> For small businesses, it's also hard to see how you replace the value of being able to fedex a check to a new vendor. How do you figure? Here in Belgium cheq

> For small businesses, it's also hard to see how you replace the value of being able to fedex a check to a new vendor. How do you figure? Here in Belgium cheques have been phased out decennia ago, to the point that I have never had a cheque-book. To pay a vendor, new or old, I just transfer money onto their account. What's the benefit of the cheque? The only cheques I see are the royalties I get from some US publishers that refuse to do bank transfers. They cost like $30 to cash, because after I receive them in the mail and bring them to my bank, the bank uses a secure courier to fly them back to the US, where their sister bank cashes them, and wires the money to Europe. Madness.