hybinet wrote:
In America, it's different. It is very unusual for American businesses to disclose their banking information to first-time customers. It is also very unusual for American people to use bank account numbers when exchanging money among themselves. Americans make heavy use of credit cards, PayPal, Western Union, and even personal checks, but direct transfer between banks is not very common -- at least in the retail sector. I don't know why, but that's the way things are. Maybe the evil banks and credit card companies wanted Americans to do it that way.
A curious side effect of this is that wire transfers are a pain in the butt for both sender and receiver. To send a wire transfer, I'm looking at a trip to the bank to fill out some forms and pay $25. International wire transfers are $50. It doesn't look like there's a cost to receive, but I'd probably have to poll them daily until I have the money. That costs a few man-hours.
Nice thing about credit cards: it's automated and cheap. Heck, checks are pretty easy too.
In short, wire transfers are like chickens to Americans. People will look at you funny when you try to pay for something using them.
(note: your comment about big companies/big transactions also applies)
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