To people in Europe (no idea if grandparent belongs to these), mailing around checks is just a ludicruous idea. You whip out your strong-authentication-of-the-

To people in Europe (no idea if grandparent belongs to these), mailing around checks is just a ludicruous idea. You whip out your strong-authentication-of-the-day device, do the magic bellydance (i.e., enter some numbers into that device, or scan something on the screen) and whoop, you just transfered a sum of money. To someone in a different European (SEPA) country. Without paying anything (except if you live in Italy and have a greedy bank). With the money coming in within two business days at their side. And of course you have an option to perform monthly payments that way. Some landlords put it in the rent contract that the tenant has to use this method. France was one of the last country to abandon checks. Why? Because everything is more efficient when it's electronic, and there is less forgery. (You can still send a wire transform via mail with a forged signature, but with these, you can usually go to the recipient and give them a hard time, which is harder with a check someone cashed out two days ago).