> One of the nice things about ACH is that it's dirt cheap, especially compared to the credit card network. So is UK's Faster Payments, which is near-real-time

> One of the nice things about ACH is that it's dirt cheap, especially compared to the credit card network. So is UK's Faster Payments, which is near-real-time and far cheaper than the ACH numbers you gave: http://www.fasterpayments.org.uk/membership/access-options/direct-membership/fees-structure http://www.fasterpayments.org.uk/membership/access-options/d... Really, there's no reason for ACH to suck so much. Other countries have better payments infrastructure that costs less (to operate and for end-users) and is more modern -- and it hasn't imploded their banking systems.