Capital One Wire Transfer: Fill & Download for Free

This is a pretty wide open question. Will try to answer as much as I can. I've included more visual versus text, as visuals can very easily get the point across, in a few minutes. Should you wish to explore further, I have provided some relevant links for further reading.First of all, the definition. When discussing payment systems, it is so easy to have different understanding of what a payment system is.WHAT IS A PAYMENT SYSTEM?a payment system consists of a set of instruments, bankingprocedures and, typically, interbank funds transfer systems thatensure the circulation of moneyGlossary definition from the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (BIS - Bank of International Settlements). See glossary at: http://www.bis.org/publ/cpss00b.pdf (March 2003)In its basic form a payment ecosystem has this very important singular relationship, without which a payment cannot be made:The whole concept of a "payment" is to exchange money between two parties, so hence the Payer and Payee concept.*Barring Bitcoin, regulated money (which is what 99.999+% of us use) requires a bank. It is not necessarily that a bank is required to move money, but a Bank is at the core, for example in Cash-to-Cash transaction, whilst a bank is not involved, a Bank was the source of the cash and could very well be the destination of cash as well (if) and when it gets deposited.The definition of a Payment System can be visualized as follows:The Payment Instrument section above can be expanded as:Central to all this is the Bank, and how the bank interacts with various entities would be explained below. First, you have to understand with whom a commercial bank can interact with:The above essentially represents the eco-system in which a commercial (non-investment bank) is operating in. The ovals in purple, represents the various verticals a bank can choose to associate themselves with and work in/with.A slightly wider view of the same would be:Credit: Above visuals are extracted from the presentation "An Introduction of Payment Systems" by Dyah N.K. Makhijani, Bank Indonesia. Source: http://www.bi.go.id/NR/rdonlyres/10122ACC-8ACC-41E1-91EA-94F3D98B874F/14130/AnIntroductiononPaymentSystem.pdfAs far as Banks are concerned, there are many types of banks, below is a pictorial representation of the different types of banks:PAYMENT SYSTEMS LAYER (REGULATORY)In most cases, a payment's ecosystem has a hierarchy of how the central bank is, then commercial banks, the payments layers and companies that work with the payments layer (as one of the examples, here is how a payments system hierarchy looks like for startups in a particular model that I was trying to demonstrate):The concept shown in the above diagram in a rudimentary form was to show that in most cases, Startups work with a Payment Service Provider who work with Banks, who are regulated by the Central Banks.THE FINANCIAL SWITCH ECOSYSTEMThe Switch in the Payment's Ecosystem is extremely important, it is what allows for a lot of the connectivity and transactions routing/communication to go through.Below is an example what the transaction set of a unified switch would look like. Not every transaction set shown below has to be on the switch, this is just a unified example, it all depends from switch to switch and operators/usage of that switch.BANK TO BANK (SETTLEMENT OF FUNDS)One thing that confuses people a lot is how is the bank to bank settlement done?I wrote a detailed answer on this which can be read here: Faisal Khan's answer to How does the settlement of payments work in banks? Specifically, how do payment systems that are connected to multiple banks actually settle the amount between two banks?To better understand how money is actually transferred between banks and different countries, you would most likely want to read up on this: Faisal Khan's answer to How does money transfer between banks and different countries work?WIRE TRANSFERS - HOW DO THEY WORK?From a wire transfer point of view, what exactly happens when a Wire Transfer is made, please read this answer: Faisal Khan's answer to What exactly happens when a wire transfer is made? How does the money travel from the sender's account to the recipient's account? How much time does each step take? What regulatory measures are in place, if any?Even more important is to understand what exactly happens when a remittance transfer is made? What are all the steps involved in a money-transfer transaction: Faisal Khan's answer to How does a remittance money transfer work? What are all the steps and who is involved?PAYPAL WALLETBecause PayPal will so frequently be cited as an example, many people need to learn up as to what exactly PayPal is and how does money loading/off-loading on a PayPal wallet actually work?To understand how it all works, here is a detailed answer on how PayPal works: Faisal Khan's answer to What is a Paypal account? Is it a kind of bank account which is maintained for demand deposits? __ 𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥 PayPal 𝐓𝐨𝐥𝐥 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐍𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 ☏+❶►❽❺❻▁❹❼❺►❷❺❺❺?WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU CHARGE YOUR CARD?From a merchant's POV, the payments ecosystem processing looks something