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Bank transfers as a payment method

bam.kalzumeus.com

61–70 of 335 posts

Re: Bank transfers as a payment method

#61
post #29

Just yesterday, I deposited money from my bank account to Coinbase via SEPA. Refreshed the Coinbase page, and it was there, ready to buy digital currency with - so, the transaction was instant, or almost so. The transfer didn’t cost me anything, and neither did it Coinbase (it seems). Coinbase seems to be positive the transaction will settle, or else it wouldn’t let me use the money immediately, right? Reversibility…

SEPA goes both ways, as opposed to what the article says

It goes in the "direct debt" way as described, so your electricity or broadband supplier can charge you every month automatically

But you can also "push" a payment to someone else (or yourself, of course)

Not sure about fraud, from what I know, everyone that does a direct debt has an identifier that can be revoked in case of fraud. So it can happen, but there are ways to block fraudulent chargers.

Re: Bank transfers as a payment method

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it could work, it would have worked three decades ago. Bank transfers are just a pain in the ass. I still remember all the fees I paid just to transfer money to another bank/another country. Cryptocurrency was considered a way to simplify the problem, but probably didn’t work in this aspect

Zelle payment transfers are painless, instantaneous, and free. I can do it from my bank's app or online banking page. Punch in the person's phone number or email, enter the amount, done. They don't even have to accept the payment. And nobody has to describe what the transaction was for; it's highly private, beyond who the money came from / went to and the amount. The caveat is that the money transfer cannot be undone…

I’ve used Zelle for years to pay my rent and it’s a real pain because you’re limited to 2k a day. So I have to spread payments on multiple days (I live in SF).

I miss Monzo.

Re: Bank transfers as a payment method

#63
Bank-to-bank money transfers in South Africa is a mostly solved problem. (Electronic funds transfer/known as EFT locally)

- payments above coffee-shop prices often happen by EFT. - it arrives within 2 days, bank sends proof of payment instantly and sellers accept that as sufficient proof. - can opt to send instantaneously which reflects within seconds to minutes (for a small fee, like ~$1). - non reversible - need bank account number and bank name

That’s for push, for pull, debit orders exist, but they are luckily easily reversible. Unfortunately fraud on this is super high.

Always strange when in the US and the landlord asks me to pay by cheque. Something we havent seen in SA in ~15 years.

Re: Bank transfers as a payment method

#64

When discussing Europe, you can't leave out the rise of mobile payments that work similar to India's UPI. For instance, in Sweden, "Swish"[0] has quickly taken over the market for casual payments, with free, instant, irreversible bank transfers between individuals using only the recipients phone number (or a QR code). They are a bunch of these systems, but currently they are all fractured into national systems, altho…

MobilePay in Denmark: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MobilePay

Re: Bank transfers as a payment method

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it could work, it would have worked three decades ago. Bank transfers are just a pain in the ass. I still remember all the fees I paid just to transfer money to another bank/another country. Cryptocurrency was considered a way to simplify the problem, but probably didn’t work in this aspect

Zelle payment transfers are painless, instantaneous, and free. I can do it from my bank's app or online banking page. Punch in the person's phone number or email, enter the amount, done. They don't even have to accept the payment. And nobody has to describe what the transaction was for; it's highly private, beyond who the money came from / went to and the amount. The caveat is that the money transfer cannot be undone…

The biggest problem with Zelle is the low limits. I cannot send more than $2500/month. One time I paid a contractor about this amount, and then, well, I couldn't use it for a WHOLE month until the limit reset itself...

Very, very annoying. One of the many reasons I prefer crypto currencies. No one restricts me about what I can do with my money

Re: Bank transfers as a payment method

#66
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in the lucky situation that locally I can transfer instantaneously or nearly so across all of Europe and internationally I use bitcoin for recipients in places where banking fees are too high or the transfers too slow. It's a good combination.

Why not a stablecoin with lower fees?

Because I'm more than a bit skeptical about all of the groups jumping on the 'lets mint our own coin' bandwagon. The number of stories of scam coins is large enough that I'll take my chances with Bitcoin for the moment and see which ones of the others survive over the longer term. I'm also a bit allergic to being marketed to in the name of the class of product, 'stable' has certain associations that I don't think apply to any of the crypto coins.

Re: Bank transfers as a payment method

#67
post #4

This is all great if the currency between the buying and business is the same (ie, USD to USD), but still does not fix transactions between entities of different currency types. In my opinion, this is where cryptocurrency as a payment method for B2B, B2C will shine. No more dealing with foreign transaction fees and conversion fees. Plus the added benefit of not converting your money into an unstable currency (ie, Tur…

>This is all great if the currency between the buying and business is the same (ie, USD to USD), but still does not fix transactions between entities of different currency types.

When trying to send about $2000 from the US to Canada earlier this year, I found that the cheapest and fastest method was to do it via BTC (and within Coinbase, so free).

Re: Bank transfers as a payment method

#68
post #29

Just yesterday, I deposited money from my bank account to Coinbase via SEPA. Refreshed the Coinbase page, and it was there, ready to buy digital currency with - so, the transaction was instant, or almost so. The transfer didn’t cost me anything, and neither did it Coinbase (it seems). Coinbase seems to be positive the transaction will settle, or else it wouldn’t let me use the money immediately, right? Reversibility…

According to article there is a huge amount of SEPA fraud going around because seller receives you banking details. Unauthorized direct debit maybe?

The point is that SEPA direct debits are revokable. And by revokable, I mean they are revokable up to 13 months after a transaction. How easily it is depends on your bank : on some banks you need to send a paper letter, on one of my banks, you need to contact the customer service, on the other, reversing a SEPA debit can be done with a simple button on my web interface.

SEPA push, whose are, by definition, manual actions from yourself via the web interface of your bank are not reversible. But that’s probably not the most frictionless method so it’s rarely used other than people to people transactions, between your own bank accounts, or for really big purchases like buying a car.

Re: Bank transfers as a payment method

#69
post #29

Just yesterday, I deposited money from my bank account to Coinbase via SEPA. Refreshed the Coinbase page, and it was there, ready to buy digital currency with - so, the transaction was instant, or almost so. The transfer didn’t cost me anything, and neither did it Coinbase (it seems). Coinbase seems to be positive the transaction will settle, or else it wouldn’t let me use the money immediately, right? Reversibility…

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