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Here's a weird question. Why hasn't the U.S. Government made an electronic cash platform with zero transaction fees yet? This should be something that falls und

Here's a weird question. Why hasn't the U.S. Government made an electronic cash platform with zero transaction fees yet? This should be something that falls under the treasury, it would help cut down on fraud and provide a backbone for small businesses and large businesses alike. Being able to pay debts is basic infrastructure for an economy and transaction fees are a giant tax on small businesses and large businesses alike.

mortenjorck 8y ago
This is a great idea and is long overdue. However, lobbyists from Visa and MasterCard would saddle the program with all sorts of concessions to incumbent payment processors that would make the program cumbersome to use, stifle adoption, and ultimately reinforce their dominant positions.
jonahhorowitz 8y ago
There is at least a kernel of this idea in a national postal bank.[0] [0] http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2014/08/postal_banking_already_worked_in_the_usa_and_it_will_work_again.html http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2014...
- Kipters 8y ago
  In Italy the national post service (which also doubles as a bank) offers dirt cheap Visa Electron debit cards called Postepay (no recurring fee, 5€ una tantum for the card, 1€ fee everytime you deposit money into the card), and the minimum age for requesting one is 14. This fostered some competition from other banks which started to offer products with similar prices and even more features (like the ability to send or receive wire transfers). The national student card (which can be used to obtain discounts at museums and other cultural places) now also doubles up as a Postepay, so now basically every kid owns a free debit card that can use physically or online as he wants. Something like this can really speed up card's adoption while avoiding discrimination and in fact this is what I've seen since I was a kid and I had to borrow my dad's card: now all my little cousins own their own little yellow debit card in their name and even use it often in their daily life.
closeparen 8y ago
The Federal Reserve provides both ACH and FedWire.
- cannonedhamster 8y ago
  So it seems like the backbone exists and gets used heavily. The next step would be a way for person to person transfers of money and person to business, business to person, etc. It seems like business to business already does, the major piece left out is a consumer account. i.e. there's no card you can use to directly send money from your account to your kid at college. Everything still requires some company as an intermediary.

mortenjorck 8y ago

This is a great idea and is long overdue. However, lobbyists from Visa and MasterCard would saddle the program with all sorts of concessions to incumbent payment processors that would make the program cumbersome to use, stifle adoption, and ultimately reinforce their dominant positions.

jonahhorowitz 8y ago

There is at least a kernel of this idea in a national postal bank.[0] [0] http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2014/08/postal_banking_already_worked_in_the_usa_and_it_will_work_again.html http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2014...

Kipters 8y ago
In Italy the national post service (which also doubles as a bank) offers dirt cheap Visa Electron debit cards called Postepay (no recurring fee, 5€ una tantum for the card, 1€ fee everytime you deposit money into the card), and the minimum age for requesting one is 14. This fostered some competition from other banks which started to offer products with similar prices and even more features (like the ability to send or receive wire transfers). The national student card (which can be used to obtain discounts at museums and other cultural places) now also doubles up as a Postepay, so now basically every kid owns a free debit card that can use physically or online as he wants. Something like this can really speed up card's adoption while avoiding discrimination and in fact this is what I've seen since I was a kid and I had to borrow my dad's card: now all my little cousins own their own little yellow debit card in their name and even use it often in their daily life.

closeparen 8y ago

The Federal Reserve provides both ACH and FedWire.

cannonedhamster 8y ago
So it seems like the backbone exists and gets used heavily. The next step would be a way for person to person transfers of money and person to business, business to person, etc. It seems like business to business already does, the major piece left out is a consumer account. i.e. there's no card you can use to directly send money from your account to your kid at college. Everything still requires some company as an intermediary.