This was something a few of us were discussing over on the EEVblog IRC channel today.
I learned that the Australian government will be phasing out the use of cheques by no later than 2030. Which to me is still quite late considering the use of cheques in Australia is almost zero today.
Most Australian banks haven't offered cheques for most accounts for some time, however they will still process cheques that are sent to them (at least for now).
In my experience, I've never owned a cheque book and I can count on one hand the number of times I've had to cash a cheque. Same goes for writing cheques, I think I last wrote one in 2002, as the company I worked for at the time still used them.
Keen to hear about other's experiences around the world. Correct me if I'm wrong but the US are still fairly reliant on cheques as a form of payment?
If cheques are becoming unused, then it costs banks very little to keep the processes going. Whereas once they might have to have, say, 1000 staff, now they only need one. The banks make enough money that they should be required to deal with a few "corner cases".
There are use-cases that strongly indicate using a cheque for random one-off payments.
If a recipient doesn't want to give out their bank account details in an email or similar.
If the sender cannot use electronic banking, for any of many reasons.
If the monies are a surprise gift.
Grandparents giving birthday presents are a prime example of the last two.
Such considerations caused UK politicians to not allow banks to cease using cheques. Pressure from constituents is a useful tool.