I'm not saying that the US banking system is or isnt ridiculous... but in the US, anyone with a bank account can indeed send money to any other account in the world, given the account number, usually for a fee, like many other places; these are referred to often as wires, though there are actually many types of transfers. Getting it free usually requires a balance over a certain amount (banks live on fees, sadly).

Whether one can do it online depends on the bank, but most US banks and credit unions now have the ability to allow transfers and payments to anyone given a postal address (to be fair, if its just to a person, the bank may issue a paper check instead of a true electronic transfer. Sigh). They mostly call this "online bill pay" or other names, but it's become pretty full featured. In addition, most US banks are allying themselves with various person-to-person payment systems (Popmoney, though archaic and painful in use, is used by many US banks including Ally, Bank of America, TD Bank, Citibank, Fifth Third Bank, PNC, Regions, Suntrust, US Bank, and Wells Fargo, for example; Chase has it's own system as do some others. ClearXchange, Dwolla, Venmo, Paypal, and a slew of others are also gunning for this space).

So, yes, lots of problems, but I don't know if above is entirely a fair statement.

Good, so I have some constraints:

- This money transfer system works if you have (any) bank account. If you have a bank account that's all it needs (and no sign up)

- It does not depend on any action on the receiving part (so no depositing a cheque or something similar).

- It takes a couple of days tops

- A fee is acceptable, if it's something like $5 at most

- It works for large amounts (for buying a car or a house for example)

- It is trusted. If the money shows in your account that's it (unlike a cheque)

If it has this features, great.

But I shouldn't have to give you my account number for you to send me money. I don't really want to maintain a mental list of who has my account number and who to update if I change banks or something. I'm not saying checks are the best solution for all situations but they have enough use cases to make them somewhere better than ridiculous.

Every time my cleaning lady comes, I just leave a check for her on the counter. I could leave cash but then I have to make sure I have that much cash on hand every time. I could probably get an account number from her and do some sort of transfer each time. But honestly, that doesn't sound at all easier for me than just writing a check. I think that is the only check I write on a regular basis anymore. I used to send my gardener a check but I started paying his invoice online through my bank. And I'm pretty sure they actually print a check and mail it to him on my behalf. :)

That's why you need a Cleaning App where you will pay 10% to the App owner, but save yourself from seeing the lady and don't have to feel bad about her life. Although you just taken off 10% off her.

Isn't your account number on the check?

Yes. My concern is not of security for my account number. But if I have to supply someone with my account number before they can give me money, then that is not the most ideal thing, IMO. They should just be able to give me the money without knowing my account number.

This is like saying that handing over a paper note to someone is more convenient than sending them an email, because you don't need to know their email address, and even if you did you can't be sure whether they still use the same email address.

That may be true but most people seem to have decided that the convenience of not needing to transfer a physical item outweighs those problems.

You're overcomplicating things... Really. That's like saying "I want people to be able to call me without my phone number"

You already give your acc number for your job.

I do that (sending and receiving money) and guess what, most of the people never changed bank acc numbers (including me). If it changes it's a non-issue.

Especially because payments either happens frequently (paying rent, for example) or it's a one-off thing.

I don't get why should I have to write a check to a landlord when they could give me they account number and let me set up a recurring payment (that's exactly what happens in Europe)

This is no longer necessary in the UK - you can send money via a phone number instead of an account number.

In the U.S. you can usually send by snail mail, email, mobile, wire transfer and ABA. Fees are fairly low (< $5)