What’s the process and why is it so arduous? Here it’s just account name, bank number, account number and you can expect it next day (or instant using modern methods). Sure beats going to the bank…
I’m not sure where you are located but, in the US it’s those 3 pieces of information as well. I think checks in the case of validity and legal situations make a lot more sense. Not everyone will have that information at hand, nor do they have banks that are willing to allow them or charge a fee for them. It’s also 2 pieces of information more than a cashiers check would require, and discloses where the destination of the funds is going to anyone involved which includes both the handler and the person who is giving you money, where with a cashiers check you can deposit or cash those most anywhere that manages checks, be it your bank, an opposing bank, walmart etc. It also helps with the actual paper trail as you have a physical piece of paper confirming you are going to be receiving the amount, where a wire is fully digital and if something messed up along the way, it can take weeks to resolve the issue. You can’t screw a cashiers check up without really trying, it’s weighted against the bank itself instead of the person or entity that is owing the money, which means it can’t bounce(like normal checks can), and it only needs your name which, the court and the payer should already know, where a wire transfer can be screwed up by a simple typo of the numbers.
The processing speeds are also night and day. You mentioned next day but, that is likely because because your bank is doing you a favor with it. A wire transfer can take up to 5-7 business days to actually transfer, in some cases it can even take up to a couple weeks. Cashier checks are handled similar to government checks and are legally mandated (at least in the US) to be cleared next day. Wire transfers to my knowledge do not have this obligation.
Thanks for the concise explanation! Sounds like quite the hassle indeed.
My home country is Australia and it’s basically the polar opposite. A direct deposit (what we call a wire transfer) is always less than 24 hours and never costs anything to the account holders. Even for hundreds of thousands of dollars (such as when purchasing property).
There’s also a secondary system called Osko and if both banks support it the transfer is instant (and still free). Salaries must be paid using direct deposit (to ensure an electronic ‘paper trail’). No one with a job or government benefits is unbanked. For at least the last 35 years everyone opens their first bank account at elementary school, where the (former) government bank attends and sets up a fee free account for each child. There are no account fees. Only 15% of transactions in Australia involve cash money, and almost all others are direct deposit or direct debit with about 0.1% being cheques.
If for some reason an individual doesn’t have an app with their account info on it they will carry it in their wallet. Many people have an email address attached to their account anyway and you can use the email address instead for sending a direct deposit. Most businesses still require the Bank/Account number instead though.
The number of people with a cheque book is statistically insignificant. The government will cease using cheques by 2028, and they will be completely abolished by 2030. I haven’t seen a cheque in the last 20 years in Europe, Asia or Oceania. The last time I saw one was in 2023 in Las Vegas.
Yeah, it sounds like it’s much better implemented there. I’ve always found it stupid that in today’s age of everything being digital, that it could take more than a day for money to go from point A to point B, especially since it’s not like trucks are being loaded with gold or money or anything like that, its all centrally managed anyway, from what I understand, the us attempted to start a system back in 2023 that would allow for real-time transfers of small denominations, when they got a scare that blockchain was gaining traction, but I don’t think it ever went anywhere.
Bank accounts are very different in the states, through, while a good portion of the people here do have bank accounts. There are a handful that just never open one. They exclusively cash their checks at a store like Walmart or something like that that handles check services (which have a fee to do). ACH is generally free as long as it’s a deposit, wire transfer out is sometimes fee’d and the same with wire transfer in. And some banks don’t easily show your routing or your account number in order to be able to set up a transfer. Like I have four banks myself and of those four banks, one of them I have to call to get that information. One fees me on wire out with no fee on deposit, a one restricts how much I can wire out at a time (I think it’s 300 daily) and the last one I have no issues. Only 2 of them show the info needed for it right in the app. I agree that 90% of the time. I would much rather have a wire transfer, but it can be a hassle at times.
What’s the process and why is it so arduous? Here it’s just account name, bank number, account number and you can expect it next day (or instant using modern methods). Sure beats going to the bank…
I’m not sure where you are located but, in the US it’s those 3 pieces of information as well. I think checks in the case of validity and legal situations make a lot more sense. Not everyone will have that information at hand, nor do they have banks that are willing to allow them or charge a fee for them. It’s also 2 pieces of information more than a cashiers check would require, and discloses where the destination of the funds is going to anyone involved which includes both the handler and the person who is giving you money, where with a cashiers check you can deposit or cash those most anywhere that manages checks, be it your bank, an opposing bank, walmart etc. It also helps with the actual paper trail as you have a physical piece of paper confirming you are going to be receiving the amount, where a wire is fully digital and if something messed up along the way, it can take weeks to resolve the issue. You can’t screw a cashiers check up without really trying, it’s weighted against the bank itself instead of the person or entity that is owing the money, which means it can’t bounce(like normal checks can), and it only needs your name which, the court and the payer should already know, where a wire transfer can be screwed up by a simple typo of the numbers.
The processing speeds are also night and day. You mentioned next day but, that is likely because because your bank is doing you a favor with it. A wire transfer can take up to 5-7 business days to actually transfer, in some cases it can even take up to a couple weeks. Cashier checks are handled similar to government checks and are legally mandated (at least in the US) to be cleared next day. Wire transfers to my knowledge do not have this obligation.
Thanks for the concise explanation! Sounds like quite the hassle indeed.
My home country is Australia and it’s basically the polar opposite. A direct deposit (what we call a wire transfer) is always less than 24 hours and never costs anything to the account holders. Even for hundreds of thousands of dollars (such as when purchasing property).
There’s also a secondary system called Osko and if both banks support it the transfer is instant (and still free). Salaries must be paid using direct deposit (to ensure an electronic ‘paper trail’). No one with a job or government benefits is unbanked. For at least the last 35 years everyone opens their first bank account at elementary school, where the (former) government bank attends and sets up a fee free account for each child. There are no account fees. Only 15% of transactions in Australia involve cash money, and almost all others are direct deposit or direct debit with about 0.1% being cheques.
If for some reason an individual doesn’t have an app with their account info on it they will carry it in their wallet. Many people have an email address attached to their account anyway and you can use the email address instead for sending a direct deposit. Most businesses still require the Bank/Account number instead though.
The number of people with a cheque book is statistically insignificant. The government will cease using cheques by 2028, and they will be completely abolished by 2030. I haven’t seen a cheque in the last 20 years in Europe, Asia or Oceania. The last time I saw one was in 2023 in Las Vegas.
Yeah, it sounds like it’s much better implemented there. I’ve always found it stupid that in today’s age of everything being digital, that it could take more than a day for money to go from point A to point B, especially since it’s not like trucks are being loaded with gold or money or anything like that, its all centrally managed anyway, from what I understand, the us attempted to start a system back in 2023 that would allow for real-time transfers of small denominations, when they got a scare that blockchain was gaining traction, but I don’t think it ever went anywhere.
Bank accounts are very different in the states, through, while a good portion of the people here do have bank accounts. There are a handful that just never open one. They exclusively cash their checks at a store like Walmart or something like that that handles check services (which have a fee to do). ACH is generally free as long as it’s a deposit, wire transfer out is sometimes fee’d and the same with wire transfer in. And some banks don’t easily show your routing or your account number in order to be able to set up a transfer. Like I have four banks myself and of those four banks, one of them I have to call to get that information. One fees me on wire out with no fee on deposit, a one restricts how much I can wire out at a time (I think it’s 300 daily) and the last one I have no issues. Only 2 of them show the info needed for it right in the app. I agree that 90% of the time. I would much rather have a wire transfer, but it can be a hassle at times.