totally agree. the author of that article completely doesn't even mention the fact that his bank wire is already in the proper currency and doesn't require a c

totally agree. the author of that article completely doesn't even mention the fact that his bank wire is already in the proper currency and doesn't require a currency conversion. currency conversion from your bank will definitely cost you money - min is 1% fee for the bank, usually a bit more. So while the banking wire is a flat fee, a currency conversion would have cost him a fair amount. if he already owned BTC he would have avoided the first two steps and saved himself $180.