[starttoaster]

> because you don't pay the hospital large amount ahead, and when it's time there's not enough time to wire the money.

This was their justification against wire transfers. Obviously I don't know how the accounts receivable department works in Indian hospitals because I've never been to India let alone a hospital there, but this strikes me as unusual. A couple days delay to pay large sums of money seems more than reasonable.

[withinboredom]

wiring money via international accounts is instantaneous, last time I had wired money to me (last week). Or at least within an hour or two. The issue here, probably, is that there is usually a fairly large fee attached to it from the receiving bank. My bank, it's 25 bucks, flat rate. Each and every wire, even if it is 5 bucks being wired.

[starttoaster]

I'll take your word for it, a glance at google told me a wire transfer from a foreign bank will typically take about 2 days to clear, but I've only ever done wire transfers domestically. But yeah, a $25 fee might be the hold up, except if I'm understanding the OP, the wire transfer would be for costly medical care. Typically if I'm looking at paying a large bill, the bill blinds me from the pain of being nickel and dimed on fees. So I think we're probably not talking about paying $5 at 7-11.

[withinboredom]

It’s India. The land of the thrifty, always looking for a deal (cultural stereotype). It’s the reason so many US companies have a hard time breaking into that market though.

My boss and I spent several weeks in India talking to people and learning the cultural basics just to figure out how to price our products. If you want to sell there, you need extremely competitive pricing with discounts, in a very price-sensitive market. Like, if you know the coupon culture in the US, it’s like that times 100.

[withinboredom]

Yep, so a SWIFT (international transfer) can take 1-4 days, depending on the bank.

https://www.keycurrency.co.uk/SWIFT-transfer/