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What Happens When You ACH a Dead Person?

moderntreasury.com

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Re: What Happens When You ACH a Dead Person?

#61

Post by Freak_NL »

itcrowd wrote: post #37
saarons wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CTO of Modern Treasury here. Banks are actually starting to setup a new payment system between themselves called Real-Time Payments (RTP) which has a lot of the same benefits as wire transfers. RTP is 24/7, instant, and (from our experience) much cheaper than wire transfers. It's starting to roll-out across more banks and currently ~50% of bank accounts can receive RTP transfers [1]. I just cashed out on Venmo the ot…

Thank you for the RTP information! Had not heard of it yet. The fees look very reasonable ($0.01-$0.045 depending on type of transaction) and they provide a level playing field (flat-fee, no discounts for volume) I also heard someone say at some point that Americans are very wary of having people transfer money to their bank account. Not sure what the rationale is (maybe taxes or afraid of criminal money?) but I was…

You can't transfer money between banks in US Dollars within the US for free?

We really are blessed with SEPA¹.

Still, a few cents sounds at least reasonable.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area

Re: What Happens When You ACH a Dead Person?

#62

Post by mattmcknight »

lettergram wrote: post #19
grecy wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moving from Australia to Canada/US felt like going back in time 20 years when it came to banking. Even ten years ago in Australia I could do more with my online banking than I can today in North America. Checks are for what now?

I use checks all the time actually. Every other form of payment online is “pull”, I only want to “push” my funds to external people.

I think the point here is that the various bills I have to pay don't give me their bank account number, but they ask for me to give them our account information so they can automatically subtract whatever amount. If they would give me their account numbers, I would gladly send them funds. Instead, I use my bank's online bill pay to generate a check for them.

Re: What Happens When You ACH a Dead Person?

#63

Post by mattmcknight »

itcrowd wrote: post #26
lettergram wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use checks all the time actually. Every other form of payment online is “pull”, I only want to “push” my funds to external people.

> Every other form of payment online is “pull" Sorry, but if I transfer funds to a friend from my banking app, how is that "pull"? If I send you money with PayPal, that's not "pull". If we settle our debt using e.g. TransferWise, that's not "pull"..? I don't get your point. There are plenty of "push" methods.

Can you pay your electric bill with those?

Re: What Happens When You ACH a Dead Person?

#64

Post by xfitm3 »

reaperducer wrote: post #51
grecy wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moving from Australia to Canada/US felt like going back in time 20 years when it came to banking. Even ten years ago in Australia I could do more with my online banking than I can today in North America. Checks are for what now?

Checks are for what now? For me this week: Paid for a city license, paid the cat sitter, paid for a small magazine subscription, made a charitable donation, and paid the rent. The cat sitter and the charity were check only. No other option. The magazine has a PayPal option, but I don't trust PayPal. The city license could have been done with a card online, but I'm not interested in setting up yet another account with…

I have not written a check in over 10 years. I do, however, use my bank's online bill pay system. When I was a renter I used this to pay. I don't have to touch any paper, or stamps.

Re: What Happens When You ACH a Dead Person?

#65

Post by danielmg »

ohyeshedid wrote: post #57
saarons wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CTO of Modern Treasury here. Banks are actually starting to setup a new payment system between themselves called Real-Time Payments (RTP) which has a lot of the same benefits as wire transfers. RTP is 24/7, instant, and (from our experience) much cheaper than wire transfers. It's starting to roll-out across more banks and currently ~50% of bank accounts can receive RTP transfers [1]. I just cashed out on Venmo the ot…

Does RTP bypass Fedwire?

Yes and no. Banks reconcile funds via Fedwire.

Re: What Happens When You ACH a Dead Person?

