Ever go to the pub with mates and have a bundle of coins tossed at you while you get in rounds? Have you ever tried to collect money from your roommate so you can pay rent on time? Or have you ever got lost in a foreign country that you had to ring the Bank Of Mam to wire you some cash for a flight home? Well if you have answered yes to any of the above we have found the app for you.
Catching up with Lydia
We bumped into French whizz Cyril Chiche to speak about his app Lydia at the Dublin Tech Summit. A quick chat, demo and a euro into the bank account (result), we have a better idea of what Lydia is about. Lydia is set to be one of the first real PayPal alternatives on the market. It’s a great way to pay back mates, move some money about or to use as a PayPal alternative. Check out our interview with Lydia’s Cyril:
Under the hood of Lydia
So, it’s a new payment method, simple. Using existing technologies in a different format, for free (we like free). The team behind Lydia have also looked at their competition when building a PayPal alternative.
As you may see from the demo, making or receiving payment really couldn’t be any simpler. To make a payment select a card that you want to use, enter how much you want to send and your passcode. Once that’s done, hop off into your contact book and select who you’re sending money too. Lydia will then text or email them taking your cash to let them know it’s now in the app for them. At that point, it’s no longer your problem.
Lydia is fast, convenient and frictionless once setup
You don’t even have to worry about your mates having the app downloaded. If they don’t have it and have no interest in it, they can go to a secure page and transfer the cash to their bank account. Also, after deciding how much money your sending, you can get your mate to scan a QR code and bang – instant payment. If you don’t want to keep any money in the app, you can withdraw it to your bank account — it’s free. Lydia doesn’t have any incentive to keep your money because it can’t make the money work due to regulations. Music to my ears.
How are they doing so far?
So the company started in 2011 but the app was only released in 2013. Since then the payment method app has shot up in its native France rocking out with over 700,000 users. Today, roughly a 1500 new people downloading every day. The recent Dublin Tech Summit of the app in Ireland is only the second country to get Lydia. Available on the Google Play Store and iOS.