[raverbashing]

Brazilians can already do inter-bank money transfers using their bank accounts apps cheaply.

Pix is an improvement over those systems (shorter processing times - as in seconds instead of minutes) and checks are almost nonexistent.

[danilocesar]

I wouldn't say cheaply... Unless you have a digital-only account or has a high-class account (like VanGogh,Personalitté, etc) it's cost almost 9 BRL for a inter-bank transfer.

[raverbashing]

9 BRL is what? 2 USD?

Compare with https://answers.usbank.com/answers/s/article/How-much-does-a... (spoiler alert: 10x more - for both senders and receivers)

Whatsapp transfers would be ~ 5% of the cost which would make it more expensive for anything over 200BRL

Meanwhile inside the SEPA Area (EU), National and International payments have the same cost (which is usually 0)

[centimeter]

In the US I pay $0 for transfers under like $2500 using various free services like Venmo or Cash App.

[raverbashing]

Good to know

Do business accept Venmo (I know some do, though it seems Venmo is backed by a pre-paid card)? Can you pay your rent with it, for example? Tuition? Buy a car with it?

The payment methods I mentioned don't require people to install an app or enter an agreement, you have a bank account they're available to you. Sure, there's some typing of numbers (but that's pretty much a copy-paste today). Not to mention the privacy issues with Venmo.

[jdminhbg]

Things like rent, tuition, and car payments are done in the US with ACH. Takes a day to clear (which is fine for scheduled things like that) but free.

[novok]

You entered an agreement when you got a bank account in the first place...

These payment apps tend to work like another bank account in practice.

People use P2P apps when they want to casually send money to people they know. For merchants they get the square app and process credit cards directly. Venmo & friends tend not to be good for actual business for large transactions due to how bad chargebacks can be on it, so for large transactions you can use ACH which tends to be $0.25 for pretty much any money value, or free in many cases.