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Balanced Will Release an API to Push Money to Debit Cards

blog.balancedpayments.com

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Re: Balanced Will Release an API to Push Money to Debit Cards

#21

Post by steveklabnik »

lettergram wrote: post #15
steveklabnik wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wire transfers are expensive here, $15~$30. You can also withdraw money if you have the bank account information. A famous example is Don Knuth, who had to stop offering rewards checks: http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/news08.html

I know it isn't bad if you know the person is at the same bank, for example most of my friends bank at Chase so we can transfer money via wire for free.

Right, I personally use Chase's "QuickPay" feature a lot. I would imagine that most people don't think of that as a 'wire transfer' though.

Re: Balanced Will Release an API to Push Money to Debit Cards

#22

Post by [deleted] »

steveklabnik wrote: post #20
cinquemb wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking I could use this some how to create a process where two users can initiate and complete a trade between themselves.

Gotcha. Thanks, I thought you meant sending BTC to cards somehow. Cryptocurrency exchange is currently against our terms, "Prohibited Transactions" -> "(18) currency exchanges or dealers" and "(49) virtual currency or credits that can be monetized, re-sold or converted to physical or digital goods or services or otherwise exit the virtual world," in https://www.balancedpayments.com/terms/selleragreement . This is due…

[deleted]

Re: Balanced Will Release an API to Push Money to Debit Cards

#23

Post by ryanhuff »

pavlov wrote: post #9

From a European perspective, it seems utterly strange that Americans don't simply use wire transfers for something like this. If someone wants to send me money, I just give them my bank account number (IBAN). Transfers are free within EU and the handful of outsider European countries. Why are Americans afraid of giving out their bank account numbers? The only thing you can do with an IBAN is send money to it, and tha…

Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfers are usually much cheaper than wire transfers (often free at credit unions).

http://www.mybanktracker.com/news/2013/03/20/ways-send-money...

Re: Balanced Will Release an API to Push Money to Debit Cards

#24

Post by wmf »

pavlov wrote: post #17
steveklabnik wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wire transfers are expensive here, $15~$30. You can also withdraw money if you have the bank account information. A famous example is Don Knuth, who had to stop offering rewards checks: http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/news08.html

Wow. At that cost, I assume American banks must be using a combination of telegraphs and the Pony Express to settle their wire transfers. "You see, sending money across state lines is not easy. There needs to be insurance in case wild natives attack and steal the leather bag containing those money orders... It's only fair that we pass that cost on to the customer."

You're joking, but when I did a wire transfer it failed the first time and I had to call my bank and give them extra information over the phone, including the street address of the branch where the destination account lives. Considering how much labor went into it, I understand why they charged me $30.

Re: Balanced Will Release an API to Push Money to Debit Cards

#25

Post by dylanbathurst »

rmanisha wrote: post #8
dylanbathurst wrote: post #5

This will be really cool. We use Balanced for our payments system, and have talked with a lot of our users about pay-outs. The top two problems with getting customers to cash out are the security of giving away their bank account info, and the time it takes to get your check book and input the account and routing info. I'm curious about how this works though. I think Square Cash is doing something similar right? I've…

Balanced employee here. >The top two problems with getting customers to cash out are the security of giving away their bank account info, and the time it takes to get your check book and input the account and routing info. Another benefit is that the debit card information is validated in real time, rather than waiting 4 business days for ACH credit to fail. This is the main reason that customers have asked us to add…

"ATM rails?" Can you explain that a little more?

Re: Balanced Will Release an API to Push Money to Debit Cards

#26

Post by dylanbathurst »

pavlov wrote: post #9

From a European perspective, it seems utterly strange that Americans don't simply use wire transfers for something like this. If someone wants to send me money, I just give them my bank account number (IBAN). Transfers are free within EU and the handful of outsider European countries. Why are Americans afraid of giving out their bank account numbers? The only thing you can do with an IBAN is send money to it, and tha…

Like everyone else on this thread said, wire transfers cost money here in the US. I think what the EU considers a wire transfer is different than what we do here in the US. Wire transfers here require a bunch of information and are painful.

We do have something closer to what you're talking about though. Most large US banks offer the ability to transfer money to other members of the same bank with simply an account number. Such as Bank of America to Bank of America, or Wells Fargo to Wells Fargo. There are fees associated with going Wells Fargo to Bank of America though which is a turn-off.

The other problem with these kinds of transfers is that there is no API for integrating that technology into a 3rd party service. I would have to go onto Wells Fargo's site to transfer money to another Wells Fargo customer. If those banks had any sense at all they would innovate and release APIs to enable that kind of transaction.

Re: Balanced Will Release an API to Push Money to Debit Cards

#27

Post by tpurves »

Such an API already exists, you can get it directly from Visa: https://developer.visa.com/vpp/

Note that, pushing money to anybody as a service also involves a lot of regulatory compliance issues in almost any country you would want to be able to do this in. In the US for example, facilitating money laundering, terrorist financing or transfers to a named person (even accidentally facilitating if you don't have enough controls in place) is a felony and you can go to jail. So make sure you are a licensed money transfer operator before attempting.

Re: Balanced Will Release an API to Push Money to Debit Cards

#28

Post by rmanisha »

dylanbathurst wrote: post #25
rmanisha wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Balanced employee here. >The top two problems with getting customers to cash out are the security of giving away their bank account info, and the time it takes to get your check book and input the account and routing info. Another benefit is that the debit card information is validated in real time, rather than waiting 4 business days for ACH credit to fail. This is the main reason that customers have asked us to add…

"ATM rails?" Can you explain that a little more?

Sure, the transactions would travel along the same rails used when you walk up to an ATM and withdraw funds. When you input your debit card, the information is validated immediately, your balance is then depleted by the amount withdrawn. The push to debit card functionality will move funds along this network instead of the cumbersome ACH network, which take days to process requests and validate bank account information.

Re: Balanced Will Release an API to Push Money to Debit Cards

#30

Post by steveklabnik »

tpurves wrote: post #27

Such an API already exists, you can get it directly from Visa: https://developer.visa.com/vpp/ Note that, pushing money to anybody as a service also involves a lot of regulatory compliance issues in almost any country you would want to be able to do this in. In the US for example, facilitating money laundering, terrorist financing or transfers to a named person (even accidentally facilitating if you don't have enough…

As you noted, that would only work with Visa, ours works with all debit cards.

And we have really strict regulatory compliance, a laywer was something like our 5th hire. We do a lot with KYC and such, so those details are all handled for you, by us. All merchants on Balanced marketplaces get underwritten individually.

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