<story><title>Apple Cash</title><url>https://www.apple.com/apple-cash/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>x3ro</author><text>It is true that bank transfers are fast, instant most of the time these days. However, when people want to quickly send me money, they still usually ask for paypal, simply because it’s easier to tell someone a nickname or email address than my IBAN. not that this is an unsolvable issue, just sharing my experience from Germany.</text></item><item><author>basisword</author><text>I find it odd things like this, Venmo, Square cash even need to exist. There’s a reason none of them get used much (or even exist) outside the US. Just fix banking in the US and they problems they solve disappear. In the UK (and the EU I believe too) bank transfers and instant and free. Digital banks like Monzo make it even easier (through contact syncing, better UI). Third party apps need not get involved.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jlmb</author><text>In Estonia, you can link a phone number to your IBAN. When making payments, the sender just needs a phone number, and the corresponding IBAN is automatically looked up. (The lookup service is managed by the central bank, and used by all (major) banks.)</text></comment>
<story><title>Apple Cash</title><url>https://www.apple.com/apple-cash/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>x3ro</author><text>It is true that bank transfers are fast, instant most of the time these days. However, when people want to quickly send me money, they still usually ask for paypal, simply because it’s easier to tell someone a nickname or email address than my IBAN. not that this is an unsolvable issue, just sharing my experience from Germany.</text></item><item><author>basisword</author><text>I find it odd things like this, Venmo, Square cash even need to exist. There’s a reason none of them get used much (or even exist) outside the US. Just fix banking in the US and they problems they solve disappear. In the UK (and the EU I believe too) bank transfers and instant and free. Digital banks like Monzo make it even easier (through contact syncing, better UI). Third party apps need not get involved.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>basisword</author><text>Interesting. In the UK we just need to share account number and sort code. These are quite easy to remember in your head. IBAN would complicate things. Is IBAN always required or only for cross-border transfers?</text></comment>