[blisseyGo]

I think US (and other western countries like Canada, European countries etc) are VERY different from the Indian market. In US, Canada etc, everyone has an email and banks allow interactive payments already. I have yet to have a single time where I had problems paying someone for something. Interac etransfer works well. Even iMessage, FB messenger etc allow payments. Other services like PayPal, Stripe, Patreon cover the rest of the base.

India is a completely different market. There are millions of people there who don't even have a bank account, nor do they have email. The road-side vendors use cash.

[filleduchaos]

The other thing that amazes me is how quickly people will jump to defend the US' hodge-podge of third-party walled garden options. I've been able to send near-instant account-to-account transfers for a decade, for a stamp charge capped at the equivalent of about thirteen cents, via a first-party platform that every bank or bank-like institution is required to be part of. So yeah, "options" like "join Facebook" or "wait a couple business days for your transaction to be complete" or "pay (comparatively) exorbitant fees" will always sound inherently ridiculous to me.

To my knowledge the situation in the US is getting better with the rise of Zelle, but that's still a half-assed solution - not all institutions participate, and customers have to opt in to it. Quite a few (older) people I've talked to don't even know it exists.

> India is a completely different market.

Ironically you are quite close to getting the point here, which is that India (and many other developing nations) are able to build and push the cutting edge of national fintech precisely because they don't have decades if not centuries of cruft and technical debt weighing them down. They can skip the inefficient stages of development that developed nations went through and go straight to creating banking systems for the 21st century.

[tjohns]

FWIW, the few times someone tried to send me money via Zelle, it’s been a mess.

Wherever email they sent was caught in GMail’s filters, so I never saw it. And you have to click a link to accept the payment, even from an established contact who’s sent funds previously. And after a bit the funds get returned. Too easy to lose money.

Instead, I just ask friends to use Square Cash. Auto-deposits into my bank account so there’s nothing to worry about.

Also, higher value payments are still easiest via check - since the online payment services will threaten to suspend your account if they think you’re running a business. Splitting rent amongst roommates was enough to get one of my accounts flagged as a business.

[lotsofpulp]

I've been using Zelle for 5+ years and I've never had to click any email. Other than initially logging into your bank account and setting up which email/phone number you want to use, I haven't had to do anything.

All I do is tell people to send money to my phone/email, and it shows up pretty quickly.

[stjohnswarts]

distributed pay mechanisms are a good thing in my mind. I don't know why everyone thinks it's a great idea to have corporations, the government, and banks knowing everything about your buying habits and consumer persona.

[ClumsyPilot]

Having a patchwork of 20 payment acvounts is a mess and a security risk. Besides i trust my bank much more than i trust google / facebook / etc.

If i really want to spread my payments for privacy, i can open 10 banks accounts in 10 different banks.

[hiyer]

UPI doesn't work without a bank account. Additionally, its launch was preceded by the Jan Dhan Yojana [0] which pushed hundreds of millions of the poor to open bank accounts. Today most street vendors in India - including even pushcart vendors - will accept payment via UPI. It has become even more popular in the past couple of months because of Covid-19 and hygiene concerns with handling cash.

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pradhan_Mantri_Jan_Dhan_Yojana

Edit: added link

[stjohnswarts]

I think other countries (particularly Europeans) like to think we're primitive and still paying with pieces of 8 and bartering with furs and hides.