Discover has joined the P2P ranks using PayPal as the engine. Card brands have found it expedient to leverage a third party for their P2P efforts. MasterCard has worked with Obopay. Visa is working with CashEdge. And now Discover has teamed up with PayPal to leverage the online giant’s nearly global footprint. Just don’t send anything to India.
Schatt said by leveraging PayPal’s services, Discover’s customers can send money to people in 60 countries, as long as the other person has a mobile phone number or email address. The recipients must have a PayPal account, or can open one after the fact. There are roughly 230 million registered PayPal users today.
Other than awareness, there are few hurdles or costs involved.
That issue of awareness is no small concern. How much will Discover market this capability to its cardholders? Market education is not cheap and there are so many messages Discover wants to communicate. Choices, choices!