It many countries it is legal to deposit into someones else account and it is considered the norm in some countries (example: central/south america)

I mentioned this idea to Tradehill the ability to deposit say $100 at a local BofA. The bank gives you a deposit receipt (proof) and you can send it to Tradehill if anything.

I spoke with the bank in person today. It's completely legal and at first sounds like a great option. The banker admitted that occasionally the slip doesn't get put in the system and it can be very confusing. I do this all the time to pay for things in Chile but in the US it's not quite as efficient in reality. I'm speaking with additional banks tomorrow and would really like to offer this service. If at all possible we will immediately. If the risk is too high we will have to leave it off the list.

Additionally the blog has been updated and we're now sending out checks on request.

Jered

You can probably also deposit into someone else's account through online banking if you can do it over the counter at a branch.  Here an online deposit to the same bank is instantly available, while a deposit to a different bank can take a couple of days to process.  Either way, there's no need to physically visit the bank.

Becoming a biller with a billpay platform would make things simple for exchange clients because they could deposit funds by phone, online or in person, but billpay schemes typically involve interchange fees for the billers who are part of the scheme.

I think one issue which has emerged is how different the banking systems are in the various places the exchanges do business. Things which are dead simple and low cost in one location are complex and expensive somewhere else.  There's no "one size fits all" solution for the issue of depositing and withdrawing funds to and from the exchanges. Implementing and maintaining different systems for different locations is going to be a serious pain in the ass and every extra step which is added to the process introduces another potential failure point. 

The exchanges need to stop rushing to market with half-assed bandaid solutions adopted on the fly and refrain from promising solutions until they're certain they can deliver.

I don't see how acccepting cash at the teller's counter to an account that is merely used as a feeder to your other account(s) could possibly fall victim to fraud. Just be sure that the depositor had a transaction number that can only be used one time to add those funds to his/her account. You will not be inventing the wheel here.

I think you're over-estimating the willingness of banks to make their security footage available to customers and third parties.  I also suspect that banks only keep their security footage for a very limited amount of time, just like other businesses.

Jered, I hope you have a $1000 withdrawl limit on your site.


Otherwise, someone who has all of Mybitcoin and Polands Bitcoins can wipeout your entire site.

Why not use something like MoneyBookers?

Really? I know PayPal is risky, but I thought MoneyBookers didn't do chargebacks when we are talking simple "sending money to another MoneyBookers account"?

Guess I was wrong :/

edit: Why couldn't Tradehill give the possibility of withdrawing money to moneybookers? Unless Tradehill would demand a chargeback? But then they would be seen as fraudulent?

1) I go to withdraw $1,000 from TradeHill using MoneyBookers. I have a zero balance with MoneyBookers.

2) A transaction I made through MoneyBookers three months ago gets reversed by a scammer. MoneyBookers now claims I have a negative balance and uses my TradeHill transaction to offset it.

3) I complain to TradeHill about not getting my $1,000. What do they say? "Sorry, we did our part. It's not our fault MoneyBookers stole your money. After all, you told us to send it to them."

If you find the excuse in '3' acceptable, then why wouldn't it have been acceptable for TradeHill to just take the thousands Dwolla reversed out of their Dwolla deposits? After all, TradeHill's customers sent that money to Dwolla. It's not TradeHill's fault Dwolla decided to use it to offset scammed transactions.

Any scheme that allows a scammer to steal their customer's money despite no fraud or funny business on the part of their customer is a poor choice for an exchange.

About checks: They're coming directly from the bank, I'll confirm if the account routing are on it but I don't believe so. Valid point though.

Frozen: If it's the same bank they (the ones I've spoken with) treat all accounts the same. If we have one account for wires (which is what we did in the past) and they have fraud concerns all the accounts will be effected. Banks are very careful with fraud and won't hesitate to act even if the fraud is coming towards us and not from us.

Moneybookers: obviously less risk outgoing and most likely we will do that. There is still some risk as JoelKatz pointed out but we're going to clarify that with them and would like to offer it soon.

Geniusxboy: I believe Polands BTC was deleted but I could be wrong. If the mybitcoin funds were stolen then this could be a possibility. We see large amounts of BTC come in and out daily for legitimate reasons though and with a withdraw limit they would still be able to manipulate the market on TradeHill or any other exchange to a degree. If they're trying to maximize the currency they can remove though it wouldn't make sense.

Jered