From Square Press Release:
SAN FRANCISCO – October 15, 2013– Today Square, the company making commerce easy for everyone, introduced Square Cash; a new service that makes sending money as simple as sending an email.
With Square Cash, individuals no longer need to write checks, pay ATM fees or wait for forgotten loans from friends. Customers simply send an e-mail to the person they’re paying, and after the recipient enters their debit card number, money is directly transferred to their bank account.
…….
Square Cash is free to send and receive, and there is no signup process. Funds are directly deposited into the recipient’s bank account, rather than held in a stored balance account.
To send their first payment, customers simply compose an email by filling in the following fields:
- To: [email address]
- Cc: cash@square.com
- Subject: $ [amount]
- Send!
Customers then receive an email prompting them to link a debit card to fund their first payment. To accept a payment, the recipient enters their debit card number once, and will automatically receive funds to their debit card thereafter.
Square Cash is also available for Android and iOS.
——-
One question: “What would happen if someone hijacked the initial email to link the debit card?”
By the way Gmail users can also send money through email using Google Wallet.