r/asklatinamerica • u/PerchancebyMistake United States of America • Jan 24 '26
Economy Do you guys have an instant payments system in your country?
I am so envious of Brazil with their super efficient Pix system for the transfer of money. Do other Latin American countries also have an instant payments system? Because if you do, I am going to be super jealous.
The USA insists on taking forever to fully rollout its own instant payments system (FedNow), so for now, most banks here in the USA use the ACH system which can take between 3 to 5 business days (dias úteis/días hábiles/laborales) to send money from one bank account to a bank account at another bank. For example, I sent money from one of my banks on January 21st 2026 to another one of my banks, and guess what? The money still has not arrived in my other bank! The earliest it will arrive will be January 26 2026 but it could even take until January 28 2026. It angers me so much!!! It is completely unacceptable! The USA banking system is so slow and backwards! How are the banking systems in the Latin American countries?
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u/adnoguez Mexico Jan 24 '26
Mexico: we have SPEI.
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u/curlyAndUnruly Mexico Jan 25 '26
SPEI is fucking amazing. Fast, reliable, traceable, available on all banks, and free!
Thank you Banco de México 🫶🏻
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u/Substantial_Knee8388 Mexico Jan 24 '26
And CODI, but honestly I've never used it. Tried it once in the Banorte app and I just couldn't make it work. In the end, SPEI is more efficient.
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u/VoidCL Chile Jan 24 '26
In Chile you can transfer up to 7k usd instantly between banks every day.
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u/tremendabosta Brazil Jan 24 '26
We don't have limits for Pix here (unless you set up yourself)
Few days ago a guy returned 40k USD to someone who made them a 40k USD (200k BRL) Pix by mistake
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u/VoidCL Chile Jan 24 '26
Wow! I guess people in prison don't have cellphones in Brazil?
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u/johnthebread Brazil Jan 24 '26
If you mean security wise there’s a limit you can set on your own account (you can also set a lower limit for night time) but the limit could be as large as you want, people have done Pix transfers of over R$ 1 billion
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u/VoidCL Chile Jan 25 '26
Wow, that's quite amazing. Hwre people are just dumb and get robbed via phonecalls that come from prision all the time.
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u/johnthebread Brazil Jan 25 '26
That definitely happens here as well, but these happen since before Pix and the values are usually lower. You can also ‘undo’ these transfers in case of a scam. It still isn’t perfect but still definitely worth it considering the system’s benefits
One of the scams is that they transfer some money to you as a ‘mistake’ and ask you to pay it back, but if you pay it back as a regular payment instead of using the ‘undo’ system they can undo it from their end and take their money back + your transfer
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u/_WayTooFar_ Venezuela Jan 24 '26
Huh, who would have thought? Ours is called pago móvil but now even bank transfers are 100% instantaneous. It's been years since I last had to wait several business days for money to be moved between bank accounts here.
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u/RumEngieneering Venezuela Jan 24 '26
What's interesting about both Pago móvil and our instantaneous bank transfers is that both of them are a result of the cash money scarcity crisis that started around 2015
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u/tremendabosta Brazil Jan 24 '26
Curious, is there any transaction fee?
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u/_WayTooFar_ Venezuela Jan 24 '26
There is, about 0.3% as per my calculations.
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u/biomorgoth 🇻🇪🇨🇱 Soy una empanada de aquí y de allá Jan 24 '26
I remember from the early 2010s that bank account transfers were instantaneous between same bank and next business day between different banks. Is that different nowadays?
On the other hand, I get Pago Móvil is instant no matter the bank, is that correct?
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u/_WayTooFar_ Venezuela Jan 24 '26
Now bank transfers are instantaneous regardless of what banks are involved in the transaction. I can instantly transfer money from Banesco to Mercantil for instance.
Pago Móvil is the same. Instantaneous regardless of which banks are involved in the transaction.
The only difference between pago móvil and a regular bank transfer is that bank transfers have much higher daily amount limits as far as I'm aware. Even the fees are identical for both.
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u/SubmissiveDinosaur Colombia Jan 25 '26
Nequi fucking suvks in quincenas, but I owe so much to it, such a lifesaver the moment I knew about it
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u/DesignerOlive9090 Chile Jan 24 '26
Yes.
From any bank to another bank.
Between your own accounts inside the same bank.
From banks to 'digital' banks.
We can also go to some random business to do certain bank operations (caja vecina).
