Live data from Hacker News

How Square moves Cash

jonbwhite.tumblr.com

1–10 of 44 posts

Re: How Square moves Cash

#3

Using the debit card system is not innovative and it's not "cash" either. But don't mind me, I just hate the credit card industry and wish it would roll over and die already.

Point taken, but given ACH as the alternative, I still think this is a step in the right direction.

Re: How Square moves Cash

#4
Very interesting. The big concern here is what exactly happens in case of fraud. With credit cards, this is less of a hassle for the consumer, since the issuer takes the hit. With debit, it's a pita to get your money back if it's stolen. I use my debit card only at the ATM for this reason.

Re: How Square moves Cash

#5
Are there any API's out there currently that allow you to issue a debit card refund like this?

After some googling I found this: http://www.fuzenetwork.com/contact-us/ linked to from here https://github.com/balanced/balanced-api/issues/32

I tried to use their contact form but was redirected to what looks like a version of their site that isn't supposed (or expected) to be public yet. From there I find a link to this page: http://info.fuzenetwork.com/developer-center-fuze-network and I was able to submit the form.

Edit: I received an email after signing up but it seemed a little half-baked. I would guess that they are still working on their product and aren't ready to launch just yet.

Re: How Square moves Cash

#6

Very interesting. The big concern here is what exactly happens in case of fraud. With credit cards, this is less of a hassle for the consumer, since the issuer takes the hit. With debit, it's a pita to get your money back if it's stolen. I use my debit card only at the ATM for this reason.

Yeah, it's unclear what Square's responsibility is in this situation, especially since they are indirectly performing transactions on your behalf.

Re: How Square moves Cash

#7

Using the debit card system is not innovative and it's not "cash" either. But don't mind me, I just hate the credit card industry and wish it would roll over and die already.

Point taken, but given ACH as the alternative, I still think this is a step in the right direction.

I think the right direction would be to have a system of inter-bank transfers that was instantaneous, and didn't suck. The banking system in, say, the UK isn't perfect by a long shot, but at least I can move money from one bank account to another (across banks) a) instantaneously, and b) for free.

The fact that the US insists on operating on such a terrible system where it takes five business days reflects really badly on the infrastructure in place.

So on the one hand, I really like Square Cash as a concept. On the other, I wish banks would actually stop sitting on their hands and make a transfer system that works. Of course, there's no incentive for banks to do that, because they can keep charging money for 'instant' wire transfers right now.

Re: How Square moves Cash

#9
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Point taken, but given ACH as the alternative, I still think this is a step in the right direction.

I think the right direction would be to have a system of inter-bank transfers that was instantaneous, and didn't suck. The banking system in, say, the UK isn't perfect by a long shot, but at least I can move money from one bank account to another (across banks) a) instantaneously, and b) for free. The fact that the US insists on operating on such a terrible system where it takes five business days reflects really bad…

Square is taking advantage of the existing terrible system to give users an experience that is a step in the right direction.

But I agree having instantaneous transfers instituted at the bank level would be real progress. Unfortunately congress can't even agree on the incremental changes it makes to the existing system, so I have little hope for sweeping reform.

Re: How Square moves Cash

#10
post #8

I'm not sure where you got this from. But Visa already supports P2P payments for its acquirers: https://developer.visa.com/vpp/ . Venmo uses it. Square probably does it as well. Mastercard has an equivalent.

Transactions via Square Cash show up as "transaction adjustments" in my bank account. It is possible that Square is using VPP and that is simply how Visa distributes the payments, but it seemed to be different to me.
Post reply on HN