I sure wouldn't want to risk discovering I'd been paid in high-quality counterfeit notes. Accepting 2700€ cash feels insane to me.

In Europe do you not have cashier's checks? That's what we use in the US for something like a used car, since most people don't want to carry around a car's worth of cash, even for a short period of time.

You go to the bank, and get a check drawn on the bank for the amount. The person receiving it can call the bank to verify it's valid if they don't trust it. And if you get robbed (or lose it) you can have the check cancelled.

I wouldn't accept a cashiers check for a car in the US right now, unless the seller met me at their bank so I could cash it. A very popular scam at the moment is to buy a car with a fake cashiers check, then disappear with the car, and a couple days later the check comes back as fake.

...that's why you call the bank in front of the buyer to verify it was legitimately issued?

You don't need to visit the bank, just phone. There's no reason you should fall for a scam like that.

Scammers will just fake a check from an out of town bank and make excuses that they can’t meet during regular business hours. I certainly won’t fall for any of these scams but it shouldn’t take a security specialist to not be defrauded.

I would not take the risk selling expensive items with digital transactions for the counterparty to file a fictitious Paypal dispute or credit card chargeback.

Did you respond to the wrong comment? My comment was about paper cashier's checks, not digital transactions.

Haven't written a cheque in the UK for 20 years.

However I have received them from HMRC for refunds.

It's not a check you write.

It's a cashier's check.

They're not used frequently -- really only for things like closing a bank account, buying a used car, putting down an apartment deposit and first month's rent, that kind of thing.

I haven't written a personal check in close to 20 years either, but I've certainly needed to use a cashier's check a handful of times!

> It's a cashier's check.

cashier checks are equivalent to cash and follow the same limits.

They're not equivalent to cash in any way. That doesn't even make sense.

We have money orders, they count basically the same as cash but they are exempt from this law. I saw three in my life. I was given one when I was paid my first salary and didn't have a bank account, and I requested one twice to buy a car in 2011 and 2014.

Yup, that's the same idea. Only real difference here in the US is that a cashier's check is drawn on a bank, while a money order you get at the post office.

Domestic bank transfers in many EU countries are already "instant" and EU wants to make it mandatory for every member without extra fees:

https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/10/26/eu-pushes-for-banks...

> Sold a used car just last year, got 2700€ in cash for it.

where did the buyer kept the money?

> which takes 1 day to arrive

you're saying it like it really makes a difference or like cash is safer and easier to handle.

How much time does it take to deposit the money to your bank account?

Is your time free?

Do you like to lose money and time so that other people can use cash coming from who knows where?

> but for individuals transacting with one another, it still seems the easiest option.

back to question #1 again: what kind of people keep thousands of euros at home?

I know no one who does it.

Bank transfers in the uk are pretty much instantaneous during working hours, and often outside too

Largely depends on which banks are talking between each other. For many banks and large transfers you need to wait an hour or so for it to go through.

You notice it most when buying a house and you sit awkwardly in a room with the seller waiting for the money to be transferred so you can leave with the keys.

What awful bank have you got where it takes 1h to do a Faster Payment?

Like I said it depends on the banks.

Santander to HSBC is a pretty slow one for some reason.

I’ve had some slow transfers from HSBC to Barclays too.

In Sweden it took about an hour for Handelsbanken to Nordea, so I’m comfortable saying that there’s some kind of threshold that’s universally accepted for large bank transfers during working hours.