

Banks offer cash transfers via cell number, e-mail address - MetricMike
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2011-05-25-banks-cash-transfer-cell-email_n.htm

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biot
Email transfers have been available in Canada since 2003:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interac_e-Transfer>

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orenmazor
yeah, I've been doing this for ages, and now the TD iphone app lets me do from
my phone. I have no use for square or any other P2P cashless transfer feature.

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praxxis
As someone who has just moved to the US from Australia, all I can say is:
about time. Back home I'm used to being able to transfer money to anyones bank
account with no fees, and with the funds arriving the next day. Coming to the
US has seen every check I cash "held" for days, and $25 fees for having the
gall to transfer money out of my account without using a check. Paying rent
takes at least a week, as the "online transfer" in internet banking is a check
sent by the bank! I understand now why PayPal was such a big deal when it came
out.

(Disclaimer: I bank with Bank of America, and am waiting with baited breath
for BankSimple)

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patio11
_The service is a direct threat to PayPal, which dominates the market for
online, electronic payments with nearly 100 million active users._

But all the money in Paypal is in facilitating C2B payments, not in C2C
payments. Granted, many of their businesses are tiny compared to the typical
credit card charging business, but it doesn't meaningfully compete with
anything except, perhaps, the low-end of eBay sellers. (And it won't be
allowed on eBay.)

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viggity
I thought you could pay however you wanted on ebay (including check or cash)
it was just up to you to work something out with the seller. From what I
understand, Dwolla not only does C2B but also does a ton of B2B transactions
per month.

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patio11
Nope, eBay definitely doesn't allow you to just work something out. Sellers
are not allowed to induce buyers to "Pay using online or other payment methods
not specifically permitted in this policy"

[http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/accepted-payments-
policy...](http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/accepted-payments-policy.html)

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mbesto
"Months behind?" Why has it taken the US so long to catch up with Europe on
transferring money via banks? Here in the UK I can pay any company and any
person via my bank details. Super easy to do and makes paying my friends back
painless and easy.

Very cool to see they've opened this to e-mail and txts now too.

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oasisbob
If ClearXchange really works without a separate account, it could be
compelling. Wonder about the implications of Metcalfe's law though.

There are a lot of "me too" money transfer services out there: PopMoney and
ZashPay are two more that come to mind.

After a quick evaluation of ZashPay, I wasn't impressed. No T-Mobile support,
US only, can't send to/from Oklahoma(!), restrictive EULA, terrible UX.

PayPal is still compelling for this type of payment, as P2P payments can be
made with no fees, as long as they're sent from a bank account.

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bpmilne
All in all it's a good move and the system to do it really is not all that
complicated. It will be interesting to see the user experience side of things
since this has already been available in FI's for years under different names.

Am I the only one thinking this might just be a white label of a solution they
were already all using?

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lukejduncan
I was trying to find the CDixon tweet that said something to the effect: "In a
year personal payments will be revolutionized."

Between BitCoin, Square, and everyone elses entry into the market its hard not
to agree.

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thinkcomp
It's nice to see the banks trying to catch up with PayPal 12 years later.

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viggity
I'm interested to see what their fees are going to be. PayPal is ridiculously
expensive (2-3%). Dwolla is a flat 25 cents per transaction (regardless of
size).

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joezydeco
I'm interested to see if they will clear the funds instantly or sit on them
for 2 business days like they currently do.

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known
The crux is in transferring beyond borders.

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viggity
Dwolla has been doing something similar for a year now. I wonder how all this
shake out.

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samgranger
DOn't ask me why but I can see this going horribly wrong!

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owenmarshall
Why? All this allows you to do is to initiate a transfer to someone using
their phone or email, rather than making you know their routing number &
checking number.

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marshray
Yeah, that's the problem.

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owenmarshall
__How __?

Presumably, I can't call the bank and tell them to transfer _from_ someone's
account using their phone/email address.

Do you have a problem giving your Paypal address out? I don't: I give mine out
and people can use it to transfer money in. How is this any different at all?

~~~
marshray
_Anything_ that makes it easier, faster, or more convenient to transfer money
is going to increase fraud. This is not hyperbole, it's simply a matter of
degree.

The credit card networks make up for this by charging a sizeable fee on every
transaction _and_ passing the cost of reported fraudulent transactions back to
the merchants, who presumably feel the convenience is worth the cost.

In this scheme though it's not clear who is going to bear the cost. Paypal had
Ebay to basically force people to use it for their transactions.

Who is going to pay the fraud costs in these transactions? Do federal laws
that limit liability for other card network transactions apply to email
payments by bank? Are personal and business accounts treated the same way?

 _Do you have a problem giving your Paypal address out?_

Yes I don't use PayPal, although its as much because I have heard of so many
people not actually getting paid the money they were sent.

But this isn't really about you and me, we know how email and phishing scams
work so we are not the biggest ones at risk.

 _How is this any different at all?_

For one thing, Paypal currently does face huge costs due to fraud, so even if
it's the same, it represents more of it.

There is now (and there almost always has been) so much fraud in banking it's
treated as an expected statistical loss. Something like 0.5% of transactions
is one statistic I've heard. Banking has been pushed online, and currently the
highest-risk website transaction of all is setting up a new biller, address,
account number, etc. in the online bill-pay. There's malware that will script
this process for you.

So now the transaction destination is just an email address... hmm, what could
possibly go wrong? :-)

