The whole idea of giving your login credentials to a third-party is, to me at least, scary and controversial. Of course, I did it, because I wanted the service WU was offering, and what was the worst that could happen? A liability lawsuit involving WU and my bank that would take years to sort out?
Anyway, after reading all these comments above, I did what I should have done from the beginning, and did some researching.
WU uses a company called Trustly to do the account verification. The company has been around since 2008. As of a June, 2020, article in TechCrunch, at that time it had US$ 150,000,000 in revenues, a valuation of more than US$ 1 billion (US meaning of billion), and had just raised a significant new round of funding from an investor group led by BlackRock.
Trustly's service is growing rapidly because it solves a difficult problem: verifying your account nearly painlessly, so you can use it. According to what I have read in these last couple hours, Trustly is secure, and is held by governments to the same standards as banks.
Despite this (and no doubt for the same reasons expressed in this thread), I found many comments from people who were (and are) very distrustful and confused. Not surprising. After being taught all your life not to give the username and password of ANY account to ANYONE, you're now asked to give the username and password of your BANK ACCOUNT to a third party.
However, this looks like it's here to stay, and it's going to get bigger. No doubt they'll come up with new ways over the next couple years to overcome the trust issue, but millions of people have been using it already for at least a few years now, without any glaring headlines about someone's (or many someones') bank acccounts being emptied because of a breach related to Trustly. With all the security breaches we read about these days, to me that's something.
(And a lot of people here have used it, or they wouldn't be transferring from their bank accounts. Anyone had a problem?)
Some links:
www.westernunion.com
TechCrunch article
techcrunch.com
Trustly homepage
www.trustly.net
Companies that work with/integrate with Trustly
www.trustly.net
stackexchange security group's take on the issue
security.stackexchange.com
Anyway, after reading all these comments above, I did what I should have done from the beginning, and did some researching.
WU uses a company called Trustly to do the account verification. The company has been around since 2008. As of a June, 2020, article in TechCrunch, at that time it had US$ 150,000,000 in revenues, a valuation of more than US$ 1 billion (US meaning of billion), and had just raised a significant new round of funding from an investor group led by BlackRock.
Trustly's service is growing rapidly because it solves a difficult problem: verifying your account nearly painlessly, so you can use it. According to what I have read in these last couple hours, Trustly is secure, and is held by governments to the same standards as banks.
Despite this (and no doubt for the same reasons expressed in this thread), I found many comments from people who were (and are) very distrustful and confused. Not surprising. After being taught all your life not to give the username and password of ANY account to ANYONE, you're now asked to give the username and password of your BANK ACCOUNT to a third party.
However, this looks like it's here to stay, and it's going to get bigger. No doubt they'll come up with new ways over the next couple years to overcome the trust issue, but millions of people have been using it already for at least a few years now, without any glaring headlines about someone's (or many someones') bank acccounts being emptied because of a breach related to Trustly. With all the security breaches we read about these days, to me that's something.
(And a lot of people here have used it, or they wouldn't be transferring from their bank accounts. Anyone had a problem?)
Some links:
How to Send Money from a Bank Account | Western Union SE
Find answers to our customers' frequently asked questions about how to send money from a bank account from Sweden with Western Union.
BlackRock backs Trustly, bank transfer payments platform now valued at over $1B | TechCrunch
Online payments are often synonymous with card payments, but today a startup that's built a profitable alternative, based around making and taking
techcrunch.com
Trustly | Let your customers pay from their bank account
Trustly and PayWithMyBank enables merchants with a global footprint to accept online banking payments from European and US consumers.
www.trustly.net
Trustly partners, PSPs, providers, and plugins | Trustly
www.trustly.net
Bank asked for a cross login?
I was creating a new bank account here in the US at HSBC's popular online bank... You know the step where you have to verify the account you're sending from, by receiving two small test payments? ...
security.stackexchange.com