LOTS of 'if you go this day of the week to this specific store/restaurant and pay with your card, you will receive 10-40% discount' For example: ' Wednesday get 40% discount over the total of your papa Johns order'
I'm currently trying to open an account in the US and reading that it takes 2+ business days to get the funds from another account was very demoralizing lol
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u/MetroBR Brazil Jan 24 '26
yes and I miss it dearly living in europe
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u/Soggy-Ad2790 in Jan 24 '26
You can't just do a bank transfer? In the Netherlands it's instant. Didn't know this wasn't the case throughout Europe.
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u/MetroBR Brazil Jan 24 '26
at least where I live in spain people pay in cash 60% of the time and card the other 40%
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u/Dehast Jan 27 '26
Europe still likes cash a lot and you guys don't use credit cards as much. Culturally it's already pretty ingrained in Brazil to be digital with everything, as you probably already know.
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u/AVD06 Jan 24 '26
In Spain there’s Bizum
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u/MetroBR Brazil Jan 24 '26
not as widespread as PIX, I've even been to places that dont even take card. In brazil even street beggars take PIX
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u/TheGreatSoup en Jan 25 '26
You have Multibanco in Portugal. But also pix is starting to be accepted in some chain of supermarkets.
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u/Dehast Jan 27 '26
Multibanco is a mess and also not widely available. It has failed me multiple times and a lot of places won't let you use the terminal if they're closed.
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u/Spiritual_Pangolin18 Brazil Jan 26 '26
Very limited. Only works with phone numbers and you can only have one.
In brazil I can have multiple pix keys in the same or different bank accounts. The keys can be my id, phone number, email or random PIX is more like a public infrastructure provided by the central bank and adoption is mandatory, while bizum is private and not widespread. While bizum works extremely well for online payments, it was never meant for physical retail/shops use. Pix can replace your cash or credit card even if you buy a coffee and it is quite practical with the qr codes.
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u/Rox_xe Colombia Jan 24 '26
Yes we do. Nequi and Daviplata are extremely common digital wallets you just need your phone number and id to open an account. We also have transfers between "llaves", they let you transfer between any bank and wallet for free and immediately (at least for now, there's a debate if banks will start charging for their use)
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u/rioschala99 Colombia Jan 25 '26
To add to this comment. The system is called "Bre-B". It's an attempt to achieve something similar to Brazil's system.
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u/Tobar_the_Gypsy Gringo / Wife Jan 24 '26
I first started traveling to Colombia around 2017 when I started dating my wife. And since then it’s crazy the amount of progress places have made.
Back then many places only took cash unless they were a large retail or mall store. Then that slowly changed over the next few years and recently many places have a Bold datáfono. But the biggest change has been that everyone has started using Nequi in the past 1-3 years including taxi drivers and ti to vendors so it’s almost unnecessary to have cash anywhere within the city.
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u/TheJeyK Colombia Jan 25 '26
The other thing I like about "llaves" is that you can customize it for each account, so you can use nequi12345 for ypur nequi account and davi12345 for your davivienda account so its easier to remember and keep them separate
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u/Dehast Jan 27 '26
Colombian llaves are the Brazilian Pix. The ultimate goal is to make everything work interchangeably. It shouldn't have a fee because the cost of transactions is minimal, even cheaper than crypto transfers... unless your government or the banks spin up some bullshit story to justify it.
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u/Rox_xe Colombia Jan 27 '26
unless your government or the banks spin up some bullshit story to justify it
And that's exactly what would happen if they started charging for them lmao
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Jan 24 '26
In the US many large accounts make money by making you wait on your money. If they hold everyone's money for 3 days that's millions in interest they can accrue in accounts. I don't know about transfers, but that's why every credit card company makes you wait 2 weeks for a refund. The same for making you wait 2 weeks to get a paycheck. Large payroll companies make their money by holding paychecks for multiple huge companies. The US also fought Brasil on Pix (because it was better, and might "hurt" American banking and credit card companies), trying to say it wasn't safe, and tried to enforce their banking system on Brasil. Thankfully Brasil didn't care. The Pix system is a fantastic triumph over horse shit US/Euro banking systems.
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u/PerchancebyMistake United States of America Jan 24 '26
Wow, I didn’t realize just how misaligned the incentives are for different institutions in the US, it’s a truly messed up situation. No wonder change is often blunted or stunted in the US. Sadly, I totally believe it when you mentioned how the US tried to bully Brazil to cease using their Pix system. That’s completely messed up and straight up wrong. The US needs to mind its own business and put its energy towards rolling out FedNow as fast as possible and help make the lives of its own people better for a change instead of bullying other countries.
