A feeless payment, bank-bank, without having to know your account number

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6987841

by tomasien • 13 years ago

6 9 13 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I've been working on a system to make and take payments directly bank to bank with no fees and without having to know your bank number for a while, and we've finally got it pretty darn fast.

This isn't quite a launch announcement, hence the time of day and nature of this post, but if anyone wants to be really helpful, check out this quick video of me making a live payment I made and let me know what you think! I would and always do appreciate it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR5UTLxe5zA&feature=youtu.be

tomasien5• 13 years ago

Clickable

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR5UTLxe5zA&feature=youtu.be

shawnk• 13 years ago

I think it's pretty cool, How will you guys monetize? and are there any other use cases for it?

tomasien5• 13 years ago

Hey thanks! Subscription - so instead of paying a fee on a payment, you pay a small subscription based on how many payments you take a month. We're designing to take care of lots of edge cases (to allow more micro-transactions than CC's can realistically permit) and ensure it's always an 85-99% reduction on what fees would have cost you.

ricardobeat• 13 years ago

How does it work? I'd guess you're logging into the user's bank on his behalf and initiating a transfer? What are the security and legal implications? Am I expected to trust a 3rd party to have complete unrestricted access to my bank account?

tomasien5• 13 years ago

We act like and have the same compliance standards as a bank - so we don't have "unrestricted access" to your bank account anymore than someone you give a check to does. Yes, that person now has your bank account and routing number (because it's printed on the bottom of every check you've ever given anyone), but they only can legally do what you authorized them to do: cash that check for that amount. We're the same way.

The only additional thing you give us is temporary access to some other information in case you want to transfer it (name, address, etc) - but we don't store it. We also have access to your payment history temporarily to ensure that you're likely to

1. Be who you say you are (fraud protection) 2. Have the money to make the payment.

But both of those things are just temporary - we don't and can't store it and we don't and can't use it for anything other than explicitly what it's for.

Side note: government gets a lot of hate in the Tech community, but this is a place where regulation is fantastic. Since we have to be Regulation E compliant, even if someone (investors, partners, etc.) wanted us to use this access for bad purposes, we can't! You're protected and therefore we're protected. As the founders of this company, we wouldn't WANT to nor would we ever do anything with your information, but it's fantastic not to be under any pressure to do so.

tomasien5• 13 years ago

"Temporary" means "while you're making the payment". Once that's done, it's gone. It's never stored outside of the memory, so we couldn't keep it longer if we wanted to.

tyrelb• 13 years ago

We have this thing up in Canada called Interac Online - you may find it of some use/inspiration as you build out yours...I believe the tx fees are flat rate vs %age...

http://www.interac.ca/index.php/en/interac-online/interac-on...

tomasien5• 13 years ago

Thanks! Checking it out.

mrbillpay• 13 years ago

Standardized payment tickets that can be used to pay rent, utility bills, personal payments, etc. have been in use in Brazil since the 1980's.

In the system they have over there any person can print out a sort of invoice that can be paid in cash at the teller window at any bank or at an ATM or your own bank's website. It's useful since people often don't have bank accounts but need to pay bills. All the banks are on this network and any bill issued by any bank can be paid at the teller window for any other bank.

Look up "brazil boleto bancario" if you want to research how it's done. The system isn't perfect, but it's quite serviceable and commerce in that country would grind to a halt if it stopped working. Nobody uses checks to pay for things like credit card bills, utility bills, rent, etc.

A feeless payment, bank-bank, without having to know your account number

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