The Eurozone has had for many years a free transfer system between bank accounts, nowadays thanks to recent upgrades it's not only free, but also instant.
And banks now have to provide an open API to all functionality as well, so that it's very easy to build technology on top to allow people to just quickly transfer money to someone, or pay online with it.
But technically, it's just international wire transfers, for free, instantly, with an open API. Like most banks already provided.
USAA is a participant in that network. Transfers are (EDIT: mostly immediate below a certain dollar amount, next day above) between participant bank users.
Immediate isn’t always so true, it depends on the transaction amount with my bank (Wells Fargo). Something like $200 a day can be sent instantly, everything else is next day which still isn’t terrible.
I actually pay my landlady with Zelle (have since it was clearxchange with every bank using different branding), it’s not half bad - the biggest downside really is that your bank has to participate unlike SEPA where it’s expected to be there.
Thanks for pointing that out. I've updated my comment.
Zelle will improve as more banks participate and the ACH network is modernized; I expect them to compliment each other until the US reaches their version of SEPA. A shim's a shim.
The Eurozone has had for many years a free transfer system between bank accounts, nowadays thanks to recent upgrades it's not only free, but also instant.
And banks now have to provide an open API to all functionality as well, so that it's very easy to build technology on top to allow people to just quickly transfer money to someone, or pay online with it.
But technically, it's just international wire transfers, for free, instantly, with an open API. Like most banks already provided.