Be glad you're not living in Europe. Bank transfer from bank A to bank B (e.g. your paycheck). Day 1: transferred from source account into internal bank-owned

Be glad you're not living in Europe. Bank transfer from bank A to bank B (e.g. your paycheck). Day 1: transferred from source account into internal bank-owned account. Day 2: transferred from internal bank account into internal bank-owned account dedicated to the destination bank (e.g. ING has an internal ING->FORTIS account). Day 3: transferred from interbank account at ING to interbank account at FORTIS. Day 4: transferred from interbank FORTIS account into internal account. Day 5: deposited into "target" account. Day 6: you can actually spend the amount. (confusingly, this is not day 5, it needs to wait for your card to be updated) Needless to say, the amount is deducted from the source account at the exact moment you give the transfer order. So this is really done so the banks can avoid paying 0.15% interest on the amount transferred for 2-3 days. Bastards.