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Square Cash

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Re: Square Cash

#241

Post by giarc »

abalone wrote: post #185

The most stunning part of this is the "free" part. The Durbin amendment regulates the cost of debit transactions over the Visa/Mastercard network. It's $0.22 + 0.05%. Mossberg reports that Square is planning to monetize via "premium options" like international transfers. But still, $0.22+ is a lot to lose every time someone uses your mass-market service. Good thing they raised $341M of VC money. Who said the dot com…

I believe the original Square payment system processes billions of dollars in transactions every year at 2.0%. Perhaps this is more of a customer acquisition platform with premium features to come.

Re: Square Cash

#242

Post by crazygringo »

abalone wrote: post #200
netcan wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe, but maybe not. The dotcom did get some things right. The internet is a big deal. There are land grab markets. They got timing and lots of other details wrong. Maybe they will need to have a freemium offering long term to avoid too balance this if they start hitting millions of active users. It should be easy enough to get $5 pm from big users. They are playing for a big market(s) here. Very big. If bthey are p…

I didn't say dot com got anything wrong. I'm saying raising hundreds of millions of VC dollars and practically giving it away is a dot com era strategy. Remember when PayPal paid out a $20 referral bonus for each new customer? Yeah, those days.

Well, you're not saying that didn't work out for PayPal, are you? :)

Re: Square Cash

#243

Post by drschwabe »

onebaddude wrote: post #225
redthrowaway wrote: post #78

Do Interac email transfers not work in the US? They're pretty much the same thing: send money to an email recipient who then clicks a link to deposit it in their account. I'm surprised that this is big news, and that it seemingly doesn't exist down south.

I thought the same thing. Email money transfers? I've been doing them through my bank for years. It's incredibly simple. I guess this says something about the state of innovation and technology; there are gaps, even in the mainstream between neighboring countries whose cultures are nearly identical. By finding those technological gaps, you can impress a lot of people.

The big innovation here, it seems, is pricing. Square Cash transfers are free.

In Canada, the email/Interac bank transfers that are so prevalent here still cost $1.50 charge per transaction.

Re: Square Cash

#244

Post by arnoldwh »

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…

It looks like how it lets you claim your money without your bank account details is by processing a refund. Don't know how they did it, but it's very cool.

Re: Square Cash

#245

Post by prezjordan »

jrockway wrote: post #132
prezjordan wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gmail "Send Money" charges a fee of 2.9% for people who don't use Google Wallet.

Not true. We only charge the sender to send from a credit card. If you send from a bank account or from the funds that you've already received, it's free.

Thank you for clarifying! Looked further into it here [0] "Receiving money is free no matter what." However, the text "You can add other payment methods like credit and debit cards, and a 2.9% fee per transaction (minimum $0.30)" is still a bit unclear.

[0]: http://www.google.com/wallet/send-money/

Re: Square Cash

#246

Post by pa5tabear »

ketralnis wrote: post #47
Tomdarkness wrote: post #33

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…

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…

It's bad. One time I mistakenly reversed the source/destination when sending my roommate two months of rent money and I over drafted his account because it took the money without asking his permission.

Once the accounts are linked, either party can pull/push money without the other's approval.

Re: Square Cash

#247

Post by bydpark »

This looks pretty interesting, but, as everyone said, security sounds like it will be a huge issue. Will there be other methods of verifying a user for email, now that it can be linked to your bank account?

Re: Square Cash

#248

Post by ben174 »

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 agree that security could and should be a huge concern. With your credit card you're protected from fraudulent transactions. But this is not the case with ATM. If someone gets a hold of your ATM + PIN, you're just plain out of luck.

Not sure how that translates to this service, but if something is compromised, you might just end up with an empty bank account.

Re: Square Cash

#249

Post by kamjam »

pa5tabear wrote: post #246
ketralnis wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It's bad. One time I mistakenly reversed the source/destination when sending my roommate two months of rent money and I over drafted his account because it took the money without asking his permission. Once the accounts are linked, either party can pull/push money without the other's approval.

Seriously? That's insane!

Re: Square Cash

#250

Post by kamjam »

flavor8 wrote: post #212
djhworld wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UK banks do the same, they just charge their fees to people who go overdrawn instead. There's no such thing as "free banking" in the UK

As another person who has lived in both places, banking is a lot freer in the UK. Yes, UK banks charge overdraft fees - but so do US banks. Most US banks will charge you to send you replacement checkbooks; many will even charge you a monthly fee to maintain the account. There are notable exceptions, but they don't have mass market buy-in.

I moved to Canada (from UK) and similar situation. Monthly fees, X amount of transactions per month, fee to withdraw from other banks (although we had this in UK too for a few years), fee to pay someone else money whether in the same bank or not and even via the internet.

I tried to deposit a cheque into my landlords account and the bank teller would not accept it, had to be cash or bankers draft - I presume because they may have a limit on the number of transactions per month and anything over wold cost them additional money. I found it very bizarre.

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