Friday Apr 22, 2005
Friday Apr 22, 2005
I miss my UK bank! Today, after much dismay, we have come to believe the various USA bank personnel with whom we have spoken. What they tell us is still difficult to believe, but there we go....
Apparently, there is no equivalent in the USA banking industry to the UK "Direct Debits" and "Standing Orders"!
Sure, you can arrange to have regularly scheduled bill payments in the USA, but these are done via posted cheques (mailed checks) and not via electronic transactions. No offense to the US Postal Service, but I would rather my important financial transactions go electronically instead of by air or road.
And wire transfers can only be done once per request, at around $20 a whack, and even then, only after one goes into the bank to arrange it. Gee, what if I'm out of town and need to set up a wire? Yup. You guessed it. Out of luck!
So, here I sit, now missing the ability to create a simple Standing Order to regularly transfer funds from one place to another, from one bank to another, from me to others, electronically, easily, swiftly. Sigh...
Maybe someday, the USA banks will catch up with the British Banks.
Credit unions are owned by the members so its definately cheaper to bank with them. Perhaps they could be a bit more accomodating as well.
Posted by ML Starkey on April 22, 2005 at 03:35 PM EDT #
You amaze me. Not even repeated credit card payments?? Surely there's a business plan somewhere!
Posted by Dave on April 22, 2005 at 04:02 PM EDT #
Posted by Chris Gerhard on April 22, 2005 at 04:05 PM EDT #
I'm still gob smacked at how backward many of the consumer systems are in the US compared to the 'old world'
Posted by Rich Sharples on April 22, 2005 at 06:09 PM EDT #
We ran into this primitive banking system when we moved here from England in 1981. I put it down to the horribly fragmented American banking industry: every two-bit town seemed to have its own bank (often with Federal in the name), with about four branches: two in the town in question, and one each in a couple of neighboring communities.
24 years on, there are still lots of small banks, but there's been substantial consolidation among the big boys. (We started our with BayBank, which merged into BankBoston, which merged into Fleet, which merged into Bank of America.) Even so, there are <big>still</big> no standing orders. We use the on-line banking tools to pay bills, and in most cases the bank uses the information to print a paper <s>cheque</s> check and mail it....
Naturally Americans have no idea that their banking system is so primitive by world standards. Ditto mobile phones. Ditto public transportation.
Posted by Geoff Arnold on April 22, 2005 at 11:24 PM EDT #
Posted by 204.17.27.162 on April 27, 2005 at 07:59 PM EDT #
Posted by Stacey Marshall on May 16, 2005 at 11:04 AM EDT #
Posted by david anderson on June 04, 2007 at 10:01 PM EDT #