How to help !

> Now that there more mobile phones than people...

Alternatively, payment terminals which are almost all already connected could be converted to dumber pipes to let smart cards securely call back their respective home; another possible way to trigger the payment from the source.

I should just stop dreaming and putting banks and innovation in the same text. Instead let's just wait until Apple and/or Google become banks and everything will be fixed automagically.

> The system just needs to be reversed: the merchant/charity/receiver publishes a money mailbox ID. Buyers and givers connect securely to their bank and request a transfer. Problem solved.

This is exactly how my country (India)'s IMPS (Instant Mobile Payment System) works. Every bank account (consumer and merchant alike) gets a 7-digit ID which you can publicise along with your 10-digit mobile number. Using these two pieces of info, anyone can make a payment through web/ATM/mobile and even SMS. Money is transferred instantly, both the parties receive an instant SMS notification confirming the transaction and this system works 24x7x365. You don't even have to reveal the bank account number!

The banks shouldn't really be given the excuse to take a huge cut any more. To take an example, in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) banks have mostly managed to get on with supporting low-cost transfers, albeit with the usual opportunism you might expect from such institutions where they attempt to persuade customers that they need more expensive transfer "products".

But then we're talking about US banks here, who appear to be even more backward than British banks on such matters (although perhaps not more dishonest, as British banks seem to deliberately price Euro transactions prohibitively in order to not have to offer competitive SEPA transfers).

I also think that IBAN isn't a widely-offered donation option because of the perverse security implications of publishing account details for US bank accounts, whereas in other parts of the world people can publish such details and not have random criminals dip into their accounts.

> IBAN

Oh boy. I once tried to buy a CD from a foreign publisher and the only payment method available was via international bank transfer. I was feeling courageous so I went ahead with this. The price was in Euros, which was something like 70 PLN (already quite a lot; the usual price is 50 to 60 PLN for foreign CDs, still not very cheap for this post-communist country). The transfer form was swimming in an acronym soup. There was supposedly and explanation attached, so I tried to select the options that seemed to make sense, completely unaware that there is a "standard" combination that is mostly free of additional charges, but it was mentioned in a way understandable only to bankers. So I clicked "done" and was soon informed that there were two additional fees added to my transfer (don't remember exactly what they were): one amounted to 50 PLN, the other to 80 PLN, which made the price of the CD 200 PLN. I made a complaint to the bank, but it was rejected because "I was sufficiently informed" about all the options.

And the funny part: the CD never arrived :)

So... no, thank you. Bank transfers are so stupid easy between banks in Poland that payment by credit card on the Internet is really rare here. I wish international transfers were just as easy.

They do have an option to wire Euro's over a bank in Frankfurt/Germany bound to their bank in the US. I used it but took me a while to figure out how to fill the info out correctly. I did pass the info back to Bradley and Karen so they should be able to provide you now with the details. If not please let me know and I can help you out (if you want to believe a stranger on the Internet ;).

But be aware that is not a true German bank account of the Conservancy; it costed me 15 EUR per transaction even though it was an in country wire for me. This makes it feasible only for bigger donations.

Default != requirement.

Some euro account is most likely going to be required at some point anyway - again unless they want to waste a lot in bank charges.