I’m in the same boat as Tokyo Player. I haven’t used a check in many years, although I have sent postal money orders. Whenever there’s something that absolutely, positively needs to be paid with a check, I ask my parents to write one from the savings account I still have in my hometown.
The closest thing to a debit card I use is the electronic train card I started using last month. I just wave my wallet over the turnstile as I go in or out, and put another $100 or so on it whenever it gets low.
I’ve had a UK cheque account since Nov 2006. I’ve used 2 cheques.
All my regular bills are paid by direct debit and ad-hoc purchases are made on the credit card which is paid off in full each month. Hardly use my debit card, except to get out cold hard cash.
I write a check every week for bowling. I once had an accounting problem at a league, and vowed to never put cash in the envelope again. A check gets cashed, and I get a copy back, I can prove I paid my fee. Add in maybe one other check per month for something like the water bill and other incidentals that don’t take online payments. Debit card, I must use that 5x as much, practically every “in person” purchase I make is with the debit card. Credit cards are generally big purchases, or online purchases, and cash is for <$10 stuff.
I don’t have a personal cheque book and haven’t had one for about 10 years. Every few years I get a bank cheque to pay off a loan or buy a car or something. All of my normal transactions can be done electronically.
Generally when you order checks in the U.S. they have your name and address, and sometimes other identifying information (I’ve seen checks with phone numbers and even driver’s license numbers) printed in the upper left corner, with the bank info on the bottom. The checks come in books as you described, but an “order” usually consisted of ten books, which are shipped to you in a box along with a blank register book.
I’m hoping the limit of my check-to-debit ratio is approaching zero as time goes to infinity. So far, it seems to be going that way…
I only used checks when I lived in the US. Oh, yeah, and when I bought my flat there were checks involved, but I didn’t touch them - it was all a shuffle between the two banks and the property registrar, with the vendor and me looking on and “signing here.”
Yeah - I just never saw the need for a debit card sufficient to make it worth carrying another piece of plastic in my wallet.
Most of our checks are written from home - for monthly credit card bills, etc. Most other regularly recurring payments are electronic transfers. We do not shop anywhere that does not accept credit cards. I don’t understand why people would use a debit card, instead of taking advantage of the float and benefits from credit (which - of course - you pay off every month.)
I last wrote a check(cheque) last century sometime say 1998. Recently we were talking at work about bill paying and it turned out that the only bill I don’t pay on my computer is the bill for my car maintenance which I pay, by eftpost, over the counter when I pick the car up.
I haven’t been inside a bank for many years.
Now that my apartment complex will take online payments, the only checks I write are the weekly checks for the church offering. I could do that electronically, but I like having the physical item to put in the plate.
I can only speak for myself, of course, but I suspect my reasoning is not uncommon:
There’s really no “float” to take advantage of if the money is sitting in a non-interest-bearing checking account. I can either (electronically) pay for the item now with the debit card, or hang on to the money for a couple of weeks and then give it to my credit card’s issuing bank. Yeah, I’d be scoring an interest-free loan if I went the credit card route, but that’s not saying much since I wouldn’t be earning any interest on the money in that interval regardless.
Given this, it makes my own personal accounting much simpler to only have one transaction/reconciliation involving the purchase. (1 debit card payment, rather than a credit card charge and then paying it off.)
I’ve given the matter some idle thought, but see the potential gains in changing my ways to be quite minimal and thus not worth the effort.
On topic: I write maybe six checks a year to random payees for whom setting up an electronic payment would not be worth the hassle. Every now and again it really is simpler and quicker to just get out the checkbook.
I was pleased to note recently that the California DMV has finally stopped charging a convenience fee for paying for car registration via credit card - before that I wrote 'em a check out of spite.
I tried that, since I almost always order online from Papa John’s, but apparently it’s still so uncommon around here that the drivers couldn’t grasp that I had already paid for it. Phone calls and considerable hassle would ensue. Much easier to just dust off the checkbook.
I haven’t written a check since 2006. I rarely use my debit card, and generally don’t carry more than $10 cash on me. Since I get between 1 and 3% back on all purchases, I put everything on my credit card, which is through the same bank as my accounts. I just transfer funds from my account to the balance on my card and pay it down to $0 at the end of each week to avoid any interest charges. I started doing this last April, and by December had received $1000 back in cash rewards. Granted, I also bought a fixer-upper and had a lot of home improvement related charges, but still not a bad chunk of change.
I do it to improve my credit rating. Perhaps someone can tell me if it actually works or not!
I figure that having a good balance sitting in my cheque account improves my average balance, which I know was used as a lending decision factor when I worked for a bank in New Zealand. And I also figure that using my credit card and paying it off in full each month makes the credit card people like me. [ETA - By “like”, I mean want to offer me more credit in order to entice me to spend more than I can repay in order that they can earn some interest off me. I don’t use the increased limit, but it’s nice to know it’s there if I should ever need it in an emergency]
My debit card is the same as the one from the bank I use for the ATM, so no additional cards.
In response to brad_d’s response, besides the cashback from using my credit card, using it means that I don’t have to worry about the instantaneous balance in my checking account. The check book usually stays at home, since we don’t use it outside the house, but I wouldn’t want to call my wife every time I used the debit card to be sure it isn’t low. (It seldom is, but still.) The “float” of not having to worry about money until payday is enough for me.
I can see on-line bill paying a bit more. My daughter does this, but she moves a fair bit, so I can see the benefit of not having to change her address. Paying by check is half habit and half not trusting a lot of companies with my bank information. I get IT magazines, so I’m up on the latest break-ins.
Well, in my case, the money stays in savings until it is needed in checking. The bank will autotransfer up to 6 times a month, after that it is considered overdraft. Instead of having dozens of individual hits on my checking (and having to constantly xfer from savings), the charges rack up on my CC, I get cash back (or other rewards) from the CC, then there is one bill at the end of the month, and one xfer from savings to checking.
I guess everyone’s situation is different.
We never use ATMs either.
In fact, last month an occasion arose where we needed several hundred in cash after bank hours. We managed to find our bank card, but discovered that because it was so old and had never been used, the machine wouldn’t accept it. hard to imagine folks would live like that, no? 
I never use a debit card.
I use cash, credit or check. But my credit union will send out most of my payments so I rarely use a check.
I use my debit card almost exclusively. The only checks I write regularly are my rent check and to pay the comic shop guy (it’s a small shop and not worthwhile for him to take plastic). I always run out of deposit slips long before I run out of checks.
I remember actually having to go into banks (or through drive in windows) to get money or to cash or deposit my paycheck. (Before electronic deposit.) ATMs are good things. The only time I got into a bank anymore is to get into my safety deposit box.