[deecewan]

Reading this makes me realise how good Australia is in this regard.

We have 'BPay', which every* bank supports from within their apps, and almost all bills support. We have instant intra-bank transfers and next-day inter-bank transfers.

Additionally, the big 4 banks (yup, we have just 4 big banks) have mobile payments, so you can link your mobile number to an account and receive payments into it. It's painful if you're with different banks, but the net result is that no-one* here uses PayPal, et. al, to transfer money to each other.

And now, we've just had PayID roll out, which is instant payments based on email or phone number to any of the banks (I think most banks in AU are participating, but it's backed by our Reserve Bank), which is a huge game changer and pretty much negates the need for a third-party to do this for us.

[henrikschroder]

> Reading this makes me realise how good Australia is in this regard.

I'm from Sweden, I started paying bills through my internet bank over 20 years ago. And it was never difficult or a big deal, because the existing giro-based bill system that every vendor uses and has been using since the 1960's, slotted right into it, with zero technical integration required from the payees.

Moving to the US was like stepping into a time machine when it comes to dealing with banks and bills, it's ridiculously backwards. And Americans generally have no idea how behind they are. It's so fucking frustrating having this discussion every single time.

[briandear]

LOL. Spend some time dealing with French banks and then we can talk about American banks. France is a place where people actually write checks for things and you have to physically visit your specific branch to accomplish certain transactions. The concept of “branch banking” hasn’t made it to France yet. Even withdrawing cash from a bank requires an appointment (if you want to withdrawal over a few hundred Euros for instance.)

French banks are a nightmare conpared to American ones.