The other amazing thing is that you pay for cheques in the US, and you pay a 'convenience fee' for doing online transfers. I would hate living in a country where banking for individuals is not free.
In the UK I don't think many shops will accept cheques any more...
The US is great at marketing itself to "seem" advanced, but when you look at banking, or internet access, or mobile phones, or even land lines (They never work)... ;)
It also amazes me how credit cards don't seem to have progressed in the US. Here in the UK/europe probably, we enjoy chip+pin security on cards, but afaik in the US it's still just a magnetic stripe easy to clone.
- Banking is often free in the US, just like in Europe. Credit card usage is more prevalent in the US. All of the things that I typically do with bank transfers in Europe (with the odd exception of monthly rent which was a check and my salary which was a bank transfer) I did in the US with a credit card.
- I've had more problems with my land-line in Germany than I ever did in the US. And I've heard enough stories about BT to believe that it's all peaches and cream on the island.
- Those little chips in the European cards aren't used in most cases (at least the German ones), and in fact the most recent ones being issued here don't have them anymore. You certainly don't need anything but the magnetic strip for ATM or credit card transactions.
Credit card charges are much higher in Europe. Because of the ubiquity of credit cards in the US, it drives prices down; incidentally, that's why bank transfers are expensive in the US and cheap in Europe.
I always either payed my rent in the US by mail or by putting a check in a drop-box that we had at the building where I lived. (Note that I haven't lived in the US since 2002, so things may have progressed since then.)
<minirant> This is the problem with most US-Europe comparisons -- and honestly, something that Europeans are especially bad at. They tend to look at the US with a set of assumptions and bemoan that the US is backward without realizing that the some of the things being used as a basis for the comparison are out of whack. That's not to say that there aren't huge problems in the US, but they're rarely as simple as portrayed in the European media. </minirant>
I don't know man - it just seems wrong that I should be paying a fee to Mastercard or Visa everytime I pay my rent, no matter how small. Bank transfers in Europe are free, as they should be.
- Bank transfers aren't universally free in Germany. Mine cost about 30 cents.
- Rent was one of the few things that I mentioned wasn't paid with credit cards.
- "As they should be" is problematic. I for instance, find the whole process of founding a GmbH insanely complicated (even with the new reforms), but hey, they're different countries. I could make a long list of things about each country of things that work better in the other, but it wouldn't be the most useful means of comparison.
Hmm, I didn't know that some banks actually charged money for transfer. Germany does make it incredibly tough and complicated to wade through all the neccessary laws and paperwork to get a business started. I guess that's why most people prefer to just be employees.
In england, it's WAY easier, and most things can be done online. The UK generally has a much less formal feel about most things compared to Germany.
I'm in the US. When I use my credit card there is no per-transaction fee, and no monthly fee outside of you know, the interest on the balance. Which I pay off monthly so it never accrues.
On the other hand bank transfers do have fees associated, and I'm not even sure how I'd go about initiating one. That does make transferring funds between individuals a pain. Cash and check are standard but each has its drawbacks.
PayPal sorta, kinda, addresses these difficulties but they claim their own pound of flesh on the transactions. I suspect it's a great startup opportunity but it's a regulatory minefield, and the entrenched behemoths are very efficient at maintaining the status quo.
In Germany, you enter the account number and bank number and you can send money to a person over your online bank. It's free and takes a day or two. This process can be optimized if they would standarddize the bank interfaces, but it's pretty good.
Most shops in the US do not accept checks anymore, either. I would surmise that check-acceptance depends on the portion of a store's customers who are elderly.
In the UK I don't think many shops will accept cheques any more...
The US is great at marketing itself to "seem" advanced, but when you look at banking, or internet access, or mobile phones, or even land lines (They never work)... ;)
It also amazes me how credit cards don't seem to have progressed in the US. Here in the UK/europe probably, we enjoy chip+pin security on cards, but afaik in the US it's still just a magnetic stripe easy to clone.