#66

Post by jacobush »

Freak_NL wrote: post #61
itcrowd wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the RTP information! Had not heard of it yet. The fees look very reasonable ($0.01-$0.045 depending on type of transaction) and they provide a level playing field (flat-fee, no discounts for volume) I also heard someone say at some point that Americans are very wary of having people transfer money to their bank account. Not sure what the rationale is (maybe taxes or afraid of criminal money?) but I was…

You can't transfer money between banks in US Dollars within the US for free? We really are blessed with SEPA¹. Still, a few cents sounds at least reasonable. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area

I had this random thought, I wonder if it holds water:

The EU states are (fairly) confident in their status as independent countries, and thus dare subject themselves to and implement such things as SEPA.

While the U.S. is a single country, the states within are not independent countries and, very aware of that, try to defend their independence within the union at every turn.

Re: What Happens When You ACH a Dead Person?

#67

Post by edubs25 »

itcrowd wrote: post #12

This reminds me of a question I've had for the longest time (+): why is it that in the US wiring money between accounts is so expensive or difficult? Whole ecosystems of companies have sprung up (PayPal and Stripe come to mind, and apps such as TransferWise) to reduce the friction when the banks could easily set up a way cheaper system that would actually be better (privacy etc.) for the consumer. The EU seems to be…

Snarky answer - there's no real motivation to change it and from an institutional perspective it's not broken.

- it costs a lot to fix or redesign a money system moving billions of dollars in volume per day

- change is risky

- any impacts on reliability would be unacceptable and have significant economic impact [both direct and indirect]

- stakeholders that fully understand the existing system and have the knowledge to redesign it are part of that system and benefit from it

- as an insider, it's hard not to make money within the system

- it's a closed ecosystem - access to the system is controlled by the established players (like Wells Fargo, BoA, Visa, Mastercard, etc.) and they will revoke access if you threaten their position.

- Insiders are making so much money at this game that end consumers have little leverage at this scale.

Paypal, stripe, venmo, zelle, square, name-your-favorite-fintech-start-up are all working within the existing system by exposing easy to use integrations and interfaces. They aren't really fixing anything, just wrapping it up, putting a bow on it and making a handful of basis points on your transactions.

The RTP system is a chance to fix it but I suspect it will take years for that to replace the existing systems. I've heard it discussed as an additional feature not a replacement.

[I know HN likes proof but any real numbers I can't disclosed due to NDAs. I'm basing my opinion on the margins I saw and heard referenced while working at a smaller financial institution]

Re: What Happens When You ACH a Dead Person?

#68

Post by mynameisvlad »

Freak_NL wrote: post #61
itcrowd wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the RTP information! Had not heard of it yet. The fees look very reasonable ($0.01-$0.045 depending on type of transaction) and they provide a level playing field (flat-fee, no discounts for volume) I also heard someone say at some point that Americans are very wary of having people transfer money to their bank account. Not sure what the rationale is (maybe taxes or afraid of criminal money?) but I was…

You can't transfer money between banks in US Dollars within the US for free? We really are blessed with SEPA¹. Still, a few cents sounds at least reasonable. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area

Most times, the financial institution will eat the ACH fee, so to the customer it looks like it's free.

SEPA also doesn't mean that the transactions are free, either. According to a third party transfer service (https://transferwise.com/help/15/paying-for-your-transfer/29...) there might still be some fees from banks.

Re: What Happens When You ACH a Dead Person?

#70

Post by iokanuon »

kolinko wrote: post #25
lettergram wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use checks all the time actually. Every other form of payment online is “pull”, I only want to “push” my funds to external people.

That’s what wire transfers are for in EU. Same day/instant, either free or with a flat fee of $0.25-0.5. In Poland if you’re going out with friends and someone paid for you bc you forgot a card, you just wire them money from your phone. For my whole adult life (36 yo) I only used and saw an actual check once. Wire transfers since I can remember.

Since a few years ago, you were also able to use the BLIK system to transfer money instantly for free between most banks, by only knowing the recipient's phone number. To be fair I can't imagine anything more convenient.
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