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Facebook Introduces Payment System
An anonymous reader writes: Today Facebook announced a new feature for its Messenger services: the ability to send money to friends. The payment system will work by connecting debit cards from Visa or Mastercard — no credit cards, and no bank accounts. The company claims they aren't trying to make money on it, since it'd be such a small business compared to their ad revenue. "Once the $ button is tapped, users simply enter the dollar amount and hit Pay. The money is instantly taken from their debit account and delivered to the recipient's debit account. Facebook never holds the money, though the receiver's bank will usually take a few days to make the funds available as is standard. Both users see a confirmation message detailing the transfer status and time." Facebook says transaction information is encrypted, and users will protect their cards with a dedicated passcode (or fingerprint identification).
Also 2 day delay will instantly kill this feature.
I dont know if this is available in the USA.
However here in Canada, from any bank I can do an Interact e-mail transfer.
Recipient receives the e-mail in 20-30 mins, followings instructions and cash is transferred bank to bank instantly.
Cost is $1.50. which is less than ATMs charge to withdraw your cash.
I pay my rent this way (as there is an electronic log), and transfer money to the ex for child related things, again because of electronic log.
A friend of mine tried that idea with another service. When he got nailed while on vacation, instead of the bank saying, "sorry, no funds" and stopping transactions, the bank still allowed it and added a hefty NSF charge onto each transaction. Even more of a kicker was the fact that he was out on vacation and didn't realize the negative quad-digit balance until he got back... and by that time, he got stuck in Chex Systems's database, which means you are pretty much fscked credit-wise (or even trying to get a savings account) for seven years.