Ah sorry, it was hard to understand what types of transactions you were talking about. Yes, the reality is that when you try to live in a foreign country and do non-touristy "resident" things like buy things online or pay bills, but when you don't actually have a work visa that allows you to open a local bank account -- the systems aren't built for that. And local merchants really do put themselves at the risk of scams -- even with debit cards, transactions can be reversed by banks (stolen debit cards are a thing), and then the merchant is out of merchandise and money. It sucks, and you just wind up having to rely on a friend or family member to do your online purchases. It's such a small group of people, that companies don't do much to support those edge cases.
I still don't understand why you couldn't wire money though. That's what wiring money internationally is for. If timing with the hospital is an issue, you just wire yourself or your family member in advance -- that's usually more common than attempting to a the hospital directly. (And even if you do have to wire the hospital directly, you can provide proof of the fact that the wire was initiated from your bank.) The only problem I can think of with wiring money is the fact that the money is illegal or someone is trying to evade taxes or something. If the money is perfectly legal, then what is the problem?
> because you don't pay the hospital large amount ahead, and when it's time there's not enough time to wire the money.
This was their justification against wire transfers. Obviously I don't know how the accounts receivable department works in Indian hospitals because I've never been to India let alone a hospital there, but this strikes me as unusual. A couple days delay to pay large sums of money seems more than reasonable.
wiring money via international accounts is instantaneous, last time I had wired money to me (last week). Or at least within an hour or two. The issue here, probably, is that there is usually a fairly large fee attached to it from the receiving bank. My bank, it's 25 bucks, flat rate. Each and every wire, even if it is 5 bucks being wired.
I'll take your word for it, a glance at google told me a wire transfer from a foreign bank will typically take about 2 days to clear, but I've only ever done wire transfers domestically. But yeah, a $25 fee might be the hold up, except if I'm understanding the OP, the wire transfer would be for costly medical care. Typically if I'm looking at paying a large bill, the bill blinds me from the pain of being nickel and dimed on fees. So I think we're probably not talking about paying $5 at 7-11.
It’s India. The land of the thrifty, always looking for a deal (cultural stereotype). It’s the reason so many US companies have a hard time breaking into that market though.
My boss and I spent several weeks in India talking to people and learning the cultural basics just to figure out how to price our products. If you want to sell there, you need extremely competitive pricing with discounts, in a very price-sensitive market. Like, if you know the coupon culture in the US, it’s like that times 100.
I still don't understand why you couldn't wire money though. That's what wiring money internationally is for. If timing with the hospital is an issue, you just wire yourself or your family member in advance -- that's usually more common than attempting to a the hospital directly. (And even if you do have to wire the hospital directly, you can provide proof of the fact that the wire was initiated from your bank.) The only problem I can think of with wiring money is the fact that the money is illegal or someone is trying to evade taxes or something. If the money is perfectly legal, then what is the problem?