As far as I can tell, from reading sites like this, one of the most common uses of checks in America seems to be for paying rent? Other than that I'm kinda cu

As far as I can tell, from reading sites like this, one of the most common uses of checks in America seems to be for paying rent? Other than that I'm kinda curious where you'd use a check at all? When I was a student, in the UK, cheques were only their way out. I remember once or twice paying for mail-order items with cheques, and paying for groceries at a supermarket with a cheque. (Back then our bank-cards would have "Cheque Guarantee £50", or similar on them, and you had to show the card as proof the cheque would be honoured even if there were insufficient funds.) In the UK, and here in Finland where I now live, people tend to pay rent/morgtages via automatic fund-transfers scheduled to run once a month, or direct-debit, so the idea of mailing a cheque for rent seems particularly archaic.