Comment by mikegreen | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mikegreen | Hacker News Reader

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As I think of the technology changes (hw & sw) in my recent experience, I struggle to think how my personal banking (yes, business banking & financial services is a nightmare) experience need to be disrupted. Its a real question, not trying to be flippant - but what do you think are the top problems today (outside of commercial banks needing an API to their data, I've heard)?

I use uber; before I used uber I constantly complained about getting a cab in NYC or having to schedule a black car only to find them late with a smelly car and no way to review a poor experience. That was something I actively knew needed to be changed, and uber did just that.

Contrarily, for banking it isn't as acute to me: I use USAA as my personal bank and I can't think of much I'd change to have a better experience. Apps are good. Technology is reliable and (assumed :-)) secure. My money has been safe and available when I need it. I can download transaction history to csv with a few clicks. Everything is online, cant remember the last time I got post mail from them. Yes, every once in a while I run into a situation where some regulation is in the way (mostly in brokerage services), but mostly its a smooth experience.

Similarly to other regulated industries, I'd like to see air travel disputed. Flytenow, AirPooler, and FlightHike are trying to do this but will likely be crushed by FAA regulation on air taxi and commercial operation rules. Are the regs bad? Not really, they are there for safety. Are bank regs bad? Not really, I think they are there for security of our financial system.

There's already been some disruptions (Paypal, BTC (Coinbase, USV)), but copying isn't sufficient for disruption. Chase although mostly evil was the biggest to roll out check deposits by mobile camera. Also citi offers a basic card that has an online sorta crappy Flash widget that will generate limited time / amount virtual cards on the fly, good card optimized for travel and online purchases.

I would see what is the biggest customer hassle and find the MVP to test offering that. Also, chatting up bank employees can be a way to see what's going on and what's missing in terms of oppy... There's a bank manager in downtown PA that's aching to join a startup, not in the BS small-talk sense, but passionate to escape corporate backwards-processes hell.

> how my personal banking experience need to be disrupted

Free wire transfers. Free (or very close) for both sender and receiver, like checks, but instant. I believe Europe already has something like this. [1] Current US banks seem uninterested in this, so a startup bank providing this service could probably steal tons of banking customers.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_transfer#Regulation_and_pr...

It astonishes me how apparently backwards retail banking is outside New Zealand. We've had free (or effectively free) inter bank transfers since internet banking became available. probably almost 20 years. I've used a cheque exactly twice in my entire life. I get paid by direct credit, pay my bills by direct credit. Transfers within the same bank instant for most banks, and inter-bank transfers usually clear hourly inside business hours.

I rarely use cash - I don't even carry any most of the time. EFTPOS is available in taxi's, its available in the tiniest corner store, ice cream trucks have it. I once visited a small restaurant in a 3 house township surrounded by a national park, I wasn't even sure they had phones, still had EFTPOS.

I went from mid Feb through last week without having any cash in my wallet.

I believe Australia is pretty close in terms of ubiquity of electronic banking services. But I've only visited, not lived there. I know the UK wasn't anywhere near as well set up when I was living there ~8 years ago. My recent visits to the US and Canada involved truly uncomfortable amounts of cash.

Now, NZ is a small country, with a single set of laws. I know that the scale of business in the US, and having to deal with fragmented state and federal laws and regulations make everything much harder, but I would have thought that someone would have managed to improve things eventually.

I use USAA and tend to agree with you, however I think USAA is just that much better than an average bank - they've let you use scanners and phones to deposit checks for what seem like ages at this point, you can do everything online easily, there aren't weird fees, easy to transfer money to other USAA members, etc.

That said, the one thing all banks have in common that seems really dated is the ACH Deposit system. And I'm not sure it can be replaced just by making a new bank.

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