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    The Rise of Whatever

    (eev.ee)
    627 points cratermoon | 11 comments | 04 Jul 25 04:48 UTC | HN request time: 1.271s | source | bottom
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    dalemhurley ◴[04 Jul 25 07:29 UTC] No.44462040[source]▶
    > "live in some futuristic utopia like the EU where banks consider "send money to people" to be core functionality. But here in the good ol' U S of A, where material progress requires significant amounts of kicking and screaming, you had PayPal."

    I remember when PayPal came to Australia, I was so confused by it as I could just send money via internet banking. Then they tried to lobby the government to make our banking system worse so they could compete, much like Uber.

    replies(5): >>44462157 #>>44462175 #>>44462792 #>>44465481 #>>44484703 #
    1. zpeti ◴[04 Jul 25 07:45 UTC] No.44462157[source]▶
    I don't get this sentence. It's pretty damn hard sending money in the EU too. We only had SWIFT and CHAPS too like in the USA. The EU isn't some banking haven with ultrafast transfers. If they are talking about the new legislation about fast transfers (SEPA), that came 1 decade after paypal.
    replies(5): >>44462261 #>>44462339 #>>44462355 #>>44462755 #>>44465344 #
    2. dofubej ◴[04 Jul 25 08:01 UTC] No.44462261[source]▶
    We currently (as in the for the last months) have instant transfers but for the longest time we didn’t and had to use PayPal as well if we wanted to send somebody money instantly without paying the bank an extra for it. I’m confused as to what the article means. It’s possible the author is misinformed.
    replies(1): >>44462369 #
    3. elric ◴[04 Jul 25 08:14 UTC] No.44462339[source]▶
    What do you mean? Europe has had SEPA payments pretty much since the Euro came out. And most of Europe had functional bank transfers using online banking (including international ones) long before the Euro was a thing.

    Edit: Do you mean that the speed of the transfers was the problem?

    replies(2): >>44462374 #>>44462393 #
    4. quonn ◴[04 Jul 25 08:16 UTC] No.44462355[source]▶
    > pretty damn hard sending money in the EU too

    You literally enter an IBAN and the transfer will appear in the other account the next day. And if you need the money in the target account immediately (within 10 seconds) you can do it, too, by checking a checkbox for a small fee and that fee will drop to ZERO across the EU in October 2025.

    5. quonn ◴[04 Jul 25 08:18 UTC] No.44462369[source]▶
    Instant transfers have been available for many years. they were not free, but most banks supported doing them.
    replies(1): >>44464313 #
    6. qsort ◴[04 Jul 25 08:19 UTC] No.44462374[source]▶
    SPC Inst transfers up to 15,000EUR take 10 seconds, literally.
    replies(1): >>44462383 #
    7. elric ◴[04 Jul 25 08:20 UTC] No.44462383{3}[source]▶
    I'm aware, but I think zpeti was saying that this is a recent thing, whereas fast PP payments were already a thing ages ago.
    8. zpeti ◴[04 Jul 25 08:21 UTC] No.44462393[source]▶
    SEPA came 10 years after paypal.
    9. adastra22 ◴[04 Jul 25 09:16 UTC] No.44462755[source]▶
    The US doesn't have SWIFT btw.
    10. lotsofpulp ◴[04 Jul 25 13:20 UTC] No.44464313{3}[source]▶
    In the US, I have been sending money electronically for free, and instantly, to my friends and family for almost 15 years.

    Zelle, previously known as clearXchange, and whatever else, but if you had an account at one of the bigger bank, it has long been trivial to send money to each other.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelle

    > In April 2011, the clearXchange service was launched. It was originally owned and operated by Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo.[6][7] The service offered person-to-person (P2P), business-to-consumer (B2C), and government-to-consumer (G2C) payments.[8]

    11. Attrecomet ◴[04 Jul 25 15:25 UTC] No.44465344[source]▶
    Even before SEPA, we didn't use checks in the EU -- or at least in Germany -- because bank transfers were a thing and just worked.