clipka wrote:
> Darren New schrieb:
> 
>> How do people who don't have computers handle sending money through 
>> the mail, then?
> 
> Why should they want to do that in the first place?
> 
> In Europe (at least in Germany) it has been common practice for decades
 
> to get money to John Doe by just ordering your bank to transfer money 
> from your account to John's.

OK, so you call them on the phone or go in person to transfer stuff? Seem
s 
inconvenient.

We also have "money orders", where you go to the (government run) post 
office and give them cash money, and they give you something that works 
essentially like a check. So people who don't have a bank account can sti
ll 
pay people who are remote.

> I hear that in America it is virtually impossible to get money to 
> someone else living someplace else without sending either script or a 
> cheque via mail 

Nah. We have all the same pay online stuff you do in Europe. Indeed, for 

businesses (rather than individuals) at least, you don't even need the ba
nk 
account information. You can just put down the business name and mailing 

address, and the bank treats the transfer as if you had written a check.

There's also ACH - Automated Clearing House - which is how things like 
payroll gets electronically deposited to the employee's bank account.

> (where it can be stolen or lost, or the receiver might 
> claim to never have received it; 

If it isn't countersigned on the back, it's not supposed to be cashable. 
If 
you address it to "John Smith" on the front, only John Smith can deposit 
it, 
in theory.

If they claim never to have received it *and* they cash it, you know of 
course because the bank tells you and probably even gives you a picture o
f 
their signature on the back of the check.

> Not so here in Germany; even between 
> different banks, money transfer is everyday routine.

It is here too. Not between individuals, perhaps, but online bill pay isn
't 
hard.

> The other option, which I hear is specific to Germany, is to sign a 
> contract entitling the /other/ party to initiate money transfers from 
> your account to theirs ("Einzugsermächtigung"/"Lastschrift"). 

We have that too. Lots of people pay recurring bills like mortgage, elect
ric 
and water bills, etc that way. I don't think many people do that between 

individuals. I.e., you normally wouldn't do that with someone who wasn't 
a 
large company with recurring bills coming to you.

We have all those options. Checks are to pay the guy down the road for th
e 
used bike he sold you or something. :-)

Indeed, most times, if there's a larger company, if you send them the che
ck, 
the first thing they do is turn it into an electronic authorization for 
payment, meaning they don't have to handle the paper. I.e., they scan the
 
numbers off the check electronically and submit the payment request to yo
ur 
bank, with whom they took the effort to set up a contract allowing them t
o 
do that.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   I ordered stamps from Zazzle that read "Place Stamp Here".

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