Even a year ago it was difficult to receive international wires b/c there is a different USA-only wire system. Credit unions and regional banks do not get a SWIFT number... I had to actually GO to a physical room inconveniently located an entire 5 minute drive from my house, fill out forms ON PAPER, and actually TALK DIRECTLY to another living breathing smiling human being to open an account that would accept international wires. :-) But seriously -- the real issue is that it had to be with one of the big names whose business model is to basically drain your funds with fees, etc. For example, if I don't do at least 1 txn a month in the account there is a fee.
Joking aside, bitcoin is awesome at medium international xfer. Small can be done with paypal, large with a wire. The sweet spot IMO is 500-5000 USD.
I never had much trouble receiving with my bank. Though the fees were a PITA, they charged at the US end even if I'd elected to have all fees paid at the originating end, the exchange rate was worse than the "official" rate and you couldn't wait for a good rate, you got whatever was available at the time (and I have my suspicions the banks played things so they profited off of that too). The last few times I've used Currency Fair and it's a *much* better experience all around. Can't believe the lobbyists haven't got them closed down yet.
OK YMMV...I didn't make a study out of it. But I gather all banks have an ABA number (domestic) but that is not a SWIFT (international) number. I did get turned away from a couple of smaller CUs and banks so finally I sucked it up and went with BAC. I was getting paid by a major European luxury automobile company for work on their prototype cars so it was not an issue of ignorance on their end. In fact, about 6 months later they opened a US bank account and notified me that wires could now be domestic (and I'm 100% positive they did not do that just for my business!!! :-).
