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Forget cash, why don't we have checks? A check is just a piece of paper authorizing a transfer of funds from a bank account to a person or entity named in the T
by jetrink 8y ago
Forget cash, why don't we have checks? A check is just a piece of paper authorizing a transfer of funds from a bank account to a person or entity named in the TO field. Why can't I go on my banking app and generate a cryptographically signed bit of text authorizing a transfer to someone by name? Why does Paypal have to sit in the middle of a transaction like that?
- badpun 8y agoCan’t you just do a bank-to-bank transfer online in the US? It’s how people pay for stuff online in Poland.
- jetrink 8y agoSome banks partner with services that allow you to send money to a phone number or email address, but the experience isn't great. For example, I once offered to reimburse a friend for travel expenses using such a service. He agreed, forgetting that he had previously interacted with that service using a now closed bank account, which the service still associated with his email address. My payment was routed to the phantom bank account and took 45 days to be returned.
- badpun 8y agoOMG that sounds bad. US banking industry must be a really complacent oligopoly to not care to introduce easy transfers, and thus give up billions to companies like PayPal (which has no reason for existence in Poland). In Poland, there’s an organization that handles all inter-bank transfers, and all banks use its API. To do a transfer as a customer, you only need to know other person’s bank account number (which is umique in the whole EU). The money is transferred within a couple of hours, or if you pay a little fee, it’s instantenous.
- ac29 8y agoThere's a reason services like Venmo are so popular in the US - they make what are effectively bank to bank transfers easy and free. The only issue is that they aren't quick (2-3 days), which isn't really an issue if you aren't living paycheck to paycheck.
- MarkSweep 8y agoIt is worse: in the US if you know someone's routing number and account number (which is written on every check), you can PULL money from their account. Practically speaking it's not completely trivial to exploit as most services that let you suck money out of account do some simple authorization first (they deposit some pennies into the account and ask you how many they deposited). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACH_Network https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACH_Network
- pcnix 8y agoThis is actually the case in India too, currently. I'm surprised to hear that it's non trivial in the US to do the same, it's quickly becoming a large part of how people pay here.
- frosted-flakes 8y agoI'm a bit shocked that there still isn't something like Interac E-Transfer in the US. Interac is the debit payment network in Canada, and all banks are part of it. E-transfers allow you to send money to anyone with a Canadian bank account with just their phone number or email address, but since this is effectively a national standard, it "just works", and it's free. The recipient gets the link within a second or two, and the money is deposited into their account immediately after they click it and sign into their online banking (or automatically if they've linked an email address with a specific account). Venmo, Square Cash, et al. do not exist here. Too bad there's not an internationally standard way of sending or requesting e-transfers.