If only there was some kind of virtual cash that could be sent from one party to another almost instantly without an intermediary
If only such a system wasn't ripe with fraud, get rich quick schemes, and the same general predatory behaviors found in our systems with intermediaries yet lacking the ability for the common user to have some ability to recover when things go wrong.
Alas, such a thing does not exist. ;P
Why should I care that other people engage in fraud with the same currency that I'm using for a legal transaction? Why should I care that other people engage in get rich quick schemes with the same currency that I'm using for a legal transaction?
I lost £150,000 to a fraudulent account the bank knew about https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/dec/14/i-lost-150000-...
Bank transfer scammers steal £700,000 a day from UK victims https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/may/28/bank-transfer-...
https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/digital_euro/html/index.en.ht...
The EU may not be the first to make this.
You bear all the risk as the merchant, the customers can simply reverse a transaction, repeatedly, without providing a reason, for up to couple months.
Actually, there are issues that raise red flags when a business only accepts bank transfers:
(a) It raises a GIGANTIC red flag as to why a business was unable to get a merchant account with a card processor. Pretty much any business can get a merchant account with a bit of paperwork (generally not much more paperwork than for opening a bank account). So if a business is refused a merchant account everywhere (including PayPal) then, well .....
(b) At least in Europe, credit card holders gain SIGNIFICANT protection under law. Basically as long as your transaction is over a minimum amount (normally small, e.g. £100/€100), then the card issuer (i.e. bank) is *automatically* equally liable in the event something goes wrong (i.e. goods or services are faulty, are not delivered as promised, are not as advertised or if the trader or retailer goes out of business). This legal protection applies even if the amount you paid on your card was a mere deposit instead of the full amount. (Generally the only caveat here is that you need to pay the merchant directly on their merchant account, not via a pooling intermediary such as Paypal).
Credit cards work great for small transactions for both consumers and businesses, but risks get high for the business (espcially small businesses) for larger transactions.
I really wish there was a near instant payment method without heavy overregulation so I could do normal business with people from not so fortunate countries.
My customers usually even ask to pay in crypto. It's surprisingly complicated for people in less fortunate countries to move higher amounts of money without an endless cycle of hoops, fees and waiting.