I have lived/banked in New Zealand, Canada and The Netherlands, all of which are delightfully eons ahead of the US banks almost across the board. For example:

- P2P or bill payments in Canada can be made to any email address and received within 60 minutes for free.

- Splitting a bill or requesting payment in Netherlands is trivial, because the banks all allow you to generate a URL and send it to anyone for instant payment.

- Transfers in NZ are realtime, instant, and validated before you send to ensure its the right person. You can also create accounts online with your government login. Touch to pay exists everywhere since at least 2010.

Meanwhile in the US, checks exist and people go crazy when Apple Pay is accepted at a single chain store. I've never touched a check, and I hope I never need to—and the examples of hoops to jump through are likely because you're new! KYC regulations tend to relax over time, and it can be painful at first almost everywhere. The fintech revolution in Europe between N26, Revolut and the dizzying array of others is evidence we don't need, or want, US banks to do anything. It won't help.

UK and related systems (Ireland, Hong Kong, Channel Islands) second worst.

European continent - what a pleasure by comparison. Everyone has their account number on their website or stationery, and if you want to transfer money, you transfer money.

Of course, I understand that US banking has been catching up to Europe and Africa and Asia. Enjoy.

EDIT to add: As many point out, that's obviously retail. Can't beat US banks in investment banking - Swiss banks and Deutsche and HSBC etc. have been trying.

And if you go to a US teller, they won’t direct you to an ATM.

From what I’ve seen in France, bank branches are increasingly cashless. Need $5k? Go to the teller and ask them to open a window on your account, and then make 5x transactions at the ATM (with its 1k limits).

And don’t get me started on trying to use wires with BoA, they won’t not even tell me why they are rejected, but still keep the $30 fee.

For airlines, I know Europeans that will pull up Skype and call their airline’s US number if they have one.

How do you even come to this. My experience with UK banks is pretty much second to none. Instant transfers with upfront confirmation with amounts well over 10k. Easy ability to split bills with URL, ability to freeze cards (even outside Monzo, etc), easy instant exchange currencies including overseas (yes a transfer into the UK from another country is instant), icons around my expenses. Account numbers are short and IBAN compatible too. Best of all the typical current account is free.

I know that this is an outright fiction, so I’m leaning towards doubting the rest of your post too. Transfers in NZ are only instant if you’re transferring to somebody in the same bank. I don’t know what identity validation you’re talking about, NZ banks just take an account number for transfers. I’ve never seen a bank use government login in place of AML. Touch pay is not widely adopted at all in NZ, most merchants hate it because of the extra fees, in recent time it’s become somewhat common at larger merchants. Literally everything you said about banking in NZ is either outright false or a major exaggeration.

Depends on the bank, I think most of the big ones do. Some still do overnight. But remember, that’s on each side of the transaction, so a transfer between banks that settle hourly can still take a few hours.

Australia has now launched real time payments though, so I hope NZ catches up before too long...

Even though small transactions are the huge majority, most of the money is in large transactions.

The banks are also spreading globally. I've been able to use different Canadian debit cards in quite a few Caribbean and Mexican cities. More branches are even in the US.

- Splitting a bill or requesting payment in Netherlands is trivial, because the banks all allow you to generate a URL and send it to anyone for instant payment.

These are instant in the U.S., use the Zelle app.

the are all better than paper checks

I know of instances where a credit card from Amsterdam, the Netherlands is not even accepted at a shop in the Swabia region of Germany.

I also know of instances where they outright refuse to accept Visa and only deal with Mastercard and such - that too issued in Germany!!. What's the point of a credit card if you cannot travel with it?

Why are cash transactions so much more prevalent in Europe? I've seen the same in Japan but that's entirely a different case.

[1] For Many Germans, Cash Is Still King

https://www.npr.org/2019/06/09/728323278/for-many-germans-ca...

Personally, I like cash. Better for tips, pocket money and other things. I also like to not leave any transaction history, even if banks are mostly privacy aware.

If you are dependent on social security and the state has the power to look through your finances, you begin to see the advantages again. Because they would rob you of your last 20$.

Cashless paying is convenient and fast, but otherwise isn't really something many people strive for.

Heard about the finance crisis in Greece and how access to their bank accounts became restricted? Another hint.

I'm from the US and I've had my chip based Visa pin debit card declined in France due to network incompatibility that neither side could figure out (at a McDonalds of all places) - the authorization just wasn't making it to the issuer.

Basically the further you get from you issuing bank's region/network, the more likely you are to run into problems, regardless of what country you're in. In the US because payment processing industry is so big, merchants are more likely to accept more networks than in other countries because they're paying more to support it or have negotiated better rates with middle men like FDC or directly with Visa/MC.

I think in Germany most MC is actually run using the Maestro network and merchants get hit with either per transaction fees or high interchange rates for using non-maestro cards (if they even opt-in for that with their acquirer).

[1] https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/19/big-banks-prepare-...

[2] https://www.paymentscardsandmobile.com/independent-mobile-pa...

[3] https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/othe...

It is also worth comparing the US banks to alternatives. The US is changing, but as a political entity the US still accepts that wealth and earning money are fundamentally good things and that private property is a thing. For example [0].

The US banks are trustworthy like snakes and scorpions, but at least they exist in a regulatory world that is pro-money. It is easy to see why US banks might end up being more effective than the competition. If they tap into a massive opportunity they are allowed to make obscene money. That is also a major driver why if someone wants to succeed, they want to succeed in the US. I bet that pervasive attitude comes through in the banking system too.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_reven...

Erm, US banking regulations have become quite insistent on knowing customers' identifying information, requesting employment details, and reporting many cash transactions to the government. So the environment can't really be said to be pro-money, at least at the pleb level, as the concept of money implies fungibility.

Crikey I'm a typo machine. Hopefully it's obvious that I meant US investment banks are ahead of the EU ones

Isn't such a device required if you want 2FA and use your phone for e-banking?

With the US system, on the other hand, consumers have more protection precisely because the banking system is insecure. It's easy to get a fradulent charge reversed.

I had a few UK accounts in the early 2010's, and it was awfully convenient for me that the physical card readers were interchangeable. I can bring around one card reader from any bank, and use it with the debit cards from every other bank.

In Singapore, every bank has their own physical 2FA keypad tokens, and they're not interchangeable. Some banks are slowly moving to mobile apps, but most business bank accounts here still rely on those physical tokens.

It is really how everywhere should be, I need to pay some bills? Add them to my online banking and when I want to send the orders I just need to send them, open the app and sign. Need to send my tax declaration? Login to the tax agency using the app and sign and validate before sending my form. Do I need to validate a payment done with my credit card that was caught and marked as possibly fraudulent (because my purchasing behaviour changed a little bit from the norm)? No worries, just open the app and validate that you are you.

And so on and so forth...

That aside, we're talking about the cartel that crashed the WORLD economy just 10ish years ago. If that isn't cause for pause I'm not sure what is. There's more to life than convenience.

Yah. "hoops" like walking into a bank and walking out with an account and a card in 10 minutes!

"This is not a pain point for any immigrants I know in the US as it's fairly easy to move money around." Sure. Try to sending 10, 100, 1000 or 10.000 USD within the US and then try the same thing in the EU and compare: costs, speed and ease.