A checking account and paper checks are almost mandatory in the US. If you need to make a large payment to an individual or small business, say a landlord or someone doing work on your home, it's still usually the preferred payment method. It's not that there aren't electronic alternatives, it's that most of the alternatives involve someone paying (often significant) fees.

For example, my rental company accepts online payments via credit/debit card, but if I do that they charge a $30 "convenience fee" for my $900 rent payment. I could set up automatic payments by giving them permission to draft from my checking account, but I refuse to do that since it removes the only leverage I have should a dispute occur. The only remaining options to pay without fees are cash or check, so every month I put a paper check in the mail.

In the US there's really only two payees the average person writes a check out to, the government (to pay taxes), and your landlord (to pay rent).

10 years ago if you hired someone to do a job around the house you might have to pay with check. In the last 2-3 years I've had a couple contractors work on my house and they've all taken credit cards (as well as the others I got quotes from but didn't hire). So now I won't even consider a contractor who doesn't take credit cards.

I’ve previously noticed that places that spell it ‘cheque’ use the payment method less than those who spell it check.

I'm 26 and I have literally never seen a check in my entire life, I don't even know how one would go about issuing one? It seems like such a US-exclusive thing, together with card payments that require signatures.

Not if you live in Europe. Cheques weren't used anymore anyway, but they finally pulled the plug on them at the end of 2002.