[dkasper]

ACH bank transfers are free in the US too, just takes a few days. Personal transfers with Venmo or paypal are free too in most cases. The fees are for credit cards which make up almost all online transactions and have fees everywhere in the world.

[dragontamer]

> ACH bank transfers are free in the US too, just takes a few days.

One-day ACH has been standardized and has begun to be rolled out.

[nicoburns]

Perhaps, but in the UK I can do instant bank transfers for free. Very useful for settling small debts between friends and such things.

[jopsen]

Lots of other countries have debit cards linked to accounts with standing credit, instead of the "credit card" that you pay off every month.

These debit cards very low fees, sometimes they work as both debit and visa card, so you can use them abroad too.

[jjoonathan]

Who gets the seller fees?

In the US, you only get a piece of the action if you use a credit card. Otherwise you still pay the higher, transaction-fee-included price, but you don't get any part of the transaction fee.

[jopsen]

I see many stores with fees for using foreign credit cards. Like ~1 USD..

Or I guess the seller pockets the fee.

[dkasper]

We have debit cards in the US too... that’s how apps like Venmo work.

[PickledJesus]

The EU limited fees to .3% on credit and .2% on debit cards, and made charging the consumer card fees illegal everywhere though. That's a big improvement on what was otherwise ~3%

[mixmastamyk]

Still not as ubiquitous as it should be.

In NZ for example, folks have their bank account # proudly displayed over a plate of cookies for purchase at 25 cents on a whim.