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Square Cash

square.com

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Re: Square Cash

#81

Post by downandout »

meritt wrote: post #40

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…

I just found a major limitation with this thing. It blocks payment from any prepaid Visa/Mastercard - even reloadable cards attached to virtual checking accounts that support ACH (payroll cards, Netspend, etc). That eliminates payments from a huge section of the population.

http://prntscr.com/1xm5le

Another issue: if you make a mistake on the initial email, and want to send a different amount, you're out of luck. When you send a corrected email from the same address and go to the payment page, it adds any previously unfinished transactions from your email to the amount being sent, with no way to cancel the mistaken one. So just never make a mistake, and never do a test transaction you don't intend to finish, or you'll be required to finish and pay for all of it when you finally do have the correct amount and want to send a transaction (which you can only send with a small subset of the debit cards in existence).

These payment companies are always introducing interesting new things and then they hobble them with basic oversights and fundamentally flawed policies. In the last hour I've gone from excitement to disappointment with this service. It had promise based on the description, but this particular service (probably not Square itself) will fail very quickly.

Re: Square Cash

#82

Post by seanharper »

seanharper wrote: post #72
MBCook wrote: post #13

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-...

They are not using ACH for this, but rather probably using the PIN-debit networks such as star, interlink, nyce and accel.

There is actually the capability to do an instant transfer over visa and mastercard networks as well, but it is somewhat expensive (>0.20) -- the pin debit networks are smaller and more willing to negotiate this sort of thing, and since most debit cards are able to process on more than one pin debit network you can get 100% coverage with just a couple of the pin debit networks playing ball.

That they are not allowing this for credit cards indicates that they are using the pin debit networks.

Re: Square Cash

#83

Post by foxylad »

MBCook wrote: post #75
usaphp wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even with Square, I'd be hesitant to enter my debit card number. Are you afraid of entering your debit card number? How do you make purchases online?

As lbarrow said, I use a credit card. It used to be that debit cards offered almost no protection. I think they're competitive with credit cards now, but that may only be when you're using it like a credit card. I don't know if this would count towards my fraud protection (which, honestly, I know nothing about). Really, it's because I use my credit card as a firewall account. If my credit card gets compromised (which…

As a non-USAsian, I'm always puzzled by the American's paranoia about their bank account details.

In most countries, bank account numbers are effectively public knowledge, and appear at the bottom of invoices and such. The trick is that with this knowledge you can pay money in to an account, but you can't get it out - for that you need authorisation. This makes paying via echeck or direct credit very easy.

Am I right that in the US you can get money out of an account if you know the account number? If not, why the secrecy about your bank account numbers?

Re: Square Cash

#84

Post by lachyg »

jey wrote: post #45
sandipc wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Debit cards only. I'm sure the fees are significantly lower for debit vs. credit cards.

Yeah, true. But isn't it still in the neighborhood of 2%?

0.05% + 22¢ for debit cards.

Re: Square Cash

#86

Post by bcx »

downandout wrote: post #81
meritt wrote: post #40

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…

I just found a major limitation with this thing. It blocks payment from any prepaid Visa/Mastercard - even reloadable cards attached to virtual checking accounts that support ACH (payroll cards, Netspend, etc). That eliminates payments from a huge section of the population. http://prntscr.com/1xm5le Another issue: if you make a mistake on the initial email, and want to send a different amount, you're out of luck. Whe…

Sounds like this is probably more of a security feature. Prepaid cards are harder to track, and would be more suspect to fraud.

Re: Square Cash

#87

Post by ateevchopra »

I really liked the idea. Its really good for all the parents who are not so tech savvy and can send money this easily. And its all free ? I don't understand why ? i mean I am not saying that it should be paid of something but being an entrepreneur myself I would love to know how you guys are making money on this.

Re: Square Cash

#88

Post by cypherpunks01 »

meritt wrote: post #40

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…

Email verification would be done with SPF and DKIM. I would sure hope that this is required!

Re: Square Cash

#89

Post by alanctgardner2 »

medell wrote: post #76
ytadesse wrote: post #73

The simplicity of this is amazing. That being said, I have a question: Here in Canada, I can send an email transfer of funds from my bank account to my contacts by simply logging into my bank online and specifying the email address of the recipient. Does this type of system exist in the US?

Agreed. Once this comes to Canada, it'll kill Interac Email Money transfers (of which my plan only allows two free per month, and is not nearly this simple).

I think OP meant the opposite. This is cool, but the incumbents in Canada have already done it, and it's more trustworthy (it happens on your bank's website) and 'good enough'. Even if the tech-savvy switch to Square, the average bank-user will prefer to use INTERAC. At best this could pressure banks into giving away more free INTERAC transfers with their paid accounts.

Re: Square Cash

#90

Post by delackner »

downandout wrote: post #81
meritt wrote: post #40

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…

I just found a major limitation with this thing. It blocks payment from any prepaid Visa/Mastercard - even reloadable cards attached to virtual checking accounts that support ACH (payroll cards, Netspend, etc). That eliminates payments from a huge section of the population. http://prntscr.com/1xm5le Another issue: if you make a mistake on the initial email, and want to send a different amount, you're out of luck. Whe…

It also doesn't work with pure ATM cards that lack a Visa/Mastercard logo. Maybe I am a bit over-paranoid, but I don't like the idea of staring at a zero bank balance while some fraud department promises to fix things up real quick now if I just stay on hold.
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