The COVID-19 pandemic continues to put a huge strain on the finances of people and businesses, and in an effort to address some of these issues, today PayPal and Visa announced the expansion of a service that gets money into people’s hands faster than ever before. It’s called Instant Transfer, and it’s a service where PayPal allows people and businesses to quickly access the funds they transfer to bank accounts (reducing the wait time from days to seconds).
This will mean that consumers and businesses worldwide who send or receive money through PayPal, Venmo or Xoom, or through Braintree, Hyperwallet and iZettle (all part of PayPal), will now be able to use the Instant Transfer option. PayPal’s services use Visa Direct to process payments.
The service is an evolution and extension of Instant Transfers, launched by PayPal in March 2019.
Stripe and Square, as well as other payment providers, have also launched products over the years to reduce the wait time typically required for money to be transferred from senders to recipients.
But in recent months, this feature has become the focus. COVID-19 has thrown businesses and individuals into some very strange circumstances, with many seeing a reduction in the amount of money circulating in the market. All of this means that everyone wants the time it takes to transfer money to be reduced as much as possible.
PayPal said that in a recent survey it conducted, it found that 76% of small businesses in the US reported struggling with cash flow , and 91% said that real-time settlement could help some of these problems.
