4 ms·

I found this glorification of PayPal a bit befuddling. I use their service myself often, but chiefly because the banking system in the USA is so hideously back

I found this glorification of PayPal a bit befuddling. I use their service myself often, but chiefly because the banking system in the USA is so hideously backwards (more so ten years ago). In Germany for example, if a private party would want to pay some other private or commercial party, they would use a bank-to-bank transfer, which completes in less than 24h. This system was used even before the WWW. I payed the office of a "Mitfahrergemeinschaft" (office of a ride sharing organisation) via phone in the early nineties (that's when I learned that nobody looks at the signature of the bank-transfer requests sent via snail mail unless there is a complaint). So I'm not quite convinced that PayPal was all that innovative, but they did fill a void here.

inglor_cz 6y ago
Bank transfers are cheap, but as far as hideously backward goes... a. Until recently, they took about a day to arrive, or over a weekend. Money sent on Friday would be on the target account by Monday. You can build an economy around that, but every online service that gives you instant processing will be in advantage. There is a lot of scenarios where quick processing of a payment is desirable. b. Transactions abroad were ridiculously expensive and to some degree still are. I remember sending a payment to Lithuania from Czechia by bank transfer. The original quoted sum was about 30 dollars (in then-Lithuanian currency, Litas), and the fees added up to another 20 dollars. This problem was probably less common in Germany, a big market where you will find domestic providers of about anything, but people in smaller countries were getting ripped off at every foreign transaction. SEPA payment system is helping with that, but the fees have only gone down relatively recently, too. At least where I live.

4 ms·

I found this glorification of PayPal a bit befuddling. I use their service myself often, but chiefly because the banking system in the USA is so hideously back

by guenthert 6y ago

inglor_cz 6y ago
Bank transfers are cheap, but as far as hideously backward goes... a. Until recently, they took about a day to arrive, or over a weekend. Money sent on Friday would be on the target account by Monday. You can build an economy around that, but every online service that gives you instant processing will be in advantage. There is a lot of scenarios where quick processing of a payment is desirable. b. Transactions abroad were ridiculously expensive and to some degree still are. I remember sending a payment to Lithuania from Czechia by bank transfer. The original quoted sum was about 30 dollars (in then-Lithuanian currency, Litas), and the fees added up to another 20 dollars. This problem was probably less common in Germany, a big market where you will find domestic providers of about anything, but people in smaller countries were getting ripped off at every foreign transaction. SEPA payment system is helping with that, but the fees have only gone down relatively recently, too. At least where I live.