Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Cash Instant Transfer Now Works With Mastercard Debit Cards
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Can you use that card at a store? The last time I had something like that, it could only be used at a ATM.
Yes, of course, I've had that all my life and I can use it everywhere.
I just confirmed and my debit card only says Interac.
I guess this is our standard here in Canada. 🤷♂️
Debit card usage in the U.S. is actually quite high, but it is a different form of debit than most other markets. There are two main options: Signature debit (Visa and MasterCard) debit payments, and PIN Debit (Star, Pulse, NYCE, Accel, etc.). PIN debit is closer to man other debit options outside the U.S.
Here is some information from the Federal Reserve:
- Total card payments (both credit and debit), which represented 7.3 percent of core noncash payments by value and 75.3 percent by number in 2018, grew at a rate of 8.9 percent per year by number between 2015 and 2018—up from the 6.8 percent yearly rate of increase from 2012 to 2015. Debit cards, including both prepaid and non-prepaid, were used almost twice as often as credit cards in 2018, but the value of credit card payments exceeded the value of debit card payments by almost 30 percent.
Apple is implementing these fees (much to my deep regret.
) to offset the network-imposed (e.g. Visa or MasterCard) costs for Interchange, which is paid to the Issuer of the card and its network fees (like assessments).Shame these costs are this high to stymie the growth of more secure payment options.
Zelle is nice for person-to-person transfers and is *usually* free (some do charge for it). It cannot be used to pay vendors nor load value to prepaid cards unless they are *Zelle* prepaid cards (most are not, only a few banks issue them).
Vendors would get paid via a traditional credit or debit card. Zelle works for mom and pop places all the time like my hair lady, or landlord.
Yes, highly regulated markets mandate fees and methods ... can be good and bad.
Fun fact: it's possible to use PIN on Visa and MC and no PIN on the others, though neither seem to be too common. In other words, how a cardholder is authenticated isn't necessarily governed by the network the merchant routes over.
It's too bad, though, since PINless debit could be a way for debit cards on Apple Pay to have a better user experience while still allowing merchants to pay a bit less than if they just ran those as credit.
Honestly, I think we'd be farther along on merchant rollouts by now if interchange fees hadn't been a massive sticking point for literally decades. Of course, some will still hold out for other reasons, but at the very least stores here would be a bit more enthusiastic about cards than I feel like they are.
For instance, I was in the UK a few years ago and I only ran into one place that wanted to charge an extra fee for card use (illegally, I might add). Meanwhile, in the US, I saw (and still see) minimums and surcharging significantly more often, though nowhere near the majority of stores by any means. Plus, while those are supposed to only do that for credit cards, in practice they do for debit cards too (and possibly rightfully so considering how many merchants out there are in processing agreements where they basically pay a flat ~3-4% regardless of card, e.g. with Square).
Apple charges quite a lot of money to use instant transfers. Instant transfers do not cost anything for banks to process, so it is outrageous that any company would charge money for this services. Yes, PayPal, Venmo, and some others charge money for instant transfers too, but it is unnecessary, they are gouging their customers.
Apple Cash, Apple's peer-to-peer payments service that works with Apple Pay and iMessage, received a couple of small updates on Thursday.
It's now possible to use Instant Transfer with both Mastercard and Visa debit cards. Previously only the latter card could be used, so the addition of Mastercard means Instant Transfer is more accessible to users who want to quickly transfer money from an Apple Cash balance to a bank account without having to wait for the transaction to be processed.
Apple says that beginning August 26, 2021, the cost of making an Instant Transfer will change to 1.5% (previously 1%) of the transfer amount, with a minimum fee of $0.25 and a maximum fee of $15.
If users don't want to use Instant Transfer, they can also transfer money to their bank account using ACH and receive it within one to three business days with no fee.
To make an Instant Transfer, open the Wallet app and select your Apple Cash card, then tap the three-dotted icon. Tap Transfer to Bank, enter an amount, and select Instant Transfer.
Currently only available in the United States, Apple Cash can be used to make and receive payments in Messages, or you can get Siri to send money to a friend or family member.
When someone sends you money, it goes on your virtual Apple Cash card, which is stored securely in the Wallet app on your iPhone. You can use the money on it to send to someone, make purchases using Apple Pay in stores, within apps, and on the web.
Article Link: Apple Cash Instant Transfer Now Works With Mastercard Debit Cards
Facebook has Facebook Pay, it can be used either on the Web or through the Messenger app, and it offers instant transfers free of charge. Facebook Pay makes a lot more sense since it does not cost anything and the payments are instantly deposited into the receiver's bank account. The service works with bank-level security, it is safe to use
I just wish credit would be added back as a funding method for Apple Cash, it was nice to send money over iMessage from credit sometimes, instead of extra step adding money to Apple Cash directly.
Yes, there are MasterCard and Visa branded debit cards. At checkout, you can choose either "debit" or "credit" as the payment method. Using the credit option gives you added protections since the transaction is processed through the MasterCard or Visa networks.
P2P (Person to Person) payments are treated as cash advances when you use credit cards, which carry interest charges. Apple wants to keep it simple and avoid these interest charges, so they only allow debit transactions. Which raises the issue of why Apple charges interest fees for using debit cards to pay contacts, since there are no added fees. Apple is simply gouging their customers when doing this.
I wouldn't call those fees "interest" as that's not how interest works. The reason some other services don't charge for instant transfers is that they're eating the cost involved with using the Visa or MC networks (which can be significant depending on who issued the debit card)--presumably to gain adoption.
If anything should be blamed here, it's the US banking system in general for (a) costing way more than it should and (b) not really having any reasonable options for instant transfers other than the credit networks. Even the caps imposed by the Durbin Amendment were really only a half effort as only something like 50-60% of debit cards (and 0 credit cards) fall under it.
That’s because other services are offering a service to customers and charging a service fee. Facebook just wants you to do the transaction through them because that movement of money between millions of members is data they can use to direct certain ads to you, data they can sell to others i.e. “what are millions of folks doing with their money”, etc. If everyone else made theirs free, I have no doubt Facebook would GIVE you 1%
I did not know that, makes sense why they'd drop support for it.
Agreed, I don't think it's interest, more of a 'convenience' fee for inconveniences imposed on purpose. US banking system is really lousy when it comes to things like this, in the age where billionaires can go to space for fun, we still can't transfer money instantly from the bank end? Let alone actions shafting lower class like overdraft fees, eagerness to garnish income, bailing banks out with taxes, etc.
No consumer advocacy or accountability, don't even get me started on federal reserve.
This was actually active awhile ago, maybe at least a month for me (maybe part of an initial rollout?). My MC Debit card just appeared one day when I was doing a transfer and I remember wondering if something had changed to cause it to appear
On the plus side, at least card acceptance is better than one would expect from a country where merchants aren't particularly enthusiastic about it. Had things gone a bit differently we could easily still have been mostly a cash economy (akin to Japan or Germany) even in 2021.
It really isn't as bad as it may seem, for example, I am able to use my card for pretty much anything, and I am able to use Apple Pay at a lot of places. Look at Germany or Japan, can't even use my card at most places, because they all prefer cash, or literally what is a glorified bus pass (Suica/Pasmo). Thats like paying with a Clipper Card in the US! How absurd. Funny how they would accept a bus pass as payment, but not my VISA or MasterCard?