You know this really farks me off. If I want to use a (UK issued) VISA credit card anywhere in the World, I pretty much can. They have no problem giving me instant credit in just about any currency that I want. But when it comes to paying for said credit, they will only accept direct payments from UK-based banks, and US cheque payments take 4-6 weeks to process. This caught me out once when I let my UK bank account run low. What a PITA.