Howard Winter wrote:

>> The time it takes to reach the recipient's account is dependent on the
>> communication between the banks. If it's too long, the communication
>> system is not set up properly. There's nothing inherent in the system
>> for it to take that long.
> 
> Yes there is - the banks' desire to hang onto your money and collect the
> interest on it.  It's been this way all along, which is why electronic
> transfers between banks take three days here - nothing to do with
> communications, all to do with profits! 

Of course. But banks are also to some degree following customer requests,
at least in principle. If a 3 day delay is not deemed acceptable anymore,
they'll find other ways to make money.

> As a matter of interest, do you pay charges for your bank account?  If
> not, where does the bank make its money? 

I have checking accounts in three countries. For most of them I don't pay
charges. The conditions for that vary, though. In one case (Brazil) it was
a promotion that I received for returning to a bank that I had left before.
In Brazil there are also banks that reduce their monthly charge
proportionally with the number of transactions, and eventually the account
is free. (Which is a bit odd, if you think about it :)  In the USA it seems
to be common to get a free checking account if you leave a daily balance in
the neighborhood of $1k on the account. You do the math how much this
costs... (around $5/month). Another oddity is a German account: monthly fee
is waived for any month in which it receives a deposit of around 1300 Euro.
Then there are banks like the Netbank that even pay some interest on their
checking accounts.

Gerhard

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