Ask HN: Is there an easy way to transfer money to people? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is there an easy way to transfer money to people?

2 pointsXcelerate13 comments

Say I'm at a restaurant and (to make it easy) one guy pays the bill, and I want to give him my share of $11.53 for the meal. Is there an app for my phone where I can just click on his Facebook picture or enter his email and transfer that amount to him?

Or suppose I'm at a bake sale and I don't have any cash on me. I can just enter the name of the person running the sale and quickly transfer $2.50, with a note for my records saying that it was for a bake sale treat.

The reason I ask is: I haven't found such an app, and if there is one, it's not well-publicized. It seems like an interesting idea for a side-project. Thoughts?

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You're describing PayPal. Splitting a bill at a restaurant using your phones (or Palm Pilots back then) was its founding story 14 years ago. [1] Now 230 million people have accounts -- surely you've heard of it?

1: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/1999/07/20958

So... how do I actually use PayPal to do such a thing now?

> Is there an app for my phone where I can just click on his Facebook picture or enter his email and transfer that amount to him?

Click Send Money, enter his e-mail address and the amount, press send. Or if you both have the right phones, just bump them together. http://i.imgur.com/p1Gq5.jpg

You can use the native app on iOS or Android, or use the website.

Thanks for the information. I didn't realize Paypal had such a convenient way of doing that.

> Why do I feel like I'm being punked?

Maybe because I haven't heard of every feature that every single web service has to offer?? Just a guess.

Send it to their email address associated with Paypal.

Here in Australia, I've never seen it used for such. The big banks have launched apps for this purpose, though (eg Commonwealth Bank's "KaChing" app).

http://www.commbank.com.au/mobile/commbank-kaching/what-is-k...

Simple (BankSimple)[1] has a blog post describing this situation and some of the potential problems.[2] Worth reading.

[1] https://simple.com/ [2] https://simple.com/blog/Banking/mobile-payments/

One of the big banks in Australia, Commbank, have launched something like this - http://www.commbank.com.au/mobile/commbank-kaching/what-is-k...

You just need their social security number or a name. Every bank offer this. If you have just a name, they create a PIN that you send to the recipient.

Payments is not easy for a side project. That said, a few apps can solve this. Also why not the PayPal app since you're entering email as well?

My friends and I use Venmo for exactly that.

https://venmo.com/

In Australia again see www.pygg.co - send payments using twitter handle, mobile (cell) number, or email address.

Chase quickpay works and works well. Enough people around me have Chase to make my life a little easier.

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