments had a median of 1.5 days versus 8.5 for ACH transfers. And in 66.5% of online payments, the client covered the card fee.
Source
Tofu: Invoice payment terms: how long clients really take to pay
Paid invoices with a recorded payment method, from 3.75M invoices sent by US service businesses. Jan 2025 – May 2026.
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