isn't it usually free to transfer money between accounts if you're willing to wait? I've never paid a fee to transfer money, but it usually takes 2-3 days to clear.
now wires (near instant transfers) have usually been about $25 sometimes plus a certain percent of the transaction amount. I always assumed that was the cost of having a real human audit the request and perform it in realtime.
If you schedule the transfer via the bank that is receiving the funds, they will usually eat the cost and not pass it onto you as the consumer. Smaller banks [which are most] will submit ACH files up to larger banks [like Wells Fargo or Bank of America] that will actually run the ACH requests through the network. The smaller bank itself is usually being charged either per file fee or some data transmission rate by the bigger bank. I think there are less than 20 banks in the US that can actually run ACH directly but it's been a while since I had to know any of this and it evolves over time.
now wires (near instant transfers) have usually been about $25 sometimes plus a certain percent of the transaction amount. I always assumed that was the cost of having a real human audit the request and perform it in realtime.