[hyperman1]

Agree. This 40 year old european has seen/used exactly 1 cheque in his life, to buy the house. For some complicated legal reason, houses can not be bought with normal means of payment. We had to walk with the flimsy piece of paper from the bank to the notary, where a bank representative was actually sitting. We gave it to the notary, the notary gave it to the previous owner, and they had to walk it back to their bank. We both felt like stone age caveman, except the previous owners already did it once in the 1980's when they bought the house, so it was the 2nd cheque they saw in their lives.

We asked the banker what would happen if we were robbed. He said he'd just write a new one. The thief couldn't do anything with it, as it was all on name only, and the extremely low daily volume of cheques in use would mean cashing it would stand out like a sore thumb.