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True. But it is nice to have large bills when buying something that costs a lot, like a used car. I recently did that in the US and if I had some $500 or $1000
by njarboe 7y ago
True. But it is nice to have large bills when buying something that costs a lot, like a used car. I recently did that in the US and if I had some $500 or $1000 bill things would have went a bit smoother at that nervous time in the transaction when you are handing over to a person a big chunk of money.
- MrRadar 7y agoWhy couldn't you use a cashier's check?
- espinchi 7y agoThat's not a thing in (most countries of) Europe any more. I was shocked when I came to the US and saw that checks are still in use
- redis_mlc 7y agoCheck and cashier's check are different things. A cashier's check is like a domestic SWIFT.
- raverbashing 7y agoExactly why it is not needed, the banking system supports transfers between banks in SEPA for free or very cheaply. Some people/business will still ask for a cashier's check though.
- kjaftaedi 7y agoThe point the person you are replying to is making is that to Europeans, checks are a thing that only exist in Hollywood movies. It's difficult to imagine in a modern world, people or institutions writing or printing something on a piece of paper, and saying, "here, this is money".
- Scoundreller 7y agoStill a thing in France, at least as of last year. Got stuck behind someone at the Carrefour (grocery store) paying with one. Ugh.
- pujjad 7y agoStill common in the UK. I know friends in Wales who can only pay by cheque because a two-signature policy applies to their bank account.
- Bayart 7y agoVery common in France for bigger transactions or guaranty deposits.
- njarboe 7y agoPeople in the US don't trust cashier's checks. For good reason. They are easily forged.
- firebird84 7y agoSome people would balk at the idea since they have bad credit and no bank account, and hence have to fork over a fee to walmart/publix/your local check cashing place in order to make it liquid. Cash works for everyone. I agree, cashiers checks are safer, but some people have reasons to prefer cash.
- t0mas88 7y agoUnless you're homeless you will have a bank account in Europe. For the simple reason that you can't really live without one. Taxes, salary, state allowance and mortgage are all done by bank transfer and nothing else.
- desas 7y agoIn the UK all big banks offer "basic" (no credit attached) free bank accounts as the government were musing placing a public service obligation on them to make it compulsory. In the UK, government benefits are paid by bank transfer.
- tiku 7y agoWe don't really use checks in Europe, at least not in the Netherlands..
- pujjad 7y agoBut in the UK we do. You can set up a bank accounts which requires two signatures, then only cheque payments are possible. Very quiant, annoying and backwards.
- Wildgoose 7y agoI am the Treasurer of a Charity we set up to keep our local Library open. We need two signatures on our cheques - but not to be "annoying" or "backwards". It's simple security to stop a rogue actor emptying our bank account!
- pujjad 7y agoYep I get that, but the artist playing at our charity festival have complaint every time about having to deal with cheques both I (treasurer) and the other finance officer have to sign. Why is it that in the 21st century we can't have a digital online two-signature policy yet have to sign a paper which signatures one easily can forge. That's backwards. We got cryptocurrencies but no way to implement a digital two-signature policy? Odd.
- mamon 7y agoBecause they are not used here since 19th century :)
- eb0la 7y agoIn Spain the bank charges you for this service (you can negotiate the amount). There is no commision for cash, but you must fill a form to tell the taxman that you are getting a more than given amount (3000€ if I remember well)
- Daniel_sk 7y agoI have never seen a check in my life :-) (EU), they are not used or supported (maybe in some special cases, but 99% of people never used a check here). Larger sums are always paid with bank-wire transfer which is free and usually fast (instant or 24 hour), smaller payments are done with debit (or credit) cards, and then small payments can be done with cash.
- majewsky 7y agoWhen I was a teenager, my mother was playing a lottery that sent out winnings as checks through the mail. She always gave those to me to cash in because I was the only one in the family who had a checking account at the local bank. Her bank did not have branch offices, so it was literally impossible for her to cash the check.
- VBprogrammer 7y agoYou tend to run into the problem that forging large notes has a much greater return on investment. People get nervous about accepting them. In the UK this definitely kicks in around the £50 mark.
- SilasX 7y agoHeh, yep, like to joke that $100 feels like a lot of money whenever you try to spend a $100 bill. I can barely fathom what it's like trying to pass a 500 EUR note.
- njarboe 7y agoIf you spend time in casinos, $100 notes flow around like water.
- vkou 7y agoCasinos are also a hotbed of money laundering.
- Iwan-Zotow 7y agoBugsy Siegel look at this with the note of approval
- tinus_hn 7y agoThe most forged notes are the smaller ones because everyone checks the large notes. You can just hand people a photocopy of a €20 euro bill with a hologram sticker and if it’s in a dark bar you’ll probably get to keep the change.
- idiocratic 7y agoIn many countries in Europe you can't use cash for large sums. We generally use bank transfers to buy cars.
- timlin 7y agoI'm genuinely curious. Do you need to go to a physical bank location to do this? How do you buy a car in the evening or a Saturday afternoon, when a bank is closed?
- pornel 7y agoIn the UK online bank transfers work 24/7 and clear in seconds (all banks are required by law to have APIs for fast inter-bank transfers).
- tialaramex 7y agoThey're not legally required to be instant, but they usually are. The "ambition" set out legally was half a day, if your transaction is initiated in the morning it should clear that afternoon. It's just that in practice instantly is the realisation of this ambition when things work. And I don't think there's any API requirement, the regulation just explains the consumer experience, that you can transfer relatively small amounts of money (enough for a nice car, not enough for most houses) fast ("Faster Payments" is the name given to this feature), and doesn't dictate how. For large transactions transfer for a fee already existed. CHAPS will move much larger sums of money (it's typically used to buy property so certainly millions but perhaps more) for a modest fee. You wouldn't want that fee on your weekly groceries, but when you just bought a house who cares? Last I looked the backend for Faster Payments wasn't actually built. The big banks decided instead "temporarily" to just trust each other. If Bank A says Cathy sent Mike £5000 then Bank B where Mike's account is will credit Mike £5000 (probably instantly), presumably Bank A will reduce Cathy's account by £5000 and the two banks agree they'll settle things at the end of the day. This is only scary if Bank A might not actually have that £5000 to give Bank B at the end of the day when it's settled, which in principle should never happen under current financial regulations.
- 7y ago
- astura 7y agoThe best way to pay for a used cari the US (assuming you mean from an unknown private seller, not a dealer or family) is probably for the buyer and seller to go to the buyer's bank together and have the buyer get a cashier's check in front of the seller and exchange title/keys for cashier's check right then and there. It eliminates the risk of a forged cashier's check and the need to carry large amounts of cash.
- Frost1x 7y agoIsn't the point of a cashier's check to avoid this entire process? The note should be associated to a bank and there should be multiple independent information providers that have contact information for that bank you can use to verify the information. Obviously, using verification information such as a phone number from the note itself is susceptible to scamming, but discovering the contact information through multiple reputable external sources then contacting the bank from this information has extremely low risk of being scammed.
- nitrogen 7y agoThat still requires the buyer to hand over the check before they receive the keys and title.