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Comment by catchmrbharath | Hacker News Reader

India is way ahead of the US financial system. I am a student here in US and I can't really fathom how bad the US financial system is.

- Intra bank wires / transfers are free and happen within 10s

- Cheques are free

- You don't have a system where you can lose all your money if you give your handwritten cheques to somebody (who came up with echeques anyway?)

- You don't get charged to have a checking account. They pay you interest for your account.

- Get a message about every transaction, every withdrawal that you do immediately.

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Indian banks have their own problems. I have spent lots of time dealing with Indian banks which want me to show up in person to handle certain account issues while i was in US. Security works more by obscurity where you have to provide lots of details, which can be bad if you don't regularly use the accounts. Customer service depends on situation. When i deal with private banks, i will be treated really well (with offer for tea/cold drinks/snacks :) & personal attention from manager. My dad, who deals with public sector banks in rural area tells me that he dreads to go near banks. The managers apparently are super rude, with a condescending attitude towards rural people.

I'm not going to argue against the general thesis that the US banking system is antiquated, but I gotta pick these nits:

- Checks are usually free in the US.

- You don't usually get charged to have a checking account in the US.

- The lack of interest on most US checking accounts is due to the very low inflation rate and nearly zero federal rate. Adjusted for inflation, what is the interest rate of your Indian checking account? Back in the 70s when inflation was high in the US checking account that carried interest were not uncommon. I do seem to remember that they were called something else, but I can't remember right now.

- You don't usually get charged to have a checking account in the US.

I have to maintain a minimum balance of 1500$ for the checking account to be free.

>> - The lack of interest on most US checking accounts is due to the very low inflation rate and nearly zero federal rate. Adjusted for inflation, what is the interest rate of your Indian checking account? Back in the 70s when inflation was high in the US checking account that carried interest were not uncommon. I do seem to remember that they were called something else, but I can't remember right now.

Agreed. I got carried away trying to make a point :).

Pick a different bank. Almost every bank I walk by offers free checking with $100 balance, or even less

Pick an even better bank and you have no fees, non-negligible interest, and free ATM withdrawals with fee reimbursement worldwide. You'd have a hard time finding many other banks in the world that offer that.

A lot of Indians frequently mention "message for every transaction" as a positive. I see it as a negative. Cash use is declining in most European countries, and if I had to use 2-factor every time I paid for a pack of gum with my card I'd go nuts. Instead my card providers provide risk-based alerts, e.g. when I shop at a new place (I recently received an alert while ordering furniture at a new online store). Overall fraud rates are pretty low in Europe, so this probably works out okay for both customers and card providers.

That said, given how much malware there is on the average Indian PC/phone, perhaps two-factor makes more sense there.

Inter bank transfers are also instantaneous and cost $0.08 per transaction

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