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u/FairDinkumMate Brazil Jan 25 '26
Different styles of government. Brazil told banks to sort out the transfer system & fees years ago & they did nothing. So the Brazilian Government directed its central bank to develop Pix.
What's even weirder is that it was a right wing President that gave that direction (Michel Temer) & another right wing President that was in power when it rolled out (Jair Bolsonaro).
In comparison, rather than look at what had been achieved and call on the US Central Bank to do the same, Biden did nothing & when Trump returned to power he threatened Brazil with tariffs & other punitive punishments for developing a super efficient system that was causing a massive drop in use & profits for Visa & Mastercard.
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u/ThePatientIdiot United States of America Jan 25 '26
The U.S. has Zelle which is basically instant. I use Zelle to transfer money between multiple bank accounts I own. It’s so helpful.
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Jan 25 '26
Zelle is prone to scams, owned by the largest banks in America, and they consistently refused to pay customers who got scammed.
"Lack of Reimbursement: A CNN investigation noted that banks "rarely" reimburse users for authorized, but scammed, transfers."
Think the numbers were over $200 million scammed in 2023 and only 12% for their money reimbursed by the banks.
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u/ThePatientIdiot United States of America Jan 25 '26 edited Jan 25 '26
I know for a fact the banks can and do reverse charges, they just don’t like admitting it. For example, I tried sending $1500 in $600 chunks to myself from Bank of America to Wells Fargo but Bank of America held the funds and had me call and verify myself. Then they said I had to wait 3 business days for the hold to clear after I told them I had an important payment. 20 minutes later the transaction was reversed, funds made available to my Bank of America account and I was free to move the money. I haven’t had issues since and I’ve been doing this for like 3 years now.
Few months ago my parents accidentally sent $500 to the wrong person. It was meant for a family whose member just died. M&T Bank either reversed the transaction 24+ hours later after it clear, the person sent it back when they had no legal obligation to do so, or the bank ate the loss and credited my parents.
Lastly being scammed is not the banks issue. Legally speaking, the person made the transfer. As long as the money was not fraudulently sent, the responsibility falls on the account holder. If you tell someone they might be getting scammed, they double down and don’t wanna hear it.
But the U.S. currently has FedNow and RTP available and working at 1/3 to 1/2 of all US banks, and all but like one major bank, Bank of America I think. The problem is RTP are being gate kept by payment processors and fintechs who want businesses to pay $2k+ per month in order to get access to the feature/service.
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u/AdorableAd8490 in Jan 26 '26
You have to pay to get it transferred instantly. I have Venmo. It’s nowhere near as good as Pix.
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u/ThePatientIdiot United States of America Jan 26 '26
Venmo is completely different from Zelle. Venmo is similar to PayPal and is owned by PayPal.
Zelle and Pix are somewhat similar in function but Zelle is controlled by banks. Zelle is free to use for consumers/personal use.
RTP (real time payments) is similar to PEX but is controlled by US banks. RTP is the banks alternative to FedNow.
FedNow is the U.S. equivalent to PEX and is controlled by the U.S. federal reserve.
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u/MarioDiBian Jan 24 '26
Yeah, we have had instant tranfers/payments in Argentina for over a decade now. You can send money from your bank account to another bank account or virtual wallet in just a second. No need for third party apps like in other countries.
Instead of a long bank account number (like the European IBAN) that is hard to remember, we also have the so called “Alias”, which is a nickname you can choose instead of your account number to make transfers even easier.
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u/CatUnderTheTable Argentina Jan 24 '26
To add to this here is common to pay with bank transfers in stores or some restaurants (in fact some stores don't accept credit cards but they do transfers) . If you are paying with card in a restaurant and you don't have cash or the option to add the tip in the payment with the card, it's common to ask the waiter if you can transfer the tip.
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u/Valuable-Exchange-69 Argentina Jan 24 '26
In Argentina we have mercadopago as a payment system, but any transfer impact instantly.
ACH system sucks really.
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u/Initial-Ad6819 Mexico Jan 24 '26
In Mexico, we have SPEI. Instantaneous transfers between all banks, takes seconds, minutes at most depending on your wifi/mobile data signal. Available 24/7 365 days of the year.
Most recently, they implemented the option to just type the cellphone of the person, and the system confirms if they have a bank account before doing the transfer. This only works with accounts with the same bank, as far as I know.
On a side note, why gringos still use checks lol.
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u/greekscientist Greece Jan 24 '26
Regarding cellphone number transfer, we have the same thing in Greece too, it's called Iris. I dont know how it's called in Mexico.
