Bank transfers are cheap, but as far as hideously backward goes...
a. Until recently, they took about a day to arrive, or over a weekend. Money sent on Friday would be on the target account by Monday. You can build an economy around that, but every online service that gives you instant processing will be in advantage. There is a lot of scenarios where quick processing of a payment is desirable.
b. Transactions abroad were ridiculously expensive and to some degree still are. I remember sending a payment to Lithuania from Czechia by bank transfer. The original quoted sum was about 30 dollars (in then-Lithuanian currency, Litas), and the fees added up to another 20 dollars. This problem was probably less common in Germany, a big market where you will find domestic providers of about anything, but people in smaller countries were getting ripped off at every foreign transaction. SEPA payment system is helping with that, but the fees have only gone down relatively recently, too. At least where I live.
a. Until recently, they took about a day to arrive, or over a weekend. Money sent on Friday would be on the target account by Monday. You can build an economy around that, but every online service that gives you instant processing will be in advantage. There is a lot of scenarios where quick processing of a payment is desirable.
b. Transactions abroad were ridiculously expensive and to some degree still are. I remember sending a payment to Lithuania from Czechia by bank transfer. The original quoted sum was about 30 dollars (in then-Lithuanian currency, Litas), and the fees added up to another 20 dollars. This problem was probably less common in Germany, a big market where you will find domestic providers of about anything, but people in smaller countries were getting ripped off at every foreign transaction. SEPA payment system is helping with that, but the fees have only gone down relatively recently, too. At least where I live.