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Have you transferred money across borders to an individual lately? Actually yes. From Switzerland to my brother in Belgium. It was transferred on the same bus
by CaptainZapp 7y ago
Have you transferred money across borders to an individual lately?
Actually yes.
From Switzerland to my brother in Belgium. It was transferred on the same business day at no expense to him or me. Look up SEPA[1] for details.
Just because the American banking system is the complete shits this does not necessarily apply to the rest of the world.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area
- alehul 7y agoAcross very cooperative borders in wealthy Europe, sure. Do you think it's as easy for those in India, China, or Kenya, for instance?
- CaptainZapp 7y agoKenya is a relatively bad example. While a lot of people are underbanked mobile banking and - payments took off in a spectacular way.[1] It's probably easier to transfer funds via M-Pesa then from a bank account in Delaware to a bank account in Detroit And, at least in theory, America is a wealthy country without any borders. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Pesa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Pesa
- eng101 7y agoYou’re right. I find it stupendously easy to move money within/into Kenya. I can easily pay a street seller from my US bank account, directly to his/her phone, in seconds. Pains me to say this because I had this international bank/credit card to M-Pesa transfers idea a decade ago, a professor dissuaded me from pursuing it. 5 years later, a bunch of services launched and many are thriving.
- A2017U1 7y agoEntirely this, many in the West have no idea how difficult crossborder banking actually is for the vast majority of human beings on Earth.
- ehrtt 7y agoAnd FBcoin won't make it any easier, capital controls in India and China won't just go away (not that FB is even allowed in China). Centralized entities will be regulated to maintain the status quo.
- tehsauce 7y agoYes, it's all legal issues. If the government doesn't want money to easily be sent in/out of the country, this isn't going to change that
- baby 7y ago"the West" being Europe. Transfers are still a huge pain in the US.
- rusticpenn 7y agoIndia has paytm, There are providers like worldremit who transfer money in a few hours. ( transfered recently from Europe to India)
- callmeal 7y ago>Do you think it's as easy for those in India, China, or Kenya, for instance? Actually yes. Take a look at xoom.com and it's competitors for example (flat rate money transfers at a fraction of swift fees). Only issue is getting money out of those countries. But that is a political and national issue.
- nicky0 7y agoAnd how about Venezuela? Or for people without a bank account?
- vkou 7y agoAre people actually using BTC in Venezuela, or do they just claim to be from Venezuela, and are asking for donations into their wallet? > Or for people without a bank account? I'm having strong doubts that you actually understand how the world banks. There are hundreds of millions of people who don't have bank accounts, and use electronic payments through their cell providers.
- roywiggins 7y agoWestern Union will let you put physical cash in someone's hand from across the world if you are willing to pay their fees. Venezuela barely has a functioning electrical grid, so cryptocurrency would not seem to be a foolproof solution there.
- aphextim 7y agoIBM is working in conjunction with the Stellar protocol to try to solve this issue. Check out IBM world wire. https://www.ibm.com/blockchain/solutions/world-wire https://www.ibm.com/blockchain/solutions/world-wire
- mbrock 7y agoBoth the US and the eurozone are kind of single market currency unions where you would expect money transfers to be relatively convenient. As soon as you make a transfer outside of the EU you'll get hit by arbitrary and outrageous correspondent bank fees and delays. Payment services like TransferWise's "borderless accounts" get around this by pooling capital in various banks internationally, matching transfers against each other, etc.
- hocuspocus 7y agoSWIFT transfers aren't particularly slow or expensive these days. I use TransferWise but it's not cheaper in all cases.
- mbrock 7y agoIt totally depends on the source and destination of the transfer. My girlfriend's small art house cinema recently transferred money to pay a filmmaker for festival participation and the correspondent bank fee was something like 60 euros on a 100 euro transfer.
- trophycase 7y agoJust use Bitcoin? I mean I know people give it a lot of shit for some reason, but this is a perfect usecase for it.
- Lordarminius 7y agoOr Pirate Arr, or Litecoin
- 171243 7y agoWith Litecoin block generation halving in about 60 days soon it may not be affordable.
- zrobotics 7y ago
- A2017U1 7y agoYeah, this isn't exactly what I meant sorry. I'm always disappointed at the lack of passport stamps in Europe these days.
- wcoenen 7y agoSEPA is okay, but it's typically not "same business day". Just this week I initiated a transfer on Tuesday and it only arrived Thursday morning. This was between two Belgian accounts.
- hocuspocus 7y agoYour banks are slow. Many process SEPA transfers a lot faster than that, try N26 to Revolut if you're curious. Also the SCT inst scheme has started being rolled out.
- wcoenen 7y agoThis was to move money between trading accounts. I don't think these new nimble "mobile" banks offer stock trading accounts just yet. edit: also, those banks are UK ones. I'm not inclined to open accounts there with Brexit going on. Foreign accounts are also a pain for tax admin.
- literallycancer 7y agoWhere do you live that you have to report you own foreign accounts? Asking companies to report them might be justified, but individuals?
- wcoenen 7y agoBelgium. https://finances.belgium.be/fr/comptes-%c3%a0-l%e2%80%99%c3%a9tranger https://finances.belgium.be/fr/comptes-%c3%a0-l%e2%80%99%c3%...
- retiredcoder 7y agogenuinely asking, why would not be justifiable? That is tax on personal income and capital gains just like any other.
- literallycancer 7y ago