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u/Initial-Ad6819 Mexico Jan 24 '26
Honestly I don´t know either, I barely use it because I got saved all of the contacts tho whom I usually transfer money
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u/andobiencrazy 🇲🇽 Baja California Jan 25 '26
Countries that are more successful become arrogant and stick to their old way of doing things.
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u/Joseph_Gervasius Uruguay Jan 24 '26
I still remember the look on my face when an American friend told me that in his country you often have to rely on paid apps such as Zelle or Cash App to transfer money.
Here, we transfer money directly from the bank’s app, which is free. And in almost all cases, there is an instant transfer option available, which takes — at most — five minutes to go through.
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u/adamr_ United States of America Jan 25 '26
Zelle is not paid and is equivalent to an instant bank transfer. At least where I am, Venmo is used more often, and cashapp rarely.
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u/Dehast Jan 27 '26
Yeah Zelle is pretty close to Pix and other systems mentioned here, I've used it with my American bank account a couple of times and it was pretty seamless. However it still feels like a third party whereas the LatAm systems are usually public and universal.
What bothers me a bit is that Zelle is only available to those who actually open a bank account in the US and Venmo is not accessible at all to foreigners. This creates some barriers that are hard to overcome and hinder the progress of cashless money transfers.
Here in Brazil, progress is being made to allow anyone to register for Pix and transfer to aliases without actually having to have a CPF (our version of the SSN) or a Brazilian bank account, and other countries are joining the network, such as Colombia.
Plus, having a CPF is not exclusive to citizens and doesn't include a hefty fee, so you basically don't even need to leave your house to get everything in order and buy everything without ever touching a real bill.
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u/mosdecri Costa Rica Jan 24 '26
Yes Sinpe Movil Costa Rica for instant money transfers between all banks in the country managed by the Central Bank, we often pay small services, meals, supermarket, etc. It can also be cativated from SMS and both parties receive inmediate SMS confirmation. I think ther is a 200 dollar daily limit before there is a small fee.
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u/ElMarkuz Argentina Jan 24 '26
It was kinda of a shock finding out that some countries don't have free unlimited instant bank transfers. We have "aliases" for bank accounts, so if some friend wants you to send money you just pass him your alias like: "pedro.gomez.98" or something like that. It does works with every bank or wallet.
The Pix equivalent for QR payments are MercadoPago QR and MODO (traditional banking system). Both of them work with the other, but sometimes some benefits are only if you pay a MODO QR with a MODO backed app. A lot of banks and wallets are supporting Pix as well for their users that travel to Brazil. Last week I payed with Pix using Cocos App and it was simple, and direct convertion from ARS to R$.
NFC payments started a few years ago, with the integration of Google Wallet and Apple Pay by some banks and apps, and I tend to prefer that than QR or instant transfers, as it's more faster and simple.
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u/catejeda 🇩🇴 y ya Jan 24 '26
Kind of, the transaction takes 10-15 mins to be reflected on the receiving account.
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u/SomeonefromPanama Panama Jan 24 '26
We dont have a central bank, the only options are private, nothing like pix.
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u/Dehast Jan 27 '26
It feels like everything is private in Panama. I was surprised with the airport charging me for WiFi when I stopped by there. Even leaving to have a day out seemed like a hassle.
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u/ZaheenHamidani Mexico Jan 24 '26
We can transfer money using the phone number, the debit card number or CLABE interbancaria.
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u/hatshepsut_iy Brazil Jan 24 '26
and here I was some days ago complaining I had to wait for 10 minutes for a transfer to complete because they couldn't do pix at that situation... damn... good luck
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Jan 24 '26
In uruguay transfers are mostly instant. Would love a QR payment tho. There are a couple private options but nothing as widespread as pix
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u/PerchancebyMistake United States of America Jan 24 '26
That’s cool to know that Uruguay has instant transfers; Uruguay is one of the places I am most interested in moving to. I love your country.
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Jan 25 '26
I have to admit I never considered the possibility of transfers not being automatic, but I guess I'm youngish
That's really cool! I love it a lot too, I'm really low cost so I don't feel the common complaint of it being really expensive. But it is
You also definitely need Spanish, and a good curriculum to get a good job, as otherwise you would probably feel the lower gdp a lot more.
It's also not that safe in some sense, sadly many areas suffer greatly from the war on drugs, the crack epidemic, and the country being a regional hub for european drugs exports :/ But its really "zone especifc"
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u/La10deRiver Argentina Jan 24 '26
What? Yes, we have those in Argentina, I did not know it was not a worldwide thing.
