I have found a single Estonian book shop on the web that I can buy from – others either don’t do international deliveries, or only accept payment via an Estonian online bank. So when I found a book I wanted but couldn’t find in that single shop, I asked a friend in Estonia to buy a book for me. (In fact by now I’ve asked two friends to buy a book each.)
Then of course I need to reimburse them for their expenses. And what is the easiest, quickest, cheapest way to send money overseas? Why, by post, of course, by sending them cash by snail mail. Way cheaper, about as fast, and (for these small sums) not significantly less secure than wire transfer.
Somehow it feels like I’m in the 18th century.
Don’t they do online banking in Sweden?
I absolutely HATE that about a lot of (most?) Estonian online shops too. I would give a lot of money to Estonian bookshops if only they’d let me :) Oh well, their loss.
@Triin: They do, but transferring money overseas tends to be associated with expensive fees (sometimes for the sender, sometimes for the recipient, sometimes for both) and the banks still usually take 2 business days to do it. From what I understand, they could do it pretty much instantly, but I guess they don’t feel like it.
@Liina: Yes – here I am, almost begging to give them money, and they’re refusing it!
I see. Here in Luxembourg they do transfers pretty much instantly within the eurozone, but transferring money outside it, e.g. to Estonia does take a couple of days.