I made a large purchase last week Tuesday, and have had problems paying for it. Oh, I’ve got the money, I mean I’ve had some difficulty sending it to the seller. I put a deposit down instantly over the phone by credit card, that was easy enough, but sending the bulk of the funds due has required over a week. This is in part due to the seller’s sluggishness in contacting me with payment details, and partly due to how modern banking is set up.
My smaller bank, which is actually a part of a Big 5 big Canadian bank, doesn’t have a SWIFT code to send wire transfers, so I had to select a bank draft option for $10. It was that, or wait 2-3 business days to move the money electronically to another bank, to pay them $50 to wire it. Then they couriered me the draft (couldn’t send it directly to the seller, oh no). Purolator didn’t leave a delivery notice, or a bozo stole it, or the wind blew it away, so I waited an extra day before complaining to the bank about the slow delivery. They gave me the tracking number and said it was in the city. I picked it up, and turned it around back into the system for almost $25 to be at the seller by next day.
Why not Interac email? They’ve a $3K/day limit, and the seller only wanted wired money, or a bank draft (certified cheque). Why not credit card? Something like a 2.5% merchant fee, so the seller would take a few hundred dollars hit. Why not Bitcoin? Because they’ve not set up to take it, and convert it into dollars at their end (or hold it, more sensibly). It could be a lot easier than multiple phone calls to banks, and an early morning trip to the industrial side of town where Regina doesn’t even have sidewalks or bike lanes to get there.
Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff 