[LINK] Land of the Free, and the Expensive

[Adam Todd]

At 01:17 21/08/2008, Scott Howard wrote:
>Banking in the US is for the most part years behind where it is in Australia
>- and the concept of transferring money into someone elses account is
>completely foreign to almost all Americans, and Cheques (err.. checks!)
>still rule as the primary form of payment for anything other than small
>payments.

Yup, unlike in Australia where you run a mile if someone you don't 
know and haven't had a 20 ear cash relationship with offers you a 
cheque, you are almost demanded to issue a cheque in the USA.  Even 
if you stand there with a wad of cash, 'checks' are nearly demanded 
at gun point.

I've had similar experience in the UK, where cash is reluctantly 
taken of given, and credits on accounts are not provided instead 
cheques POSTED out so you can deposit the 'credit' into your account.

A Bank Transfer in the UK can take a few days, unlike in Australia 
now where its instant to over night.

Cheques in the UK take days to clear, in the USA it can be anywhere 
from instant to a week.

Credit cards are HUGE in the USA and UK.  Most people have between 10 
and 40 credit cards.  Special wallets are made specifically for 
carrying plastic cards, like many are use to carrying CD/DVD's in their cars!

And Plastic cards are all the fun in the UK.  Nearly everyone you do 
business with more than once insists you have one of their plastic 
cards for future transactions.  A right pain in the butt when you 
have several people running around a buying, hiring and transacting 
for you on a film project.

France loves cash :)

I've had a few interesting times with Russian, my Director there has 
been going bananas trying to juggle different cash currencies that 
are demanded.  Everything from USD, Euro, to Russian Wheel Barrows of money.

An in one African country a film team have had a nightamre with their 
currency being so grossly valued, a days pay was issued in "50 notes" 
by the wheel barrow.  A loaf of break was like 200,00,000 
'dollars'  so the government printed a trillion dollar note, to knock 
off the zeros from the gross inflation of the local economy.  At 
least now they don't have so many zero's on the receipts!

So with Ebay trying to control the economy of the hobby home trader, 
one can see just how nasty it could become in the future.

However, there are always other auction web site and really it is a 
case of people changing sites.

Mind you Ebay will probably just buy the others if they start a growth phase.

>The nett result of this is that the vast majority of sales on eBay in the US
>are already either PayPal, COD or occasionally (non-PayPal) credit card.

You do know that PayPal has introduced a Credit Card in the USA?

So, you have your Ebay Fees, your PayPal Fee and your PayPal Credit 
Card Fees.  I understand you can't transfer PayPal funds onto their 
credit card, you can only put cash onto it.

My last experience delivering a Mac Dual G4 to a buyer in St Mary's 
ended up with me calling the police to get my money or my computer 
back.  Was not a great night and the last sale I ever did in Ebay.

>Without the additional option of a fast/free/easy payment method like direct
>deposit, PayPal has already won here.

Look at the end of the day, people will 'cheat' the system by simply 
saying all sales are COD.  Once buyer and seller have made contact 
outside the Big Brother eyes of Ebay, Deposit or postal details can 
be exchanged easily.

Of course, Ebay will deny any recovery on such transaction, so it 
opens an avenue for fraud and deception.

>Sure, there will be people who complain, although most of those complaints
>will be on principal rather than due to the additional cost which most
>people are already paying anyway.

It's quite simple really.  I don't use Ebay any more.  I haven't in a 
long time and don't intend going back to something that every month 
made life more and more complicated, more difficult than dealing with 
a Government.