dang, sorry, that was me who posted last as "anonymous"... forgot to log in.

ACH?

Last I knew, the US ACH system was not connected across international boundaries except to Mexico and Canada.

Speaking of sending foreign items for collection: We were charged $91 by our clearing bank for a counterfeit Canadian check that we sent off for collection. That kind of defeats the purpose, in my opinion.

While I agree that some of the collection fees imposed by payor or correspondent banks are, dare I say, "imposing," they pale in the face of losses that could result if the same checks were accepted for deposit and returned several weeks later.

We also have to remember that collections are an extremely manual process. If you consider the aggravation your bank went to just to place the check for collection, then double it, you're probably somewhere near the labor level involved for the payor or correspondent (particularly the correspondent) bank.