You pay $3/month for the privilege of allowing them to front you cash for up to a month. If you are late, they charge you $5. No broken legs, no threats, just $5.<p>According to one of the images 'simple terms apply'. What are those terms and why aren't they listed right now? That seems shady to make a big announcement and not clearly list all the terms.<p>I've got a few questions: How much cash can I borrow? What happens if I'm late multiple months? What prevents me from closing my account and just walking away?<p>I don't know, this seems like an awful idea to me. Rife for abuse. Dwolla will be one the receiving end of a lot of fraud really quickly and will be spending all their time and resources chasing down deadbeats.<p>UPDATE: A 3rd party has more details than their own site [1]. Up to $500. Still seems rife for fraud to me because now they are going to have to chase down a lot of people for only $500.<p>If my credit is good and my money management is sound, why would I need to pay $3 a month for the privilege of allowing me to get a loan for up to $500?<p>[1] <a href="http://www.siliconprairienews.com/2011/12/dwolla-introduces-instant-gives-users-instant-access-to-line-of-credit" rel="nofollow">http://www.siliconprairienews.com/2011/12/dwolla-introduces-...</a>
(I'll just copy my answer from reddit below)<p>That was an odd article from northern european perspective.<p>You really haven't had direct bank payments via web in US before this? We had those before web credit card payments and they are implemented by the banks themselves (it's a standard here, I have actually implemented some of this stuff with our company)<p>The article also talks about rent payments.. You don't have automatic recurring payment option in your web bank interface? can you make payments from one bank account to other via web interface at all?<p>(then someone answered that there are not bank-to-bank transfers or more advanced stuff like direct payments don't exists and I continued...)<p>Wow that's odd.<p>Just for comparison, people here would probably revolt if transfering money from one account to other would cost something. That's how everyone here pays bills. Before people would go to banks and make transfer form account to other to pay bills there, some 10-20 years ago banks themselves started to move all this to their web interfaces to reduce the need for physical locations (basically to cut costs).<p>The whole europe is now moving to "SEPA" system where all bank accounts are standardized so from now on this can be done europe-wide.<p>Sepa also has this new "e-payment" system that makes all kinds of things like direct billing possible EU-wide.<p><a href="http://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/article.cfm?articles_uuid=BCFC9AFD-BDA2-FC9C-B434859EC6A9CC95" rel="nofollow">http://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/article.cfm?articles_u...</a>
When Dwolla does this for consumer to consumer, internationally (US->other countries), they will eat Moneygram & Western Union's lunch, and diner, and breakfast, and snack.
I'm sorry, but there is nothing that is so compellingly 'Instant' about 'Instant' that it begs my $3/month ($36/year) for me to use it.<p>As it stands now, if I want to buy something, I have several options. Use paypal, wepay, dwolla (regular) or some other similar provider, use a credit card, use a debit card, use cash, get someone else to buy it for me. None of which costs me anything to do the transaction.<p>Sure, there is some noise about charging for debit cards, but that noise turned into massive backlash, so I don't think that'll happen anytime soon. Plus, there are still other options, like another bank with a debt card that doesn't cost me anything.<p>Sure, a credit card has a fee associated with it and I probably end up paying that fee either in the price of the item I'm buying or directly. But at this point, is the total sum of those fees >$3/month? Maybe, but who really cares anymore? There is a cost to doing business and it can't be entirely free. That said, I'm going to support companies, like WePay, who are at least trying to put a good customer service experience on things and keeping their fees straightforward and relatively low.<p>I can see how Dwolla is trying to disrupt the whole industry. I like that and I sure believe that it needs to happen. The credit card companies are essentially just another evil empire. ;-) That said, I don't think 'Instant' is the right product for this disruption. It isn't being marketed correctly at all. The documentation is missing from their website and the whole $500 thing seems like a gimmick that is only going to get them into a lot of fraud trouble.
It looks like I'm just going to echo the sentiments of others on this thread, but I feel compelled to issue this warning:<p>Stay away. This "feature" could bankrupt even a respectable company. Do not trust your money to any company offering credit that cannot or will not provide a balance sheet to back it up.<p>Yes, I'm a competitor, but there's a very good reason my company did not and does not offer this service. We thought of it long ago, and long ago determined that even with small amounts of credit, the risk to the operator is astronomical.<p>Stay away, stay away, stay away.
Disclaimer: I've not read details on ALL the different payment platforms that are around, or the regulations when dealing in this market.<p>With that said, why don't the platforms make it easy for merchants to pass these saving back onto the consumer. You can pay by credit card, but that would cost you 4% more than [insert payments system].<p>In that way, I'm incentivised as a merchant (more sales/discount with no loss), and as a consumer (real discount).
My question to merchants would be..<p>Would you actually risk sales at not offering credit card payments and only offering dwolla? With companies like square they make the entire process incredibly easy.<p>Would you actually list two different prices on all your items or services based on paying with credit card vs dwolla, or would you just standardize and swallow the 3% or whatever it is ?
Does anyone know if this is correct?<p>If someone pays me $1000 with a credit card, I pay Visa $25 (2.5% transaction fee)<p>If someone pays me $1000 with Dwolla, I Pay Dwolla 25 cents.<p>That's what I could figure out, but it seems too good to be true.