Pix is not even 2 years old and it's already changed the way people deal with money. It's incredibly reliable and astonishingly fast.
Who would say that the biggest Brazilian fintech revolution of all times would come from the Central Bank?
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pix_(electronic_payment_system...
Instant transactions, zero fees, available to anyone with a bank account.
Sounds similar to what I used in New Zealand quite a few years ago. However their system wasn't confined to mobile apps. Is pix mobile only?
Also in that system payments reconciled that evening, it wasn't instantaneous. To be honest I preferred that. I was able to fix a payment with a mistake before it went out.
Seems like some of the Pix => cash features are different.
I used to feel that way. Then I discovered how much time/effort is spent counting cash. Credit cards are all electronic and so the money goes directly into your bank accounts without needing to count and recount all that cash. Companies are money ahead vs cash once they account for all the labor cash costs. That is before we get into all the costs of theft that you avoid.
The above assumes a straight 2% transaction fee. If you are paying $.25/transaction then for small purchases the transaction costs are way too high.
Btw I am from India. Earlier,every time I see people swipe the cards in the retail stores, I felt sorry for the shopkeepers as they had to bear the 1.5%-2% as transaction charges of the total amount paid.
It all changed after the launch of UPI payment system, now I can just pay 5-10 INR(7 cents to 13 cents) to a shopkeeper without feeling the guilt of payment charges. It has been more than two years when I used my last VISA card payment transaction for any retail shopping. I think other countries should also develop such not-for-profit payment network system that can be used to pay efficiently digitally without making any side the victim.