Between European bank accounts in the same country. Also, not every European country, unfortunately.
> paper cheques don't exist since over a decade
They still do. They're very rarely used, but they can be useful for cases where you want to buy something like a car without changing the card limits.
Currently there are 34 countries in the SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area
SEPA rules specify that you cannot charge more for transfers between different countries than you would for a local transfer.
https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/financial-pr...
"If the payment is in euros or Swedish krona, they should not charge you more than they would for a national transaction of the same value in euros.
Unless I'm mistaken, transfers in Europe are by law required to cost the same inside and out of the country. My Greek bank charges 1 euro for a transfer, no matter if the bank is in Greece or anywhere else in the EU. My German bank doesn't charge anything, and I pay my rent from my German account.
> They're very rarely used, but they can be useful for cases where you want to buy something like a car without changing the card limits.
None of the banks I have accounts with ever gave me a chequebook. If I want to buy a car, I will transfer the money through SEPA, as normal, for free.
We have to request them and pay a small fee for them. They aren’t typically issued when you open the account. You just receive a debit card.
Exceptions may exist. This is only my experience.
I think this is because getting ownership of a car (the keys and papers) has legal implications and so you need an atomic transaction.
https://www.german-way.com/germanys-cash-culture-geld-stinkt...
However, the privacy aspect makes cash usage understandable. But it is somewhat inconvenient sometimes - for example, you generally have to be prepared to pay taxis by cash, not bank/credit card as in Nordics.
Germany is very cash. You pay taxi in cash, you pay the restaurant in cash and you pay the train in cash. Credit Cards exist but largely the EC system is prefered since it's not credit based and pulls from your bank account instead. And I only really fall back to EC when I run out of cash and I know I'm going to be at a place that has a card reader.
As far as I know, it's free between all Eurozone countries. At least I regularly do transactions between countries, and I've never heard it costing a cent.
Also, I've received wrong payments on a German account from French people many times, and they claim it's because their bank charges the transaction and I receive the sent amount minus fees, with no possibilities for them to specify otherwise (that's happened with dozens of different clients, so I'm very inclined to believe them).
Sounds like horrible UX -- how would people be able to pay their bills correctly if the sent value doesn't equal the received value?
Some banks allow you to specify it it's the receiver, the sender or if the fee should be split