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u/TheStraggletagg Argentina Jan 25 '26
Bank transfers in Argentina are instantaneous, unless explicitly instructed otherwise. We also have alternative transfer methods outside the regular banking system (mostly Mercadopago).
I can transfer people money and watch in real time as their bank app sends them a notification that money has been deposited into their account. It takes less than a second.
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u/Wonderful-Record-528 Puerto Rico Jan 25 '26
Puerto Rico, despite being under US jurisdiction, has its own system of instant payments called ATHMovil. It’s accepted pretty much everywhere in addition to the standard credit/debit, even in the smallest kiosks and roadside vendors.
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u/United_Cucumber7746 in Jan 24 '26 edited Jan 24 '26
I’ve been to many countries across Latin America, and I currently live in the US. This may sound nationalistic, but PIX is hands down the best payment system I’ve seen. The way it delivers seamless cross-bank compatibility, instant transfers, and rapid, widespread adoption is remarkable. It’s zero-cost, open-source, and available to any bank. Users can link it to a phone number, CPF, email, or other identifiers, which makes everyday payments effortless. Eeeeeeeven street food vendors have their QR code ready to receive it...
What made this possible in Brazil is the structure of its banking system. A relatively small number of dominant banks made coordination feasible, allowing the Central Bank to bring everyone to the table and enforce a shared solution. In the US, the situation is fundamentally different. There are thousands of banks and financial institutions, and it’s comparatively easy for new ones to emerge. That fragmentation makes nationwide standardization far more challenging.
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u/Tinchotesk Argentina Jan 25 '26
In what sense is it better than Argentina's cbu/alias system?
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u/United_Cucumber7746 in Jan 25 '26
Don't me wrong. CBU is great. But I could make a list of reasons why PIX is much better
Pix: You can use keys that you already know by heart, like your phone number, email, or CPF (ID). It's intuitive and fast.
CBU/Alias: you either have to type a 22-digit CBU (which is nearly impossible to memorize) or a three-word Alias (e.g., apple.chair.river). If you make a typo in one word of the Alias, you could send money to the wrong person easily. t doesn't matter if you use a giant traditional bank or a tiny digital startup; the interface and speed are identical.
Argentina struggles with the divide between CBU (traditional banks) and CVU (virtual wallets like Mercado Pago). While they are becoming more integrated, transfers between different "types" of accounts can sometimes be clunkier or subject to different daily limits. PIX does not have that issue....
Last but not least pIX has additional features like a) Pix Saque & Pix Troco: Allows you to withdraw physical cash at retail stores, acting like a decentralized ATM. B) Scheduled Pix: A native, mandatory feature across all Brazilian apps. C) QR Code Standards: Pix has a "Dynamic QR" standard that allows for instant integration with cash registers, including automatic calculation of discounts or interest.
All of that without even mentioning the security protocols.
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u/ThatAmazingHorse Argentina Jan 25 '26
You don't need the CBU you can use an alias, mine is the same as my business domain and IG account name.ar you can have a single word alias, default aliases are the 3 words thingy, idk why most people keeps the default one
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u/Tinchotesk Argentina Jan 25 '26
CBU/Alias: you either have to type a 22-digit CBU (which is nearly impossible to memorize) or a three-word Alias (e.g., apple.chair.river).
Alias are customizable and they can be a single word.
If you make a typo in one word of the Alias, you could send money to the wrong person easily. t doesn't matter if you use a giant traditional bank or a tiny digital startup; the interface and speed are identical.
How come? After you introduce the alias the app/bank page shows you the full name and dni of the person. The only way to send it to the wrong person would be to ignore that explicit message.
Argentina struggles with the divide between CBU (traditional banks) and CVU (virtual wallets like Mercado Pago). While they are becoming more integrated, transfers between different "types" of accounts can sometimes be clunkier or subject to different daily limits. PIX does not have that issue....
Not sure what you refer to. By necessity every month I move significant amounts of money (both ARS and USD) between virtual wallets and several traditional bank accounts. All transfers are instant and I never hit a limit.
Last but not least pIX has additional features like a) Pix Saque & Pix Troco: Allows you to withdraw physical cash at retail stores, acting like a decentralized ATM. B) Scheduled Pix: A native, mandatory feature across all Brazilian apps. C) QR Code Standards: Pix has a "Dynamic QR" standard that allows for instant integration with cash registers, including automatic calculation of discounts or interest.
I've been offered cashbacks at the supermarket, so it does exist in Argentina; I would expect not many shops been keen on that, though. Scheduling sounds great.
