I'm surprised you've seen even three cheques Dave. I though they were extinct in Deutschland! We now pay our window cleaner directly by electronic payment. However they have to give us their account details, which I can see some people might be cautious about. Plus they have to reconcile the payments via their statements and I can see that it's easier when you have a cheque in hand to know someone has paid! I know cheques are simpler for individuals like me and cheaper than PayPal if the payer doesn't want or can't make a direct payment. Having said that, for Christmas I got a cheque from the In-Laws plus an electronic credit. The cheque was just so there was something physical to give on the day! As for NFC, well, I've seen videos of people electronically picking the pockets of NFC card holders, so I shan't be trying that any time soon! Oddly, according to Wikipedia, the US still relies heavily on cheques (or checks). To the extent that (it says) when some people pay electronically their banks then send a cheque to the recipient's bank to cover the payment!