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by epilogue 1537 days ago
As far as I understand bank transfers here are only instant if you are both with the same bank or you use PayID/Osko, which seems to have the caveat of your bank can set their own limit as to maximum transfer size (A quick google shows anywhere from 5k to 30k) and not all banks support this (HSBC don’t).

Of course you could ask the buyer to transfer the money and wait for it to clear before handing over the keys, but that just moves the uncomfortable and stressful situation to the other party (I wouldn’t want to transfer someone money and then have to wait a few days for it to clear before they handed me the keys) and doesn’t actually solve the underlying issue.
2 comments
Nursie 1537 days ago
Interesting. Looks like NPP was kicked off here a while ago, which seems to offer similar features to Faster Payments in the UK, though it looks like not all banks support it fully (including HSBC https://www.hsbc.com.au/ways-to-bank/online-banking/new-paym...)
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Gigachad 1537 days ago
Osko is instant but basically all banks will delay large transfers to new accounts. Some banks do this for amounts as low as $1000. Not for a technical reason. Just to give the owner enough time to notice the sms and email in case your account gets breached so you can call customer support to lock everything down.
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epilogue 1537 days ago
I’d like to see the option to setup something like a pre-authorised payment. Ideally the same as doing an EFT/Osko/NPP transfer, but the funds are held in a escrow like situation by the bank for a period of time the bank deems “safe”.

Giving the account owners enough time to contact the bank if the payment is unauthorised, but when the waiting period is up you can then choose to release the funds at a time that suits you (eg. for a car sale, when you hand over the keys) or you can choose to can the transaction returning the funds to your account.

Wishful thinking I know, given how much of a mess the instant payment system is at the moment. I had an account that supported PayID with Macquarie and tried to transfer money to another PayID account with Up bank and found that because one of the banks (Macquarie iirc) didn’t support whatever underlying payment system Up used (Osko possibly) I wasn’t able to use PayID and had to use regular EFT instead.

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