[PeterisP]

Yes, in most EU countries checks are nearly nonexistent, and a large portion of population have never ever seen (much less used) a check even once in their life, it's something you read about in literature and hear mentioned in American media. IIRC they're quite popular in United Kingdom still, though.

I worked in a bank for a bunch of years, a decade ago we were processing <100 checks a year, which was an unusual (and expensive) service; about half of the checks was companies doing international sales to unusual countries and the other half was scams; so that business was shut down - some banks do offer a service of cashing checks, but many banks will not.

A wire transfer to an account in another banks is (depending on your bank) either free or something like 0.15-0.30 eur, certainly cheaper than a stamp if one would need to send a paper check.