3 ms·

That's still pretty great compared to wire transfers (~$15 fee, up to 72hrs). But I get your point; larger blocks can improve that greatly.

Symbiote 9y ago
Maybe for the US, but in other western countries the fee is generally zero for individuals, or a few cents for businesses, and the time a few hours at most (often seconds).
- tom_mellior 9y ago
  In what western countries do you have wire transfers within hours? My experience in several EU countries is about two working days for transfers to be credited to the other person's account.
  - Symbiote 9y ago
    We must have different EU countries — though the EU is aiming for these systems to be available across the Eurozone by the end of the year (!) [1]. I know for certain it's very fast (around a minute, but the guaranteed time is <2 hours) for the UK, Denmark and Sweden. I think Norway and Finland have similar systems. The British system is called Faster Payments: http://www.fasterpayments.org.uk/about-us http://www.fasterpayments.org.uk/about-us — I doubt the others have easily accessible information in English. [1] https://www.nfcworld.com/2017/01/11/349411/european-central-bank-plans-instant-mobile-payments-end-2017/ https://www.nfcworld.com/2017/01/11/349411/european-central-...
    - tom_mellior 9y ago
      > We must have different EU countries Seems like it. France and Austria, in my case. If I pass a transfer in my French online banking system in the afternoon, my bank even tells me outright that it won't be processed until 8 o'clock the next morning (until which time I can undo it). It's then deducted from my account at that time, and the day after that the receiver sees the payment in their online banking as "you will be getting this money, but you don't have it yet, it's being processed". > EU is aiming for these systems to be available Well... it's "encouraging" providers to do it. Not holding my breath ;-)
    - tom_mellior 9y ago
      On reflection, we might be talking about different things here. Can you use this Faster Payments service to transfer money to any bank account, like to a friend? It reads like this might only be meant for instantaneous payments to merchants. Those services exist elsewhere as well, yes.
      - Symbiote 9y ago
        Faster Payments is certainly used for transfers between individuals, like between friends and family. That website was mostly for the banks, sending money between friends is listed on a bank's site [0]. There's a mobile phone-base service, called PayM [1], which uses Faster Payments. I don't think it's used much, but the systems in Sweden (Swish) and Denmark (Mobilepay) are pretty much the same and are used a lot, probably the majority of payments to friends, and at least 25% of payments to small businesses. [0] http://www.halifax.co.uk/onlinebankinghelp/fasterpayments.asp http://www.halifax.co.uk/onlinebankinghelp/fasterpayments.as... [1] http://www.paym.co.uk/ http://www.paym.co.uk/ or http://www.halifax.co.uk/aboutonline/things-you-can-do/pay-a-contact/ http://www.halifax.co.uk/aboutonline/things-you-can-do/pay-a...

Symbiote 9y ago

Maybe for the US, but in other western countries the fee is generally zero for individuals, or a few cents for businesses, and the time a few hours at most (often seconds).

tom_mellior 9y ago
In what western countries do you have wire transfers within hours? My experience in several EU countries is about two working days for transfers to be credited to the other person's account.
- Symbiote 9y ago
  We must have different EU countries — though the EU is aiming for these systems to be available across the Eurozone by the end of the year (!) [1]. I know for certain it's very fast (around a minute, but the guaranteed time is <2 hours) for the UK, Denmark and Sweden. I think Norway and Finland have similar systems. The British system is called Faster Payments: http://www.fasterpayments.org.uk/about-us http://www.fasterpayments.org.uk/about-us — I doubt the others have easily accessible information in English. [1] https://www.nfcworld.com/2017/01/11/349411/european-central-bank-plans-instant-mobile-payments-end-2017/ https://www.nfcworld.com/2017/01/11/349411/european-central-...
  - tom_mellior 9y ago
    > We must have different EU countries Seems like it. France and Austria, in my case. If I pass a transfer in my French online banking system in the afternoon, my bank even tells me outright that it won't be processed until 8 o'clock the next morning (until which time I can undo it). It's then deducted from my account at that time, and the day after that the receiver sees the payment in their online banking as "you will be getting this money, but you don't have it yet, it's being processed". > EU is aiming for these systems to be available Well... it's "encouraging" providers to do it. Not holding my breath ;-)
  - tom_mellior 9y ago
    On reflection, we might be talking about different things here. Can you use this Faster Payments service to transfer money to any bank account, like to a friend? It reads like this might only be meant for instantaneous payments to merchants. Those services exist elsewhere as well, yes.
    - Symbiote 9y ago
      Faster Payments is certainly used for transfers between individuals, like between friends and family. That website was mostly for the banks, sending money between friends is listed on a bank's site [0]. There's a mobile phone-base service, called PayM [1], which uses Faster Payments. I don't think it's used much, but the systems in Sweden (Swish) and Denmark (Mobilepay) are pretty much the same and are used a lot, probably the majority of payments to friends, and at least 25% of payments to small businesses. [0] http://www.halifax.co.uk/onlinebankinghelp/fasterpayments.asp http://www.halifax.co.uk/onlinebankinghelp/fasterpayments.as... [1] http://www.paym.co.uk/ http://www.paym.co.uk/ or http://www.halifax.co.uk/aboutonline/things-you-can-do/pay-a-contact/ http://www.halifax.co.uk/aboutonline/things-you-can-do/pay-a...