Are ACH transfers between individuals possible?
"Yes, many banks offer such a service. Often such payments can be made through their ""bill pay"" interface. You log in to your account on the bank's website, enter the recipient's routing and account numbers, and off you go. You could ask your bank whether they offer this. If not, you could change banks to one that does."
For the first part of your question, I think the answer is a combination of three things:  (1) Bigger companies have leverage to negotiate better deals due to volume.  (2) Some of these companies are also taking bookings from outside the US for people traveling to the US (either directly or through affiliates).  This means that they also have income in other currencies, so they may not actually be making as many wire transfers as you think.  They simply keep a bank account in Europe, for example, in Euros to receive and send money in the Eurozone as needed.  They balance the exchange on their books internally in this case, without actually sending funds through the international banking system.  Similarly in other parts of the world. (3) These companies are not going to make a wire transfer for every transaction, in any case.  They are going to transfer big sums of money to an account abroad to balance things on a longer-term basis (weekly, month, etc.)  Then they will make individual payments to service providers out of the overseas account in between these larger, international transfers. For the second part of your question, I think there's probably no way for a new business to get the advantages of scale unless you've got significant capital backing your endeavor that would make it plausible that you'll be transferring in scale.  I don't see any reason in principle that the new company could not establish bank accounts abroad and try to execute the plan outlined in #2 above except that it would require some set-up costs to do the proper paperwork in each country, probably to travel, and to initially fund the various accounts. "One of the factors of a credit score is the ""length of time revolving accounts have been established"". Having a credit card with any line of credit will help in this regard. The account will age regardless of your use or utilization. If you are having issues with credit limits and no credit history, you may have trouble getting financing for the purchase. You should be sure you're approved for financing, and not just that the financing option is ""available"" (potentially with the caveat of ""for well qualified borrowers""). Generally, if you've gotten approved for financing, that will come in the form of another credit card account (many contracting and plumbing companies will do this in hopes you will use the card for future purchases) or a bank loan account (more common for auto and home loans). With the credit card account, you might be able to perform a balance transfer, but there are usually fees associated with that. For bank loan accounts, you probably can't pay that off with a credit card. You'll need to transfer money to the account via ACH or send in a check. In short: I wouldn't bet on paying with your current credit card to get any benefit. IANAL. Utilizing promotional offers, whether interest-free for __ months, no balance transfer fees, or whatever, and passing your debt around is not illegal, not fraudulent, and in many cases advised (this is a link), though that is more for people to distribute utilization across multiple cards, and to minimize interest accrued. Many people, myself included, use a credit card for purchasing EVERYTHING, then pay it off in full every month (or sometimes immediately) to reap the benefit of cash back rewards and other cardholder benefits. I've also made a major payment (tuition, actually) on a Discover card, and opened up a new Visa card with 18-months of no interest and no balance transfer fees to let the bill sit for 12 months while I finished school and got a job." First, you'll need to find a service that can handle transferring that amount of money, whether it's using a bank, or wire transferring service. Any major Wall Street bank (Wells Fargo, Chase, Bank of America, etc.) should be able to handle it. You could also use services such as Western Union. As for your legal and tax obligations, according to Western Union: Individuals in Canada and the U.K. don’t have any tax considerations,   unless international payments are received as income or in the form of   capital gains. Only then must they report it on their income taxes,   says Ilyas Patel, director at Ilyas Patel Chartered Certified   Accountants based in Preston, U.K., and the director of Tax Expert, a   tax advice website. To that end, when considering their tax obligations, individuals   should take care to look into the reporting requirements on foreign   income or gifts ranging up to a certain amount. For example, in the   U.S., the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires individuals who   receive more than $100,000 U.S. dollars from a foreign source to   report it on a Form 3520. “You may not owe taxes on the money, but it   informs the IRS that you received it,” Gragg says, stressing the   importance of consulting with a professional. “They’re looking for   certain terrorist activities and other illegal activity.” Due to the large sum of money your transferring, it would be in your best interest to speak with a banker (maybe even a lawyer or CPA) about this. "At this point, a great deal of the world's wealth exists only in electronic form, and just as you can write a check or pay by debit card and trust the banks will handle it, banks can conduct wire transfers"" through higher-level banking networks. In the US, when there is a need to convert physical money to electronic or vice versa, it is typically handled by armored car and armed guard transfer between a bank and the local Federal Reserve Bank office. Physical money is moved around only when necessary, and for as short a distance as possible, to the most secure facilities possible, to minimize risk. I can't vouch for how it's managed elsewhere in the world, where the networks and repository banks may not be as available. I would presume (I would hope!) that the same general concepts and approaches are followed." JohnFx is more experienced than I am but I have paid off friends cards before. It was as simple as asking them the routing number of the bank that gave them the card and setting up an ACH with their card number. I guess this might be against some banks T&C but the CU I used to carry out the ACH gave me the go ahead as long as I did not dispute the payment later. ATM to ATM transfer is not possible. Do you mean to say account to account transfer using an ATM machine?   Online transfer between account or between an account and credit card is possible. Almost every Bank offers Online transfers using Internet Banking.   The person wishing to initiate a Debit must subscribe to Internet Banking. Once you login to Internet Banking, you would need to add beneficiary Account [account where you need to transfer funds]. Adding of Beneficiary at times takes a Day for the Beneficiary to be activated. Once the Beneficiary is activated, you can transfer funds. The funds are credited to Beneficiary account within 2 hrs. If the both the accounts are in same bank, then some Bank's ATM's [HDFC / Citi etc] allow you to transfer funds between account using the Bank's ATM. I am on employment based visa in USA and want to send dollars from USA to India from my savings (after paying Tax). How much maximum dollars I can send in a day? month? or in a year regularly? There is no such limit. You can transfer as money you like to yourself anywhere. To pay the Bank Loan-student Loan how much maximum dollars I can send in a day, in a month or in a year? to pay that I have to pay directly to that Bank Account or in any account I can send money? You can transfer to your NRE account in India and move it further. You can also send it directly to the Loan Account [Check with the Bank, they may not be able to receive funds from outside for a Loan Account] My mother is having Green Card. She is not working. She has a NRE account in India. Can I send dollars from my USA Bank account to her NRE account in India? what are the rules for that? any Tax or limit for that? Or I have to get any permission before sending it? If you are sending money to your mother, it would come under Gift Tax act in US. There is no issue in India. Suggest you transfer to your own NRE account. Actually, yes. Two parties can write a contract and specify how money will change hands, it's called a swap. It's not unusual to write a contract that mimics an existing financial instrument. However, there are disadvantages to both sides to trading a swap rather than a more standard, liquid instrument, so usually it won't happen unless there's an excellent reason.