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In the US, you pay $16 to send a wire and $16 to receive a wire. So, wires are not as common as in Europe. On the other hand, ordering your bank to print a pap

In the US, you pay $16 to send a wire and $16 to receive a wire. So, wires are not as common as in Europe. On the other hand, ordering your bank to print a paper check, and send it through postal mail is free of charge.

gruez 7y ago
>In the US, you pay $16 to send a wire and $16 to receive a wire. So, wires are not as common as in Europe. If we're talking about SWIFT transfers, it's probably the same in Europe. The only difference is that in Europe there's SEPA, which is readily accessible by consumers, fast and cheap.
Scarblac 7y ago
In the Eurozone, banks are prohibited to ask money for Euro-denominated transactions. They're also mostly instantaneous. I don't do many though, other payment options are easier (e.g. authorize companies to just take recurring payments from my account).
- germanier 7y ago
  They are not prohibited (I pay for them on my business account). They just need to price domestic transactions the same as EU-internal ones – which often results in free transfers.
Nition 7y ago
$16 to pay someone? How do you do something like transfer your friend some money? Or pay someone who did some work for you? Here in New Zealand you'd tend to get their bank account number and send them a (free) direct deposit through your bank's Internet banking service. Until very recently that was also the main payment method for our eBay auction site equivalent TradeMe (they've now started a sort of PayPal clone called Ping so that they can skim a little extra from each auction). But I've heard people can potentially withdraw money from your account if they have your account number in the US?
- calebegg 7y ago
  >How do you do something like transfer your friend some money? Or pay someone who did some work for you? Venmo mostly.
  - Nition 7y ago
    Interesting. But the service provider takes a cut that way, right?
    - herpderperator 7y ago
      NZ expat here :) Venmo doesn't charge for sending or receiving money like this to or from people. They make money through other means; from the top of my head one is paying by credit card - they take 3% if you use credit card. Another way they make money (1% per transfer) is by doing an "instant transfer" directly from your Venmo account to your bank (the other option is ACH transfer which is usually next-day delivery.) I tried this on a Sunday night which was also part of a long weekend and the money instantly appeared in my US bank account and I got a push notification from my bank that a deposit was just made. It was awesome and makes NZ look out of date. Venmo is amazing. It's so fast and practically everyone has it. It's the Google of payments. I wish New Zealand had something like that. Sending money to friends in NZ is slow and painful - not terribly so, but compared to Venmo they really are.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
- samfriedman 7y ago
  in practice, no one uses the banks directly to send money like that: we use apps like Venmo / CashApp that take your debit card/bank info and act as an intermediary for sending/receiving money.
  - petschge 7y ago
    A lot of US based startups make a lot more sense to us Europeans in case we move to the US and notice how broken all infrastructure is. Banking still uses cheques, so you have Paypal, Venmo, CashApp and so on. Public transport is bad or even non existent which is why Uber and Lift exist. The programm of over-the-air TV sucks and you get Netflix, HBO, Hulu and so on.
jandrese 7y ago
Wire transfers also take 2-3 days to clear because the Fed likes to sit on the float. They totally suck in the US. This is one of the reasons Paypay got so big so fast. There was a huge pent up demand for a wire transfer service that didn't suck. But then Paypal started to suck and people had to find something new.
astura 7y ago
>In the US, you pay $16 to send a wire and $16 to receive a wire. This isn't true, each bank sets their own fees. It's true it's usually stupid expensive to send one, but none of my main banks charge to receive a wire.
- mynameisvlad 7y ago
  I don't think any (major, credible) bank charges to receive a wire because like text messages, you have no control on getting wire transfers, and it would likely cost more to set up such a system than to just accept wires from anyone to any account.

gruez 7y ago

>In the US, you pay $16 to send a wire and $16 to receive a wire. So, wires are not as common as in Europe. If we're talking about SWIFT transfers, it's probably the same in Europe. The only difference is that in Europe there's SEPA, which is readily accessible by consumers, fast and cheap.

Scarblac 7y ago

In the Eurozone, banks are prohibited to ask money for Euro-denominated transactions. They're also mostly instantaneous. I don't do many though, other payment options are easier (e.g. authorize companies to just take recurring payments from my account).

germanier 7y ago
They are not prohibited (I pay for them on my business account). They just need to price domestic transactions the same as EU-internal ones – which often results in free transfers.

Nition 7y ago

$16 to pay someone? How do you do something like transfer your friend some money? Or pay someone who did some work for you? Here in New Zealand you'd tend to get their bank account number and send them a (free) direct deposit through your bank's Internet banking service. Until very recently that was also the main payment method for our eBay auction site equivalent TradeMe (they've now started a sort of PayPal clone called Ping so that they can skim a little extra from each auction). But I've heard people can potentially withdraw money from your account if they have your account number in the US?

calebegg 7y ago
>How do you do something like transfer your friend some money? Or pay someone who did some work for you? Venmo mostly.
- Nition 7y ago
  Interesting. But the service provider takes a cut that way, right?
  - herpderperator 7y ago
    NZ expat here :) Venmo doesn't charge for sending or receiving money like this to or from people. They make money through other means; from the top of my head one is paying by credit card - they take 3% if you use credit card. Another way they make money (1% per transfer) is by doing an "instant transfer" directly from your Venmo account to your bank (the other option is ACH transfer which is usually next-day delivery.) I tried this on a Sunday night which was also part of a long weekend and the money instantly appeared in my US bank account and I got a push notification from my bank that a deposit was just made. It was awesome and makes NZ look out of date. Venmo is amazing. It's so fast and practically everyone has it. It's the Google of payments. I wish New Zealand had something like that. Sending money to friends in NZ is slow and painful - not terribly so, but compared to Venmo they really are.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
samfriedman 7y ago
in practice, no one uses the banks directly to send money like that: we use apps like Venmo / CashApp that take your debit card/bank info and act as an intermediary for sending/receiving money.
- petschge 7y ago
  A lot of US based startups make a lot more sense to us Europeans in case we move to the US and notice how broken all infrastructure is. Banking still uses cheques, so you have Paypal, Venmo, CashApp and so on. Public transport is bad or even non existent which is why Uber and Lift exist. The programm of over-the-air TV sucks and you get Netflix, HBO, Hulu and so on.

jandrese 7y ago

Wire transfers also take 2-3 days to clear because the Fed likes to sit on the float. They totally suck in the US. This is one of the reasons Paypay got so big so fast. There was a huge pent up demand for a wire transfer service that didn't suck. But then Paypal started to suck and people had to find something new.

astura 7y ago

>In the US, you pay $16 to send a wire and $16 to receive a wire. This isn't true, each bank sets their own fees. It's true it's usually stupid expensive to send one, but none of my main banks charge to receive a wire.

mynameisvlad 7y ago
I don't think any (major, credible) bank charges to receive a wire because like text messages, you have no control on getting wire transfers, and it would likely cost more to set up such a system than to just accept wires from anyone to any account.