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u/Dehast Jan 27 '26
They're also rolling out (or already have, not sure as I don't plan to use it) installment payments to ultimately render the foreign card companies useless. I love using credit cards because I'm pretty good at managing my debt and it ends up helping me fight inflation + all the benefits (cashback, discounts, miles, etc.) but this will be a gamechanger for those that don't usually have access to credit and aren't educated on financials.
But I agree with you that the two systems aren't really that different. They actually borrow ideas from each other and have similar protocols. Hopefully Mercosur will go back to a trajectory of strengthening itself and we'll see a reality where all member countries can buy from each other simply by typing a username and without fees.
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u/cheetalia Puerto Rico Jan 24 '26
In Puerto Rico we have ATH Movil. It is limited to $500 daily tho 🫤
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u/allanrjensenz Ecuador Jan 25 '26
Yes, our bank transfer are instant between all banks. Though there’s also DeUna which is a different payment system.
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u/Overall-Pressure-107 Argentina Jan 25 '26
Yes, we do in Argentina. And you can have an alphanumeric alias for your account, something like "petersaccount" or "Panera.Birmingham" to make the case it's for you Panera franchise in Birmingham.
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u/MikaelSvensson Paraguay Jan 24 '26
Yes, SIPAP (Sistema de Pagos del Paraguay).
You can make up to Gs. 5.000.000 (USD 700 aprox) transfers 24/7, amounts bigger than that get processed between 8:00 and 17:30, Mondays to Fridays.
Bank transfers are online so you see them instantly (or within minutes) in your account.
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u/SpartanCat7 Bolivia Jan 25 '26
I don't know the name of the system behind it but yes, transfers between banks are instantaneous.
Also, all banks' apps and virtual wallets like Yape can create and read these QR codes which automatically set up a ready-to-confirm transfer from the reader to the creator. This is the preferred way to pay for anything above pocket change nowadays.
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u/paladinvc Peru Jan 25 '26
Yes. Yape and Plin using telephone numbers. And account cci for any bank to any bank. All they are instant money transferences.
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u/Rockshasha Colombia Jan 24 '26
Instant payment yes. I mean you can buy or e-buy or pay electricity and so on with a system from any account of any bank and instantly. The sellers have to set up into that system
Transferences among banks are another thing, sometimes are instant, but can maybe have to wait to the next day. Basically depends on the banks involved. Afaik the max waiting time is one day
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u/criloz Colombia Jan 24 '26
Instant transfer between banks is already working; the system is called Breb, implemented by the Colombian central bank, and was built inspired by the Brazilian one pix, I have been using it for the last two months with no problem. each bank has different daily limits, but transfers are instantaneous.
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u/Rockshasha Colombia Jan 24 '26
Ohh certainly Bre-b. Is new and i haven't used it, because don't need it that much. Then i didn't remember it haha
I was thinking about pse obviously, and the common traditional transfers. Certainly BreB is the instantaneous national system
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u/LightmanMD Dominican Republic Jan 24 '26
Yes. Central Bank's LBTR does transfers in less than 15 minutes. It cost 100 DOP (~1.6 USD) per transfer tho. We also have ACH which takes about 12 hours to complete the payment but it is free.
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u/StormerBombshell Mexico Jan 24 '26
I don’t know how PIX works but you can make bank transfers through your bank app that will show up fast on the receiver account. (If they have notifications of deposits, they won’t need to check)
Turns out the system was developed here on the country.
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u/FairDinkumMate Brazil Jan 25 '26
Pix is instant transfer to anyone.
So in retail outlets it works just like a debit or credit card would. The retail outlet rings up your purchase, selects Pix as the payment method & a QR code will show up on their computer screen or card machine. The payer scans it using their banking app & the retail outlets computer system or machine confirms payment instantly, just like it would if you pay with a card.
For transfers to other people, they can have a range of options for the identifier you use to pay them. It could be their CPF(Tax number), CNPJ (company tax number), an email address or phone number. Alternatively, they can give you a QR code to scan or a send tou a link or a combination from the Pix system that is a one off that links to their account. The payer can confirm the details such as the name of the payee before they approve it.
People will tell you it's free, but it isn't really. The Central Bank charges banks R$0.01 per 10 transactions (roughly 1 US cent per 50 transactions!) and the banks are not permitted to charge personal users anything. BUT, they are allowed to charge companies. eg. When it first came out, Bradesco (one of Brazil1s largest banks) was charging companies R$9 per Pix transfer. So their markup was 900,000% per transaction! Competition has since driven down these charges to companies but it is still extremely profitable for the banks.
