Also, because my wife and I use different banks but pay bills jointly, I just have her write me a check every month for her part of the bills. I then accept it using my bank's mobile check deposit feature.
While we could do ACH transfers, it's way easier to just write a check.
It amazes me the kinds of workarounds we have to do just to move money.
I am a member of two credit unions, both of which participate in the Co-Op Shared ATM network so I can use most credit union ATMs to make withdrawals and deposits. One credit union holds my regular checking account. The other has my mortgage.
Until the automatic payment gets set up, I pay my mortgage by going to a third-credit-union ATM (owned by a CU that is also on the shared ATM network) and withdrawing a pile of cash with one CU's card. I then stick that cash back into the ATM as a deposit with the other CU's card. The payment can thus be made as a "transfer" on the mortgage CU's online banking platform.
It takes minutes to do that versus approximately 3 days to do an account-to-account transfer.
3 days to do a bank transfer, ouch, that's a blast from the past. Sounds like you desperately need the Faster Payments system we have in the UK - allows you to transfer money between accounts (at different banks) instantly. Other than collections at church and the occasional business that doesn't take card, I hardly ever use cash these days.
> The Rule includes a “Same Day Fee” on each Same Day ACH transaction so that RDFIs would recover, on average, their costs for enabling and supporting Same Day ACH.
Never doubt the American banking system's capacity to gouge the customer.
It would be easier to transfer electronically if the systems existed.
I'd open the banking app or website, put in the other persons mobile phone number. Their name would be shown as confirmation. Enter the amount, press send. It's in their account in minutes, an hour at most.
If I transfer the same amount regularly, I'd click to make it a regular transfer.
If I don't know their phone number I'd use their account number. Either way, they're saved as a contact for next time.
Right; I'm not saying that using mobile check deposit is the easiest possible method for this (it definitely is not), but it is the easiest method that my major US bank supports.
While we could do ACH transfers, it's way easier to just write a check.