3 ms·

Not sure how PayPal could be faster - money is transferred instantly to my bank account after receiving it through PayPal. Is that a UK only thing?

DrJokepu 12y ago
The kind of near-instant, cheap money transfer provided by the Faster Payments Service system in the UK is actually fairly uncommon elsewhere in the world. If PayPal still used BACS it would take 3 working days even in the UK for PayPal payments to clear on your bank account.
- lucaspiller 12y ago
  Just to clarify for anyone who isn't familiar: With Faster Payments you can make a transfer between any two accounts of different banks and it will arrive within 4 hours. It's usually free too and works 24/7.
gambiting 12y ago
Yes. In Poland it takes 3-4 days for the funds to actually arrive in my bank account when sent from paypal.
tibbon 12y ago
Yea, in the US its a vague 3-5 days.
- TomGullen 12y ago
  I don't understand why it has to be anything longer than 5 seconds, is there any reasonable explanation for this?
  - sentenza 12y ago
    It might not be reasonable, but there is an explanation. It's been a while since I heared the podcast but Planet Money explained something along the lines that all the American banks are invested in an old, inefficient system of processing these transfers and there is no incentive to change. Here's the episode: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/10/04/229224964/episode-489-the-invisible-plumbing-of-our-economy http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/10/04/229224964/episode-... In Europe, the EU recently established the rule that all money transfers within the entire EU must be concluded within one business day. Thus most Europeans are surprised when they hear that it takes so much longer in the US. EDIT: Another commenter pointed out that the EU directive is actually still somewhere within the legislative process. My misconception arose from the fact that I can't remember the last bank transfer that took longer than one business day.
- notastartup 12y ago
  Same in Canada, usually 4~5 days.

DrJokepu 12y ago

The kind of near-instant, cheap money transfer provided by the Faster Payments Service system in the UK is actually fairly uncommon elsewhere in the world. If PayPal still used BACS it would take 3 working days even in the UK for PayPal payments to clear on your bank account.

lucaspiller 12y ago
Just to clarify for anyone who isn't familiar: With Faster Payments you can make a transfer between any two accounts of different banks and it will arrive within 4 hours. It's usually free too and works 24/7.

gambiting 12y ago

Yes. In Poland it takes 3-4 days for the funds to actually arrive in my bank account when sent from paypal.

tibbon 12y ago

Yea, in the US its a vague 3-5 days.

TomGullen 12y ago
I don't understand why it has to be anything longer than 5 seconds, is there any reasonable explanation for this?
- sentenza 12y ago
  It might not be reasonable, but there is an explanation. It's been a while since I heared the podcast but Planet Money explained something along the lines that all the American banks are invested in an old, inefficient system of processing these transfers and there is no incentive to change. Here's the episode: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/10/04/229224964/episode-489-the-invisible-plumbing-of-our-economy http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/10/04/229224964/episode-... In Europe, the EU recently established the rule that all money transfers within the entire EU must be concluded within one business day. Thus most Europeans are surprised when they hear that it takes so much longer in the US. EDIT: Another commenter pointed out that the EU directive is actually still somewhere within the legislative process. My misconception arose from the fact that I can't remember the last bank transfer that took longer than one business day.
notastartup 12y ago
Same in Canada, usually 4~5 days.