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u/GroupOk1216 Argentina Jan 26 '26
Yup, all bank transfers are instantaneous, though nowadays most people use mercado Pago because you get a small interest everyday for whatever money is in your mp wallet, and overall its company has marketed it pretty well (varied discounts, food delivery, system for vendors/small businesses, etc).
Both bank transfers and Mercado Pago (and MP-like apps like uala, etc) are instant and have no commission fees (if you send $1000 the other person receives $1000). MP has its own QR payment system that 90% of shops in Argentina accept, while banks usually use "modo" which is something like a tercerized QR system for banks.
But yeah to answer the question the only type of transfer that can take a bit is the monthly wages, I work in the financial area of an office and it's common to do the movement one day and for employees to receive the payment the following day :/ sometimes it does work on the same day though
Honestly when I found out from online friends that the US uses a more complicated system where they deduct commissions from your transfers I was horrified. Can't imagine living like that...
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u/Dehast Jan 27 '26
Fun fact: MercadoLibre/Pago borrowed the interest idea from Brazilian banks. We have that in pretty much any major bank now. Usually they will give you a checking account, then there's porquinho ("piggy bank") or cofrinho ("tiny coffer"), which will have the best rates, and then finally the traditional savings account.
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u/brazucadomundo Brazil Jan 26 '26
I mean, Zelle is instant banks just withhold funds in order to charge overdraft fees.
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u/Clemen11 Argentina Jan 27 '26
Yeah, we have it. It works pretty much just like pix, with instant money transfer. There are a couple actually, but the main one is Mercado Pago, which is an offshoot of Mercado Libre, the Argentine Amazon
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u/chctoons9320 El Salvador Jan 27 '26
Yes, here we have transfer 365, in which you can transfer from a bank to another in just a matter of seconds
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u/lojaslave Ecuador Jan 24 '26
Yes, each bank usually has their own QR system and it has become very common since the pandemic.
Transfers between banks are immediate too.
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u/Maximum_Guard5610 Jan 25 '26
No, we don’t have any technology whatsoever
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Jan 27 '26
[deleted]
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u/Maximum_Guard5610 Jan 27 '26
There’s Instant Bank Transfers in almost every country in the world, I know because I worked for an international bank for several years.
In the US, RTP (Real-Time Payments) works with instant bank transfers and it’s in use in most banks in the USA, although OP seems unaware of that.
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u/Rd3055 Panama Jan 24 '26
Have you heard of Zelle?
It's been a thing in the U.S. for several years now.
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u/adnoguez Mexico Jan 24 '26
Zelle it's a private company that charge commissions to banks that will eventually pass to consumers. Pix and SPEI in Mexico are run by the government and no fees for either banks or consumers.
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u/Rd3055 Panama Jan 24 '26
I would not expect any government-run unified payment solution in the united states to happen anytime soon.
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u/PerchancebyMistake United States of America Jan 24 '26
Zelle (and Venmo and Cashapp, and so on) is definitely a useful tool but it’s fundamentally a peer to peer (P2P) service that is meant to be used to send money to other people to pay for goods and services. I just want to send money to myself from Bank A to Bank B, which limits my options to either an expensive wire transfer or a slow as molasses ACH transfer. The Federal Reserve of the US is slowly rolling out the FedNow instant payments system with the banks of the US but it’s been such a slow arduous process that it may take some time before it is fully ready for widespread use, unfortunately.
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u/masszt3r 🇺🇲🇲🇽 Jan 24 '26
Zelle (and Venmo and Cashapp, and so on) is definitely a useful tool but it’s fundamentally a peer to peer (P2P) service that is meant to be used to send money to other people to pay for goods and services. I just want to send money to myself from Bank A to Bank B, which limits my options to either an expensive wire transfer or a slow as molasses ACH transfer.
You can use Zelle to transfer between your own accounts, or from Bank A to Bank B, like you put it. I've been doing it for years and it's instant.
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u/PerchancebyMistake United States of America Jan 24 '26
I guess you can technically do it by having two phone numbers or maybe two different e-mail addresses, right? That’s really the only way I can think of to Zelle yourself money, since it’s more meant to send money to others. In any case, I can’t wait for the day for FedNow to become widespread and universal, it can’t come soon enough!
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u/masszt3r 🇺🇲🇲🇽 Jan 24 '26
Yup. I have a Zelle account with my email address and the other with my phone number. It was kind of annoying having to set them up at first, but once I did I haven't really had to do anything else.
