Sophisticated Banking

I'm in North America, who considers themselves brain child of internet and computer technology.

So here is how I transfer money from my bank account to another:
- Add recipient name and email address to my account
- Select how much I want to transfer
- Set up a security question and answer to verify recipient
- Physically call the recipient to tell him of my security question and answer
- Recipient checks email, is asked the questions, answers correctly and provides bank account details for the money to be transferred into.

Sending my hard earned money through silly bank processes via gmail and yahoo internet email accounts is not only inefficient and backward, it also costs me me a whooping $1.50 a transaction.

The banking industry here is ridiculous. At least I can transfer funds electronically though, a big improvement from 4 years ago.

Oh, and interest rates for savings accounts are 0.012% (compared to my 6.1% in Sydney), and the interest rates for credit cards are 19% (compared to my 16% in Sydney).

Don't get me started on telcos!