A few years ago I was living in the UAE and I was surprised that cheques were so common. When you rent an apartment you typically give post-dated cheques for each quarter at the start of the year.

It sounds a bit crazy, but by law if a cheque bounces it was a criminal offence (I believe they recently changed it or were thinking about it).

There are a lot of interesting advantages to this, as you can effectively escrow cash without a third party. If you receive a cheque you know you can always (or should always) being able to cash it in.