Wire transfers may work well in Europe, but they do not work well for making transfers from Europe to most banks in the U.S. The reason why is because banks in

Wire transfers may work well in Europe, but they do not work well for making transfers from Europe to most banks in the U.S. The reason why is because banks in the US do not use IBAN numbers, and very few have SWIFT codes. To do an international wire transfer into the US, it must first be routed through one of the few large banks that have their own SWIFT code (e.g. Wells Fargo), then often through a second intermediary bank before the payment reaches the receiver's bank. All the routing in the US is done using ABA numbers, which is unique to the US. Few European banks seem to be able to handle this convoluted process. More often then not, when we've attempted to receive an incoming wire transfer from from a European customer, the payment has gotten misrouted because the sending bank neglected to fill out the application form properly. By contrast, we've had very few problems receiving international payments via PayPal.