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Comment by lj3 | Hacker News Reader

What's the alternative?

If it helps, Circle is now usable for UK people. I think it's one of the few that makes UK<>US payments easy.

Square Cash is not available in the UK for example. The US has a much larger choice. Unsure about other countries, sorry.

Another vote for circle, too bad they stopped taking bitcoin

Square Cash is absolutely fantastic, and extraordinarily easy to use. The mobile app is great. You can even send money to someone who doesn't even have a Square Cash account yet, by simply emailing them, cc'ing cash@square.com, and putting the dollar amount in the Subject: line. That's it.

You can't beat it.

They shut down the email address unless you were grandfathered into it :(

That sounds extremely easy to spoof. Was there more to it to confirm than that?

Square is just as bad as PayPal, IME. Lots of arbitrary rules, clients unable to pay me, funds withheld for no good reason, etc. I'll stick with bank transfers (ACH) or Bitcoin, personally.

Cash, check, wire, etc.. you know how we've been banking for hundreds of years.

For international transfers, I use Transferwise.

You and me both.

Venmo, Square Cash, etc.

Xoom is PayPal now.

Venmo is Paypal as well

If you want total control of your funds - Bitcoin. No TOS, no age check, no account freezing, no corporation behind it.

Yes, and random loss in value which is just as bad as theft

Very limited exposure if you're converting to cash on the same day. But you could also pick another digital currency.

facebook also has free payments

And I want to give Facebook my credit card why?

Yeah, no.

What is the threat model you envision with giving Facebook your credit card number? Transactions are reversible by calling up your credit card company, and Facebook, for what little reputation it has, still has more of a reputation to uphold and more internal security controls than the local diner where you physically hand your card to a waiter and let them take it out of your sight.

Well, you have to have a Facebook account, for starters.

Facebook is an ad company. Credit card companies collect and sell purchase history. Giving them your cc number explicitly links your purchase history to your facebook account. Realistically they've probably already made the jump using your name and DOB, but at least they had to work for it...

Credit card companies sell data in aggregate. They don't sell your specific card history.

If you're paying for things through Facebook they don't need to contact your credit card company to get a list of payments they've facilitated, for obvious reasons.

Given that the best minds of this generation are working on making advertising more efficient, would it be surprising that such information would help Facebook?

1. Banking industry has some legal requirements. More than Facebook does, for sure.

2. I If you want my purchase history, you can subpoena a bank for it. Whereas I wouldn't be surprised with "App Permissions" to allow to view 'previous purchases'. 90% of people wouldn't know/care.

3. I don't want, nor need every account under the sun hooked up to a SPOF. In this case, it's Fb. That also applies to Google as well.

4. "If you're not paying, you're the product." adage applies. If you want my banking details, you can bloody pay me for that.

5. And, you need not apply if you're: transgender, gay, member of Antifa, or other groups Facebook is discriminating against or has active people causing "reporting storms" to disconnect you from your account. Read about "God" page recently disabled over a "quit funding war and start finding social services" comment. That earned them a 30 day ban, most likely automated.

What are you even talking about?

Do you actually have real questions about the words I typed, or are you just trying to shame me into something?

Because, reading comprehension is fundamental. You might want to watch a Youtube video about it....

Are you afraid a company like Facebook will make unauthorized transactions?

You only need to be afraid they will use it in ways you may not approve and may not even know of.

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