At the start of the week, I authorised a bank transfer to send our sponsorship money down to the OpenCoffeeClub BBQ account and today we received notification that it had barfed. I’ve not had to send money to a company in another country before but I assumed as the banking systems are much the same (and likely owned by the same company anyway) that it would be simple.
Apparently having the sort code and account number and transferring funds is not as straightforward as you’d expect and the systems the banks use don’t have the verification checking to let you know that the payment can’t be accepted. Wouldn’t it make more sense to do that verification check at data entry time? And more to the point – why the hell can’t I transfer money that way? The banks have unique numbers, the accounts have unique numbers within the banks – what’s the problem?
We’re a far cry from the digital future we dream of where commerce can flow unfettered. Even transferring money from my own bank account to another online is made more difficult if the second is in a different country. The quick solution, we’re told, is to post a cheque.
Yes, it has to be some sort of cruel joke.