like this:In a process flow, it would look something like this:Since everyone has a slightly different way of representing flows, here are a few more:and another one:Nomenclature aside, the key players/components are the same:Role of an Acquirer: the acquirer (Chase, First Data, etc) solicits, underwrites and owns the merchant account. They provide technology and hardware, which enables the merchant to process the transaction.Role of the Issuer: The issuer is the bank (Capital One, CIBC, RBC, etc) that provides the cardholder with their credit card. They bare the responsibility of approving the cardholder and billing and collecting the owed funds from cardholder.Credit Card Associations: Associations (Visa, MaterCard, AMEX, et) are commonly referred to as the credit card and debit card companies. The role of the associations is to govern the policies pertaining to their bank cards, monitor processing activity, and oversee the clearing and settlement of transactions. Currently VISA is the most popular association with approximately 65% transaction volume.ISOs (Independent Sales Organizations): ISOs (Payfirma, Square, etc) are organizations that partner with acquirers to open merchant accounts, handle support, manage payment processing, and build added-value technology on behalf of acquirers. ISOs do this in exchange for a percentage of the transaction volume.Merchant: The merchant is a business owner who submits a request to an ISO/acquirer for the ability to accept credit. Merchants are approved under the qualifications set by the associations and the policy of the underwriters.Cardholder: Cardholders (consumers) are customers of a bank that request a credit card. The cardholder will be approved by the issuer based on credit worthiness.Source: Payment Processing 101Here is a graph of how transfer fees in a credit card transaction works:A simple visual, to give you an example of some of the vendors involved:Juxtapose this to mobile payments, and it is inherently no different. Below visual shows the various types of payment systems.Here is another infographic on the mobile-payment ecosystem:On the product side of things, there is no one-product that fits, all, below is a rough representation of how the market segment that you will market to, look like:On the processing side, you might want to read this answers:How are credit cards validated and processed through providers such as Paypal and Square?How do credit card companies make money?How do payment gateways like authorize.net connect to credit card companies?One other link I would like to recommend to understand how consumers make choices as far as payment instrument of choice is concerned: The 2009 Survey of Consumer Payment ChoiceTo better understand the various payment systems - these two infographics are worth reading and are must-read/must-have.Evolution of Payments Market Map (2011)Mobile Payments and Banking Market Map (2012)Both these PDFs can be downloaded for free from: Downloads: Market MapsYou may also want to have a look at BIS (Bank of International Settlements), they have an excellent repository of reports (PDFs) on various payment systems around the world. Source: Payment and settlement systems in selected countriesThere is just so much information out there. Inbox me if you require more information.About the Author: Faisal Khan is a banking / payments consultant and digital money evangelist. He is the co-host of Around the Coin, a weekly podcast on banking, money and payments. He is also a frequent contributor to popular Q&A site Quora. His official website is at www.faisalkhan.com

I’ll use an example of a small business that was a subsidiary of a mid-sized business. At the time, the VP of the corporation was the manager of the small business. The VP didn’t understand anything about cash flows. He just assumed that there was infinite cash, and so he instructed the office manager to make wire transfers, or pay other bills by mailing a check, without regard to whether that made any sense with concern to the cash flow situation of the business.I came into the picture, first, to replace the office manager when she retired, and then when the VP quit the corporation, I added the subsidiary manager job to my role at the company. — The President of the corporation was my boss.Knowing the general situation of cash and financial demands on the corporation, as a whole, and on the subsidiary, I started to make changes to the capital structure of the subsidiary.For instance, for some reason that made sense at some point, prior to getting a delivery of the most important material to the manufacture of the subsidiary’s main product, a wire transfer had to be made — paying for it, in full, prior to it being sold.This was probably a provision that was put in place by the supplier when the subsidiary was new. — It was now two or three years old.I contacted the saleswoman for the supplier and asked for a trade credit application. We were approved to have more invoices outstanding, in a month, that we’d ever had in a couple of months. And, if we paid the invoices within a few days, we got a discount.So, if this had been in place all along, each immediate wire transfer (not taking into account the bank service charges related to making wire transfers) would have given the company a discount on the materials received.Not