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mellowtigger) wrote2024-08-02 09:07 am
inspection, and a question
The city inspector just came by my house, walked all around and signed off on the window installation and carbon monoxide detectors. He surprised me by saying that I don't need a carbon monoxide detector in the basement, just within 5 feet (I think he said) of a bedroom door. Strange, since the basement furnace and hot water heater are the only flames in the house.
That part is done for the year. I'll wait a while longer before taking off my mask. I don't like having people inside my house, even less since the pandemic than before. I also bought a new battery-powered drill (to install some 10-year combination smoke and CO detectors) after the window install. I can't find my old one. I really hope it's me not seeing what's in front of me, rather than one of the many workers who's been inside my house this year taking mine away.
Question: How do people transfer money these days? I checked my bank balance recently, and it had a lot more money than I expected. That's thanks to a very generous check from my parents to more-than-cover the window installation this year. They wrote me a check, but considering the way things disappear from my house (usually just outside), the question came up about how to safely transfer money these days. I actually don't know.
I've gone online to check, and there certainly are options.
- There seem to be dollar limits and fees on those person-to-person apps (Zelle, PayPal, Venmo, etc.), so they don't seem ideal. They're what I see used most often for people asking for money online. The plus here is that there's a full layer of separation between the transaction and the relevant bank account, so both parties never learn the details of the other party's account.
- Linking bank accounts is a security danger, so even if it's possible to do between different people, I wouldn't. I do link my own checking and savings account. With only my own accounts, though, if my account credentials are ever compromised, at least I'm the only one who can get robbed.
- This CNET article mentions that ACH (Automated Clearing House) transfers are basically like checks but online. I checked, and my small local bank does offer ACH services. I think that's like what payroll deposit uses. Still not great security, but better than writing physical checks and mailing them off. I think this might be the best option to transfer between family members?
- I'm not really clear on how ACH is different from wire transfers, but wire transfers seem to incur fees but do handle very large values of money.
So what are you cool kids out there doing to transfer money?
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ACH has basically no internal security (it's just the bank routing number and the account number, as printed on the bottom of a check), but it's mostly used by trustworthy organizations doing routine transactions (employers doing direct deposit, or automatic payments for billers like utilities). When large payments are common (like income taxes or DMV), the choices are often ACH for free, or credit card with a convenience fee. But large annual transactions with new security procedures every year are just annoying (passwords that need to change every 6 months, having to copy/paste ACH numbers twice to confirm, and here's free credit monitoring because our information security budget was wasted on privacy policy updates and making sure you accept essential cookies).
My credit union has Zelle (with a $700 limit for outgoing funds, so I can't use it for the big expenses on my house remodel) and Bill Payer (which either mails a paper check or, for known recipients, initiates an ACH). My friend has a Chase checking account, with a similar bill-paying feature, but it seems worse (it deducted the funds before mailing a rent check to the landlord, who had mail delays at his PO Box, and then the account didn't have enough money for a replacement check until the disputed transaction was resolved). On the other hand, my reimbursement for an out-of-area Paxlovid prescription ($1600+ retail at CVS, since Kaiser's Northern California coverage can't deal with Kaiser pharmacies in Southern California!) was processed in a week, and then I was able to Zelle it into my account instantly.
Our garage door installer asked my husband for pictures of both sides of a pre-endorsed check, but I think his bank didn't accept the mobile deposit (I called my credit union, and they said they saw no attempted transactions). I was going to give him a replacement check in person, but he had to see another client, and he asked me to text him pictures of a second check, which I endorsed "For electronic deposit" on the back with my signature (Is that even supposed to work?), and that deposit was successful. It was a hassle and a waste of everyone's time.
PayPal is a pain for personal accounts, but it's handy for online ordering (it always fills in the mailing address correctly, whereas Google Chrome often fails to auto-fill the ZIP vs ZIP+4 correctly, or doesn't properly select CA or California in a drop-down list).
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I'm doing some ACH but like with writing checks, I'm fairly careful who I do that with as that gives away account and routing number.
And sometimes printing cheques on the laser printer with cheque stock and an old Ruby program written for Ruby 1 originally that I've been nursing along for want of having to find something else. If I ever get in over my head with that, I'll probably take the PostScript output and just start maintaining that.
The Craigslist crowd is still just doing fat wads of cash.
Maybe I'll start walking around with Euros and if anyone refuses them as payment, I'll accuse them of being a brexiter.
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Paypal is not all that trusworthy; they have a history of canceling transactions or tying up funds because they didn't approve of something (including the time they blocked all the transactions for a knitters' sock-kit-of-the-month club, because there couldn't possibly be that many people wanting to knit socks, it must be a front for crime).
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https://www.bankrate.com/banking/zelle-limits-at-top-banks/#how-to-use
My 2nd choice is Paypal.
I would avoid CashApp unless you have no other choice.
I haven't used Venmo.
I think ACH is normally used for transferring money between your own accounts at different banks, or between you and businesses (like for paying monthly bills). I'm not familiar with using it for person-to-person transfers.
I believe wire transfers require knowing the other person's bank account number, and have high fees.
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