Why the heck do people use those kinds banks over there? Seems to me it takes away all the usefulness of one. It's a money bucket where you put money in and take money out. As soon as one of those three aspects is not there, then what is the point?
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/banking/wire-transfers-what-...
There really isn't any low cost option for wire transfers in the US. ACH is the free transfer option, and it takes 1-3 days. Wire transfers are the "pay a lot for immediate confirmation" option just for the very few transfers it's worth it on. The average person is unlikely to ever make or receive a wire transfer. There are consumer-level alternatives for personal transfers like Venmo: https://venmo.com/about/product/
But why wouldn't you want to send or receive money using your bank? Isn't that what it is for? As a non-US person this seems really strange to me (but so is the concept of cheques and tip-based income).
I'm used to using the bank, the apps they have and de debit cards they provide (and now also Apple Pay) to send and receive money instantly every day, and there are on average ~10 instant transfers daily to both other private accounts or businesses to pay for things.
Perhaps this is an exotic or luxury position, or there is some unseen cost to this, but I'm not aware of that at this point.