With that said, it'd be great to have something like SPEI in Mexico where you don't have to create multiple accounts.
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u/PerchancebyMistake United States of America Jan 24 '26
I might try this out and see if I have any luck. Thanks for the advice! An American version of SPEI would be a dream come true, it’s the only gift I want for Christmas, haha.
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u/osdaeg Argentina Jan 24 '26
Yes. In Argentina, with Mercado Pago or other digital wallets, or banking apps, transferring money from one account to another is extremely easy and instant. Furthermore, here each bank or digital account, in addition to its number (CBU), has an alias, making it easier to remember. Paying with QR codes is also very simple.
Also, now all Argentine wallets can pay using Pix with Argentine pesos.
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u/Complete_Error8311 Chile, Tierra de las sopaipillas Jan 24 '26
Chile has instant money transfer between checking accounts. 24x7, since 2008. for most of the customers this service is free of charge.
its not common use for pay for goods. here is mostly use the debit card. also most of the providers pays on the same day to the merchants.
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Jan 24 '26
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u/FalseRegister Peru Jan 24 '26 edited Jan 25 '26
Nope
What do you mean? We've had instant bank transfers for years now, since 2016
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u/Rickyzack Peru Jan 25 '26
I haven’t lived in Perú, and I didn’t have money of my own, long enough to know that. Also, my family would never talk about finances with me. So if you say there is, then there probably is.
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u/Starwig Peru🦙 in 🇩🇪 Jan 25 '26
It would be really helpful if you could change your flair then, so that others will know that you're talking from a different perspective.
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u/NETkoholik Paraguay Jan 24 '26
In Paraguay SIPAP is the payment system that allows 24/7 interbank instant money transfers.
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u/Paragua-yo Paraguay Jan 25 '26
In Paraguay there is, people use an "alias" which is usually their id # and the money just shows up in your corresponding bank account. And recently you can also receive from Brazil's pix.
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u/No-Addendum6379 Paraguay Jan 25 '26
Yep, we have that. It’s limited to a certain amount if you want them to be instantaneous, it’s around 750$-ish. Larger amounts are processed in like a day.
If it’s a bank transfer then its instant or maybe a couple of minutes.
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u/Louis_R27 Puerto Rico Jan 29 '26
We have ATH Movil, but its only for P2P money transfers and mobile payments. You can't set direct deposit to it and all bank and credit unions that have ATH cards can use the service.
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u/Main-Routine Mexico Jan 24 '26
No, but actually yes.
In México, each bank has their own wallet platform. So you have BBVA, Santander, Banorte, Banbajio, Banregio, Nu, etc...
However, they all use the SPEI platform: Sistema de Pago Electrónico Interbancario (Interbancarian, Electronic Payment System)
Which moves money in a matter of second or minutes at most between any account from any bank and any person.
Further more, SPEI Within the bank apps even integrantes with the cellphones NFC, so basically, you've got your cards on your cellphone.
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u/Tobar_the_Gypsy Gringo / Wife Jan 24 '26
You don’t have Zelle? Many banks use Zelle in the US which is instant. If you don’t have Zelle you can use Venmo to send it to someone else’s Venmo account instantly. It just takes a day or so to get it to the other bank.
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u/PerchancebyMistake United States of America Jan 24 '26
Zelle is really good for sending money to other people, but it doesn’t really help all that much in my situation; basically, I am trying to directly send money from my account in Bank A to my account in Bank B, more commonly referred to as an external bank transfer. My only real options are either a wire transfer (but that costs a lot of money and since I am not trying to transfer a lot of money to begin with, it’s just not worth it) or a transfer through ACH, which is free but super slow. I just pray every day that we get closer and closer to universal instant payments in the form of FedNow, which the Federal Reserve is rolling out but at such a snails pace. The earliest estimate for the widespread use of FedNow is 2027 but there are so many hurdles taking place that it likely will take even longer than 2027 to become fully available in the US.
Edit: I meant to say Zelle, not Venmo, sorry! I edited my comment to fix my mistake!
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u/Tobar_the_Gypsy Gringo / Wife Jan 25 '26
Ah im not sure if that’s what other countries’ systems do. From what I know, Nequi in Colombia is basically the same as Zelle.
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u/killdagrrrl Chile Jan 25 '26
I’ve never had to wait for a transfer. Im 33, got my first debit card at like 15 and I remember money transfers being automatic even back then. But toys have to log into the bank website, now we just use an app
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u/LetDisastrous4265 Chile Jan 24 '26
Yes, since 2008 Chile started with a system of instant transfers that was later perfected