With this I can tie my debit card (which I guess is the same thing). So, I don't seen any real positive benefit over Venmo IMO. Can anyone else point anything out?
Square Cash
161–170 of 295 posts
Re: Square Cash
#162Seems 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…
Re: Square Cash
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm going to guess with credit cards. Credit card numbers are much safer to use online than debit cards, mostly because credit card dispute mechanisms give consumers a lot more power. If a merchant behaves in an unsavory way, with a credit card you can usually just call your bank, issue a chargeback and that's the end of it. You can't do that with a debit card.
This is wrong. You absolutely CAN dispute charges with debit cards. The problem OP might have with debit cards could be that a fraudulent charge temporarily locks cash funds (with debit card) instead of credit availability (with credit card).
There are wide differences in consumer protections between credit and debit cards.
The list of reasons for a valid chargeback on a debit card is much more narrow than a credit card. For example, suppose you purchase a tablet online and when you get the package, you sign for it, open it, and it's a paperweight. If you charged that on your debit card you're out of luck and will have to go to small claims court. On a credit card -- especially a good credit card -- the charge would be reversed. The issue there is that you signed for the package. If you don't believe that, give your bank's fraud dept a call, and then your credit card companies.
American Express obviously is great for consumer protections but truthfully any Visa Signature card offers a competent level of service.
Personally, I would never use a debit card online (or anywhere else for that matter) and would advise anybody against it. Not to mention, you can earn some fantastic cashback/mileage benefits. My wife and I are flying next spring to Europe, first class from San Francisco, over $20k in airfare, for only $2500 out of pocket for taxes and surcharges. To earn this we've spent $40k between 2 British Air cards in 15 months.
Re: Square Cash
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm no expert by any means but aren't the account number and routing number both printed on the bottom of every check? Are you saying that simply giving a check to someone compromises your checking account?
Yes, they are printed on the bottom of checks because they are the information that allows conversion of the check into money . Yes, giving a check to someone compromises your account. You're trusting the other person to do nothing other than withdraw the amount on the check, but you're giving them enough information to withdraw whatever you have in your account.
Re: Square Cash
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe that Amazon Payments is the only system that lets you pay someone with a credit card, although it's limited to $1,000/month (otherwise people abuse it, sending cash to each other to rack up points on their credit cards).
I thought that there were now ways for payment processors to flag that a transaction is not supposed to earn points? (eg. balance transfers, cash withdrawals etc...) Otherwise I could deposit $10,000 from my credit card into my on-line gambling wallet, then withdraw it, repeat...
But yes, you also will not earn points on balance transfer transactions. But they typically are processed via ach.
Re: Square Cash
#166E.g. if I have an debit card with my account at a Jamaican bank, can someone from the US email me cash and it arrives instantly or is this just a US service? Can't find any details about this on the site.
Re: Square Cash
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm pretty sure Google Wallet in Gmail lets you send money to someone not using Gmail. But you are correct. I guess it's a good solution if you don't want to deal with PayPal/etc. when you happen to use your own email setup or Outlook/Yahoo/etc.
It has nothing to do with being edge-cases like "if you're hosting your own email thing". Personally, I just like to limit how many of my eggs are in one basket, and I already have a lot of eggs in the Google basket. I like my bank's own built-in system for this right now between me and their other customers, and for everyone else I use venmo. It works great, and I have no real complaints about either system. But rea…
Re: Square Cash
#168This 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…
The US equivalent is ACH, which has the major downside that using only the bank ID (routing number) and account number you can effectively wipe out the target's account. It's up to your bank (or whatever ACH proxy) to keep you from doing that, not to the interchange, both legally and technically. ACH also takes several days to work, and has a wide window for either bank to declare the transfer fraudulent, so many ban…
In Australia, the equivalent is EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer). You can deposit money to anyone's account by telling the bank their BSB (Bank/State/Branch number) and their account number; however this is not sufficient information to withdraw money.
To withdraw money: 1. at a physical bank branch: a. you put your credit/debit card in a POS terminal and enter your pin/sign to authenticate. b. provide yous credit/debit card and photo ID to the teller. 2. at an ATM: credit/debit card + pin number. 3. online banking: either the credit/debit card number and a password and often a pin as well, or a separate number and password.
All of these use an independent authentication source to the bank account number.
Also the delays quotes here are insane: In Australia, there are essentially 2 ways to pay for something (excluding cash): 1. EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) 2. Credit card (possibly using a debit card) transaction.
On POS terminals, you can choose either; the differentiator being whether you want to use a savings account (EFT) which goes via your bank, or a credit (or savings account accessed via debit card) account, which goes via MasterCard/Visa.
All forms of EFT take 1-2 business days between banks, pretty much all the time; and they're universally free for the payer.
Credit/debit transactions seem to take 1 day universally.
We have a fairly stagnant banking system, with 4 major banks having basically the entire consumer market (and the vast majority of the nonconsumer market as well). Why, in a small, stagnant market like ours, do we fare much better than the US system?
[edit: I forgot to mention, checks are dead here, they're now almost only used for large transfers of money where: 1. you don't want to use EFT; 2. they're over the daily online maximum for EFT transfers, and you can't be bothered to go to a bank branch (although you can only get bank checks at a branch AFAIK); 3. You want an immediate guarantee that the ammount was paid and the date/time/payer/payee (as opposed to waiting 1 day for the payment to come through).]
Re: Square Cash
#169This 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…
Re: Square Cash
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe that Amazon Payments is the only system that lets you pay someone with a credit card, although it's limited to $1,000/month (otherwise people abuse it, sending cash to each other to rack up points on their credit cards).
I thought that there were now ways for payment processors to flag that a transaction is not supposed to earn points? (eg. balance transfers, cash withdrawals etc...) Otherwise I could deposit $10,000 from my credit card into my on-line gambling wallet, then withdraw it, repeat...