Have you ever paid a credit card bill online, or filled out your bank routing information on your tax return, and thought "I wish the power of electronic funds transfer could be mine to use in other ways, for my personal whims"?
In a development having nothing to do with libraries, but something to do with nifty technology, my online bank (ING) now offers 'Person2Person' EFT.
Cutesy name aside, it's pretty handy. All you have to do is convince someone to give you their bank routing number and their checking account number, and you can move money right from your account to theirs by filling in a few fields online!
Unfortunately it doesn't work the other way around, so you can't add to your fortune, just pass it on to others. I should say, it's unfortunate for the first person who wished they could do that and couldn't--fortunate for everyone who's never wanted to have their bank account emptied remotely by someone else.
And I don't like to generalize, but I think that actually speaks for a lot of us.
Anyway, if you ever happen to be in a position where you want to send someone some money, this saves writing a check or buying a money order and mailing it. I love online bill payment and such, so this sort of thing is just a big barrel of sunshine and kittens as far as I'm concerned.
I tried it, and it was fast and easy. And free, which is important. It irritates me to have to pay to do things with my money.
The other person does need to have a bank account, so this won't work for everyone, but it doesn't have to be an account with ING, so there's some flexibility.
One downside is that it would be harder to surprise someone with a present this way than if you sent a check, since you have to get their bank info somehow and the most obvious way to do that may be to ask them, in which case they may wonder why you want to know.
But hey, if you get it once you can surprise them next time.
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