[asterisk-biz] International DID provider and wholesale A-Z termination and Dedicated servers supporting moneybooker

[Alex Balashov]

On 08/13/2010 04:49 PM, Bret McDanel wrote:

> It is weird that there is a higher processing overhead for a paper check
> (cheque to people on other continents) yet that incurs no cost whereas a
> wire has much lower processing overhead and its often much more
> expensive.  Almost like people in this country are being steered to use
> the ACH system one way or the other.

The overhead and unattractive aspects of paper checks may be a 
peculiarity of my unique banking situation, due to banking with a 
local (regional) bank whose nearest branch is quite far from my 
physical location. I'm willing to put up with a lot of inconvenience 
because of how much I hate the big banks.  It's very time-consuming 
for me to drive over to deposit checks, and it's very slow if mailed 
in.  At the same, there's not enough volume to warrant something like 
a remote check scanner.

The other problem with checks is time.  If you ask a customer to cut 
you a check, it'll go through their usual accounts payable cycle, and 
probably get bogged down with a traditionally-minded bookkeeper or AP 
person who wants to do things on their own time, on their own 
schedule, at their own pace, with their own little process.  If it's a 
bigger customer, they are used to paying pretty much everything on NET 
30/60/90 day terms, so they're not in a big hurry.  They also like to 
forget to pay what are to them relatively small bills from small 
vendors.  So, the check will be in the mail ... probably ... sometime 
between now and the next financial quarter.  If the only acceptable 
method of payment is electronic funds transfer of some description, 
and they agree to it, it gives one more leverage to hassle them, 
because the truth of instant payment is as black-and-white and 
deterministic as everything else electronic;  either you got the 
money, or you didn't.

As a tiny company, we really can't afford to do it any other way, from 
a cash flow perspective.  I'm sure there are many others here in the 
same boat.

-- 
Alex Balashov - Principal
Evariste Systems LLC
1170 Peachtree Street
12th Floor, Suite 1200
Atlanta, GA 30309
Tel: +1-678-954-0670
Fax: +1-404-961-1892
Web: http://www.evaristesys.com/