Well, not just that bit. It's pretty general in the UK nowadays that you can ring up your bank and do a transfer to someone else's account, even at another bank, for free and (I'm fairly sure) same-day. Online too, though for anti-fraud reasons the bank I use will only let you do online transfers to accounts you've done transfers to before, so the first one has to be by phone banking.

On the other hand I've never heard of direct deposit to more than one account, though maybe that's something people don't need over here because inter-account transfers are so easy.

Peter

Same day for accounts at the same bank; I think it's usually 3-4 days for accounts at other banks, although there are periodically noises about forcing the banks to change this -- it's artificial, and they just sit on the money for those days.



My bank will let me set up transfers online as well.



Never heard of this either.

It isn't just noises any more, it really is same day between any of the banks implementing the Faster Payments scheme.

http://www.apacs.org.uk/sortcodechecker/index.html

Not all the banks are doing it yet, but a good half of my payments end up going same day now, for free.

My credit union is the same way. Free checks, interest earned on savings and checking accounts, no fee outside of interest for overdraft, etc. They do charge for out of network ATMs, which is rough since the credit union is in UT and I'm in AZ. It works great for online payment though.

I, uh, availed myself of my overdraft protection recently. (I did it all for you guys.) Turns out that the bank sends me a letter via first-class mail so I get it ASAP, which costs 33¢ postage. So 50¢ sounds like it's pretty much just to cover costs.


Huh? Do they not take Visa at all or something?

Costco is American Express only. I don't think they accept anything other than cash, American Express or a local check. I don't think debit cards work as they aren't connected to the VISA/Mastercard system that most debit cards use to connect to the bank account.

Thankfully Costco in the UK accept debit cards

I remember when I started my first job, at the newly opened ADSA hypermarket (which at the time was the biggest in the UK). They only accepted cash and cheques.

Worse than that, you couldn't use a cheque on your first visit. You had to pay with cash the first time (I think there was a minimum amount you had to spend) and then take your receipt and cheque book to customer services. They would then stamp your cheque book, which would mean your cheques would be accepted next time you shopped.

Nowadays there are plenty of places that don't take cheques at all, thank goodness.

Costco in Canada (just for comparison) accept American Express, Cash and all Canadian ATM cards (our "debit cards") The processing for cards is independent of the card vendors, and for ATM cards it's called "Interac." In the US you have the Plus system, which allows use of cards on that network at ATMs (they don't have to be Visa nor MC). I have no idea is anyone supports Plus at retail.

Plus is only one of many interbank networks, though (I think) the largest and one of the few nationwide ones. Those networks all interoperate, though. They function as the intermediary for both ATM and PoS purchases for ATM/debit/check cards.

It seems like they would be the best candidate for direct transfer of funds between people. I don't know why something hasn't already come up. I would guess that either there's some legislation involved or they don't think it would be profitable, or both.

Interac also does the interbank "email money transfers" in Canada that we've previously discussed in another thread. And charges $1.50 for each such transaction.

I just had to have a comment here. I'm really surprised this is so much hassle for you guys in the US. In Australia we can easily transfer money electronically with just a BSB (Bank State Branch) and Account Number. All the banks have online banking facilities and regular transfers can be easily set up.

The money makes it there overnight (at worst - sometimes even same day). About the only quicker way is walking into a bank and depositing cash with the teller (ie no ATM)

The transaction is essentially free. It counts as a withdrawal on one account and then a deposit on the other. Deposits are almost always free although some accounts have a limited number of free withdrawals per month (usually 10 or 20 or so).

You can even put your own description which appears on the receiver's statement. Even though it's a credit friends and I have often put dubious text comments in to embarrass each other.

And we're always whinging about bank fees and the banks making huge profits here...

Hehe. I just found this:


It's got to be legislation.

I thought I was the only person that did that.....

Direct deposit to more than one account seems pretty common, at least at the places where I've worked. Even if inter-account transfers are simple, if you know that about 20% of your paycheck needs to end up in your checking account to cover expenses, and 2% needs to go into your daughter's college savings account, and 15% is slated for your investment account, why wouldn't you set it up so you don't have to keep making those transfers?

Necropost.

Dwolla looks interesting.

$0.25 fee per transaction, unless it's less than $10, in which case it's free. cite

$5000 limit per transaction, but apparently no limit on the number of transactions or total amount transferred. cite

Nice! I'll have to remember this in another 12-13 years for my 25th HS Reunion...