figuring that out years before was a dereliction of duty on behalf of the VP.But, let’s go back. — Both the President and the VP thought the manufacture of the subsidiary’s products was a simple thing. Anybody could do it.And, that’s how they treated it. — If they weren’t there, then they’d let basically anyone do it.That led to product inconsistency — even substandard product manufacture — when the product being sold was a commodity. Commodities are undifferentiated, or at least they are supposed to be. — A banana is supposed to be a banana. There’s not much room for “creativity” in a banana, at least in the basic fruit market. — That logic held for what we were doing.By letting almost anybody make this product, there was significant differentiation in what customers received. — It may help to explain that the product was concrete.Customers would get concrete that was too flowable (i.e., too wet) for what they needed, despite telling the dispatcher how they needed it.It might be too dry. It might be too rocky. — At times, it wasn’t even concrete.Concrete is made of rock or gravel, sand, cementitious (cement-like) materials, and water. Sometimes, specialized chemicals are added.Before I became manager of the concrete plant, sometimes, customers were getting loads of “concrete” that had no sand, or no rock.That’s not even concrete!These small moves — of delegating major responsibilities to people who were not qualified to do them — led to a situation in which almost no one was willing to buy the products of the plant. Hence, why the VP left.These same unqualified people, who might have zero computer experience, were expected to make out concrete load tickets, in Microsoft Excel, that the customer would sign and that listed how much the customer was expected to pay.Very high strength concretes, which should have been more expensive, were being sold for regular price. — Mandatory fees were being left off because someone before had hit the DEL key and then saved it as the template.It was just a mess.When I took over the subsidiary, I had five concrete mixer trucks; one commercial driver; and, one guy who could batch the concrete. Oh, and one guy who “cleaned up around the plant” because he needed a job and his parents knew the ex-VP.This is a ridiculous setup for a bona fide concrete plant. This was not some mobile concrete plant. It was a plant I would later use to pave the local paradise in grey solids.I got rid of the guy who needed a job mowing the grass in February. Since I then had two offices, and I wasn’t always at the plant, I noticed that, when I was gone (since there were few orders), the batch person and the driver usually were out in one of the mixer trucks, burning diesel and listening to a radio. — Yes, I do mean one of the old kind, with the antenna and the cassette option? — They had the truck running because it had a heater and it was cold outside.Very soon, the batch person quit because of my insistence that he do something, and I became the dispatcher, the financial guy for the corporation, and the batch person. — The President taught me how to batch concrete, and I improved on that over the years.Remember: having me to batch concrete, originally, was the same idea of having anybody do it. — It didn’t work well in the beginning, especially during the summer, because — it’s not child’s play to batch concrete well.By having an idea of cash outflows and cash inflows of the entire corporation, I was able to improve, gradually, what was going on with the subsidiary. — It still did not do well for the first two years.Then, as I was able to get and retain customers, and provide a steady voice of control over it to those customers, its revenues and profits exploded. They were up over 400% by Year 5.By that time, I was the CFO of the corporation and the manager of the plant, so there was no concept of the “manager of the plant (aka VP)” telling the person in the office to do anything.The lady who originally trained me would often tell the VP that there was no money, and he’d reply, “Just give me the fucking check!”I saw a year in which there was five digits’ worth of overdraft and NSF fees. — Not the best thing for cash-on-hand.Prior to suggesting that I become the plant’s manager, I saw the President hire someone who had some basic construction skills to be the plant’s manager. It didn’t work out, because he then was hired to be head of the local airport. That shortly didn’t work out when he got a DWI?I don’t know what people were thinking about sophistication in the workforce, but it was not endemic to that particular corporation.And, if someone had not stepped in who had some formal training in how to run a business and a willingness to spend time, after hours, learning how to do a job — it would have destroyed the business.Even after taking it over, sales fell from $738,000, to $550,000, to $445,000 — those last two years being ones in which I was in control of the subsidiary.Even competence and good intentions do not erase bad memories from customers’ minds immediately.Sales were in the millions when I passed the torch. — After 445, they jumped to 938.So, hard work does pay off, but not always immediately. And, crap work will kill a business that has potential.

They do not charge for ACH transfers and a simple look at your online account would have told you that.