>>>>>There's a level of transaction which is below the small business but still larger than a few pence.
>>>
>>>Some phone providers already allow you to pay such fees by sending a txt to a designated phone number- e.g. it's already commonly available to pay for parking in some places. Smarter mobile payment options are due within a year.
>>
>>The parking-via-SMS is commonplace in Belgrade since 2002 or 2003. There may be other services I'm not aware of, because I don't have a cell phone yet (and probably don't need it at all).
>
>This still misses the point thats there's a groups of people and transactions for which cheques worked very well and there's not a clear replacement.

There's a system with small shops that worked here for the last 20 years - you write checks in advance, with future dates, so you basically don't get a loan, you just pay in the future. One of such retailers was my customer, and I've seen bundles of checks, sorted by due dates.

Or, you have a subscription - you write a check to some amount without a date, and leave it with the shopkeeper. Then you keep buying there until you exhaust the amount - then you write down the date, the check goes to be cached, and you write another one. I was buying milk and cheese that way at the nearby kiosk (owned by the dairy farm) for a couple of years.