I think the main charm of checks are a certain untraceability.
E.g. I was once in the states and received a check. As I was not a customer of any bank there, there was no easy way for me to cash it in. Solution: go to a friend's bank with him in tow so that he'd essentially cash it in but giving me all the money.
This could easily get your friend in tax trouble. If you need to cash a check and you don't have a bank account you typically go to the bank that issued the check and cash it there.
