Wow, from a German perspective that sounds absurd. Bank transfers in the Euro zone are free (SEPA). Within Germany they've been free as long as I can remember. I've never written a cheque in my life.
Like Germany, Norway have/had giros in widespread use, though. The UK technically had a giro system, but actual giros are rarely used here. The big difference between a giro and a cheque is that with a giro it is the payer rather than the payee that instigates the transaction - either directly to the recipients bank account, or by effectively registering an approval with the bank and sending something similar to a cheque to the recipient (but with the difference that the sender has first directly confirmed the transaction to the bank).
So to me cheques have always seemed backwards from the logical flow.
But people mostly moved to direct debit for those kinds of bills.