Mercury is awesome! Not sure if this is right venue for feedback, but if only you could offer ACH without Plaid (which feels like a huge invasion of privacy), it would be even more awesome. Wire transfers cost 20$ each, depositing by check feels like the 1990s and takes time to clear.
I assume they will support FedNow instant payments as they’re rolled out over the next 18-24 months. Those payments cost the financial services provider 5 cents per transaction up to between $100k and $500k (depending on configuration with the Fed). They settle immediately 24/7/365. Wires via FedWire will be reserved for amounts between $500k and $50M, which doesn’t sound like a $20 fee would be unreasonable for to account for human review of the transfer.
Edit: I didn’t even know Mercury doesn’t charge for sending wires. As a customer, I’m delighted.
To clarify, when rawtxapp said "Wire transfers cost 20$ each", they probably mean wiring _to_ Mercury from their bank costs $20. Mercury doesn't charge for sending wires.
The reason they're mentioning the 3rd party bank fees is they'd prefer to use ACH pull to have Mercury take the money directly from their existing bank account (similar to how your gym or electric company might do). We do offer this, but only if you use a service called Plaid to link your third party bank account.
This involves typing your bank's username/password/2FA into a Plaid iframe on our website, which confirms it with the third party bank. If you've used Venmo, that's using Plaid under the hood to link your bank account.
Ok, all that said, my question for rawtxapp: are you mostly asking for us to verify 3rd party bank accounts via microdeposit instead? I agree it's less privacy invasive, but, definitely pretty slow and 1990s like you said about checks. I'm not sure of the security either.
I'm somewhat hoping it's less of an issue as more banks move to doing OAuth in Plaid, instead of sharing passwords. Capital One, Wells Fargo, and Chase do this now (we should really move to doing it too).
> are you mostly asking for us to verify 3rd party bank accounts via microdeposit instead?
Yes, I'm fine waiting a couple days for the initial setup if it means I don't have to let Plaid see every single transaction coming in and out of my account (and see my password in plaintext and all that). If you'd support USDC deposits, that would be even better (instant settlement with no reversibility, so no risk to you), but I'm guessing that might be a stretch. Regardless, Mercury is a very nice service as is, thank you!
FWIW I always configure my bank to bank transfers with micro deposits - I am very uncomfortable giving plaid my credentials. It takes a couple days which is lame but feels much safer.
So if I manage to catch your ear, can I ask if there are plans to allow earlier ACH (or even better, RTP) in the future? It's a mild annoyance that even scheduled ACH transactions don't go out until the last ACH window of the day - especially when I'm paying myself! :)
It's definitely not a deal breaker, but it's the kind of thing I'd be willing to actually spend a few cents on to cover the transaction costs - earlier settlement means better Fridays for me!
Hey abofh! I lead the engineering team responsible for payments at Mercury. We're definitely looking at adding better and faster payment rails in the future, but I think that your scheduled ACHs should go out in the first ACH window right now. It's possible that your receiving bank isn't posting them until later in the day, but we send those first thing in the morning when pre-scheduled. If you want to email me, I'm happy to double check that for you. jake at mercury dot com
For someone facing issues like this, you can often use another bank as an “intermediary” especially for personal accounts. Pull from your spendy bank using TD Ameritrade and then push it into Mercury.
Maybe I am displaying my ignorance for banking costs for larger business, but I have lived across NZ, AU and multiple EU countries and I never recall having paid for wire transfers neither for private nor small business accounts. Is this common even outside the US or a US only thing? $20 per wire transfer sounds insane to me. How do they justify that cost?
