41–50 of 295 posts
They're obviously taking a loss on this (due to credit card fees) if the recipient gets the full amount sent. So this must be a loss-leader that's building up to something else where they expect to make a ton of money. That "something" is most likely just "replacing cash and cards", but will be interesting to see how it plays out. It's a bold move regardless. EDIT: I meant debit card transaction fees, not credit card…
And composing an email to send someone money is secure how? What stops someone from spoofing my email address, CC'ing it to cash@square.com, and clearing me out? And if someone does get in to my email account I'm toast?
You’ll receive a reply from Square asking you to link a debit card." So you need to confirm it (and provide a debit account) I guess - but not sure how subsequent transactions are handled.
They're obviously taking a loss on this (due to credit card fees) if the recipient gets the full amount sent. So this must be a loss-leader that's building up to something else where they expect to make a ton of money. That "something" is most likely just "replacing cash and cards", but will be interesting to see how it plays out. It's a bold move regardless. EDIT: I meant debit card transaction fees, not credit card…
They're obviously taking a loss on this (due to credit card fees) if the recipient gets the full amount sent. So this must be a loss-leader that's building up to something else where they expect to make a ton of money. That "something" is most likely just "replacing cash and cards", but will be interesting to see how it plays out. It's a bold move regardless. EDIT: I meant debit card transaction fees, not credit card…
Debit cards only. I'm sure the fees are significantly lower for debit vs. credit cards.
Seems to work amazingly although I'm a bit concerned about the security. A friend sent me $1. I get an email from square, link to website where I entered my debit #, expiry and postal. It deposited directly to my debit card (I didnt even know you could do that). The deposit already arrived! "Checking Card Adjustment POS Pin (Credit) $1.00" So I sent him $1 back (to: my friend, cc: cash@square.com, subject: $1). And i…
This is one area where the US seems to be behind compared to the UK. I am from the UK and that service would look quite poor if it launched over here. We have a system called faster payments service that offers instant (although in some cases up to 2 hours) bank transfers for payments up to £100,000 (can differ between banks). You can use this directly if you share bank account numbers and sort codes but there are al…
There are also wrappers around this here like Chase's Quickpay or Ally's Popmoney but most require that both people use the same bank, or that you give your ACH details to a bank that isn't your own.
Paper cheques just have the routing/account numbers along the bottom, and AFAIK essentially work via ACH anyway, so they have all of the same downsides, plus taking longer to complete.
Also, the window for fraud with ACH is so great that when you tell one bank about another account's ACH details so that you can transfer money, they "authenticate" this by making small, sub-$1 deposit amounts, and asking you what the amounts were, to prove that you can see the target account. So this "linking" process takes the entire ACH transaction time as well the first time you do it. Some banks have taken to using a service called Yodlee which asks you for the target accounts' username and password. That's right, Wells Fargo asks for your username and password on Scottrade to authenticate the transfer because they don't trust the way ACH's liability lies. So this won't work to send $8 to your buddy anyway.
Moving money without a service like paypal/venmo/square/google wallet is really quite difficult, especially if you don't want to trust an organisation with a history of taking people's money (Paypal) or if you don't want to pay a transaction fee.
And composing an email to send someone money is secure how? What stops someone from spoofing my email address, CC'ing it to cash@square.com, and clearing me out? And if someone does get in to my email account I'm toast?
You’ll receive a reply from Square asking you to link a debit card." So you need to confirm it (and provide a debit account) I guess - but not sure how subsequent transactions are handled.
Seems to work amazingly although I'm a bit concerned about the security. A friend sent me $1. I get an email from square, link to website where I entered my debit #, expiry and postal. It deposited directly to my debit card (I didnt even know you could do that). The deposit already arrived! "Checking Card Adjustment POS Pin (Credit) $1.00" So I sent him $1 back (to: my friend, cc: cash@square.com, subject: $1). And i…
Note that it takes 1-2 days for the deposit. They must be using ACH to do this. The 'free' part is great. Even with Square, I'd be hesitant to enter my debit card number. Planet Money recently did a great episode all about the US's ACH system and why it works the way it does. http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/10/04/229224964/episode-...