They cost about $20 and some banks double-charge (i.e. charge the recipient as well as the sender).

The reason why Americans still use checks so often suddenly makes sense.

that's not universal! I have accounts with CapitalOne360 (formerly "ING Direct") and Wells Fargo that both have free electronic transfers to any other bank. They both use some sort of third-party system that sends an email to the recipient who has to enter their checking account routing info into a form. I use them regularly, and there's never been a problem.

Also the nice thing about banks is that they don't like to make mistakes, and are better about reversing errors than any other industry.

The only downside is that it takes about 3 days for money to move - apparently that's the speed that the checking network moves, but since paper checks have legal guarantees, the banks are willing to take the risk during that time - that's how you can cash a check and have it "bounce" after you've already withdrawn the procedes from it. Without the paper check, you just have to wait for the EFT system to do what it does (and the technology is old and weird - I think it was designed in the mainframe days - so it's all based on batches of processing, instead of on-line immediate stuff)

It truly is shit. Japan's isn't great either. UK's probably the best I've experienced in all the countries I've lived in. Hong Kong comes a close second.

I found South Africa to have a far easier banking system. When I first moved to the UK, I found their banking system very antiquated compared to what I was used to.

That was some time ago, so things are likely better in the UK since then. Hard to tell as I am part of the system and haven't got anything to compare it to now.

Norway's is also pretty easy. You log on, enter the person's account number (unless you already have it saved), and give the amount you want to send along with the date you want it to happen.

As an American living in the UK, I was amazed at how easy it was to transfer money here. It's seriously painless.

It's pretty easy in India too. It's called NEFT and very cheap. I've never been charged more than Rs. 10 - 20.

I believe it does but they are not free/cheat like BACS in the UK and IBAN in the EU.

I always assumed IBAN was a global thing. I don't know what I would do without it. I make/receive all my payments via direct bank wire. And I can do it from everywhere at any time for free.

SWIFT is the global wiring network. Although I've seen IBAN numbers outside of the EU I think that's because the remitting bank is in the EU.