I'm a client of a reputable bank. I usually use it to pay in USD. Everything has always been simple, fast, and reliable.
But this time, I needed to pay a contractor in Euros; I seamlessly made FX transactions and had the necessary amount in my Euro account.
I had the invoice and initiated the money transfer, but I got an error message saying, "The transfer you requested cannot be made."
I checked my credentials and repeated the process—the same result.
I contacted my counterpart and asked him to send me a small transfer—10 EUR—and he succeeded.
I rechecked my credentials and repeated the process, but there was still an error.
Now, I tried the last resort—asking for bank support. They replied quickly:
“Ouch, you do not have Japanese Yens on your balance. Since the commission for your Euro transfer must be paid in Yens, we declined your transfer. Please top up your Yen balance.”
Frustrating, right? Especially when you must go to a separate FX exchange to buy Yens because your bank does not support the USD/Yen FX pair.
Okay, the FX quest is finished. Now I have enough Yens and finally managed to pay my contractor. Figuring everything out took me a whole day instead of minutes, and I'm not a total newbie in the field.
Of course, that was only part of the story. In reality, I was trying to convert one cryptocurrency to another on a different blockchain network, and my wallet failed me regarding customer experience. But they compensated for it with good customer support.
There is no doubt that crypto payment has many advantages over fiat, but until the industry figures out how to make itself user-friendly, we will not have the "next billion of crypto natives."