Does ACH cost? I know in the UK we have faster payments, it usually shows up a few seconds later in the target account, and it's free. I've mostly stopped using paypal as a result.
ACH is not a service directly exposed to consumers. Instead it is the backend for a lot of other services. It backs direct deposit, paying with "electronic cheque", and most interbank-bank consumer transfers, broker-to-bank transfers, and even many service-to-consumer transfers. For example, when you withdraw money from paypal in the US, it would normally be via an ACH transfer to your bank account.
ACH transfers are not same day by default, and definitely not near-instant. However some of the consumer visible services offer immediate delivery, while still using normal "slow" ACH in the backend. Typically this is done via another network that verifies that the funds are available, and that the ACH transaction has been submitted. If both are verified, the receiving institution can be fairly confident they will get the money, and will make it available immediately.
For more immediate and irrevocable transfers, wire transfers are used. The Fedwire system for example, allows banks to directly transfer funds from their Federal Reserve deposits to each other. The sending bank ensures that the sender has the available money and debits it, while the receiver bank gets notice from the federal reserve that the transfer is complete and credits the receiver account. Obviously the banks can also use this system to directly settle any debt that they owe to the other bank, since federal reserve balances are legally equivalent to cash in the vault.
The US does not have any system quite like the UK's faster payments system. In the US there is basically an unwritten rule that no consumer should ever actually see the account number of a company or other consumer except when printed on a physical paper check.
So the closest we've gotten to the faster payments system is the Zelle payment network, which unlike Paypal or Venmo is a service offer directly by the bank, but abstracts away account numbers by using phone number or email addresses. Zelle does offer immediate settlement from the consumer's perspective. This system is far from universally implemented right now, and still only works for consumer to consumer payments.
For bank's billpay services, they end up using ACH if they have an agreement with the biller, or otherwise create and mail a physical paper check!
Basically the US payments systems are still stuck back in the 1990s.
Living in the US I miss the UK’s standing order system where you can instruct your bank to periodically transfer funds without risk of a cheque getting delayed or lost in the post (frequent occurrence with billpay.)
Used to take a few days until Faster Payments got implemented, free of charge and dates from 1968 best I can tell.
The Zelle systems don’t seem to allow periodic payments and the maximum amount is well below that needed to make a Bay Area rent payment.
Most landlords use cozy.co or some other rent payment management system that should handle the electronic payment with ACH on the backend so you don't need Zelle. If your landlord doesn't, ask them to. It's free for both of you.
ACH in bulk is in the pennies per transaction, and if you're big enough you're likely to hit a file fee rather than a per transaction fee. Not especially big companies can get it in the <10c range per transaction.
ACH transfers are not same day by default, and definitely not near-instant. However some of the consumer visible services offer immediate delivery, while still using normal "slow" ACH in the backend. Typically this is done via another network that verifies that the funds are available, and that the ACH transaction has been submitted. If both are verified, the receiving institution can be fairly confident they will get the money, and will make it available immediately.
For more immediate and irrevocable transfers, wire transfers are used. The Fedwire system for example, allows banks to directly transfer funds from their Federal Reserve deposits to each other. The sending bank ensures that the sender has the available money and debits it, while the receiver bank gets notice from the federal reserve that the transfer is complete and credits the receiver account. Obviously the banks can also use this system to directly settle any debt that they owe to the other bank, since federal reserve balances are legally equivalent to cash in the vault.
The US does not have any system quite like the UK's faster payments system. In the US there is basically an unwritten rule that no consumer should ever actually see the account number of a company or other consumer except when printed on a physical paper check.
So the closest we've gotten to the faster payments system is the Zelle payment network, which unlike Paypal or Venmo is a service offer directly by the bank, but abstracts away account numbers by using phone number or email addresses. Zelle does offer immediate settlement from the consumer's perspective. This system is far from universally implemented right now, and still only works for consumer to consumer payments.
For bank's billpay services, they end up using ACH if they have an agreement with the biller, or otherwise create and mail a physical paper check!
Basically the US payments systems are still stuck back in the 1990s.