Kev wrote:

All of what you said can equally be done with a credit card and I can
get up to 4 weeks to pay it off, and I can use a cheque to do it with.
To be fair almost all my purchases are with a credit card.

I do the same but make a single payment by electronic banking.

Obsolete, well maybe but still does the job. Time consuming, do
cheques take that much longer than a debit card and whether it is a
cheque, credit or debit card by far the quickest way to pay is with
cash. My personal cheques are free so no disadvantage there.
Can't really pay my council tax, gas, electric, telephone by card
unless I want to spend forever on the phone.

I've never paid any of those items by phone (in fact, I've never paid
ANYTHING by phone - far too slow). All of them are paid either by standing
order or by being directly billed to my credit card (and a lot more, like
health insurance/dental fees besides). I've never used my debit card yet.

On line banking, not very quick and I don't do dd's.

It probably depends upon your bank or building society. Mine is extremely
user-friendly and quick. I can sign-on, make my monthly payment, transfer
cash to my current account (from my high-interest Internet banking account)
and sign-off again in around 60-90 seconds. It would take me that long to
find a chequebook and pen.