I'm actually starting to lean this way myself. Many of our routine expenses (food, gas, restaurants) are now cash transactions. I think I'm smarter with money as a result.
Now that my rent has gone up and they want me to pay once every 6 months, we just go to the bank and do a huge transfer directly to my landlord's account.
I'm still shocked my companies here in the U.S. that don't offer non-check payments. Most government agencies require cash or check (I never carry either).
I recently switched to Simple bank, which doesn't offer checks, and I've definitely hit a few snags along the way because of it.
Don't generalize. Checks in Tunisia are used from small transactions ($20) to very big ones (certified checks).
Checks were never used very much in most of east Asia. They have some use in India given its UK heritage.
Rewards points are a sign of inefficiency.
Huh? The retailer is paid the same amount (sans the transaction fee) either way. The cashback incentive is to get people in debt.
I've found that I spend 5-8% less on average on food, meals, etc. I'm not a spendthrift by any means, I budget and pay my bills just fine and don't have money problems.
I had a wallet stolen while travelling and lost access to my cards (except AMEX, who had it FedEx'd to my hotel by 8AM the next morning) for about a week. So I ended up using cash for about a week and I was shocked that it actually had a measurable impact.
Try it for a week -- you'll be surprised.