- Bank transfers aren't universally free in Germany. Mine cost about 30 cents.
- Rent was one of the few things that I mentioned wasn't paid with credit cards.
- "As they should be" is problematic. I for instance, find the whole process of founding a GmbH insanely complicated (even with the new reforms), but hey, they're different countries. I could make a long list of things about each country of things that work better in the other, but it wouldn't be the most useful means of comparison.
In england, it's WAY easier, and most things can be done online. The UK generally has a much less formal feel about most things compared to Germany.
On the other hand bank transfers do have fees associated, and I'm not even sure how I'd go about initiating one. That does make transferring funds between individuals a pain. Cash and check are standard but each has its drawbacks.
PayPal sorta, kinda, addresses these difficulties but they claim their own pound of flesh on the transactions. I suspect it's a great startup opportunity but it's a regulatory minefield, and the entrenched behemoths are very efficient at maintaining the status quo.
I always either payed my rent in the US by mail or by putting a check in a drop-box that we had at the building where I lived. (Note that I haven't lived in the US since 2002, so things may have progressed since then.)
<minirant> This is the problem with most US-Europe comparisons -- and honestly, something that Europeans are especially bad at. They tend to look at the US with a set of assumptions and bemoan that the US is backward without realizing that the some of the things being used as a basis for the comparison are out of whack. That's not to say that there aren't huge problems in the US, but they're rarely as simple as portrayed in the European media. </minirant>