An easy way to understand PIX if you live in the US!

You’re almost right if you think of Zelle®or Venmo. PIX is more like Zelle, but it goes beyond P2P transactions and it has a different cost structure for businesses.

Perhaps you’re saying, “Please change the subject; enough about PIX.” I understand… Really, though, if you do cross-border payments in Brazil, you’ll thank me later.

Zelle is quick, just like PIX, and it works with most bank accounts right out of the box. To sign up, you need to provide an email address and phone number so that your account can be set up.

To send money using Zelle, all you need to do is create a contact in your banking app and add either a phone number or e-mail. From there, you choose which one of your accounts you want to send money from and then confirm the transaction.

Zelle was created to send money to people you trust, not to pay for goods and services. That is where the similarities with PIX end. Another difference is that Zelle works as an independent app, which is not the same as PIX. PIX is only available through a banking app.

The next step is understanding what a PIX key is. I think it will make things a lot easier. Think of the phone number and email address of the person you want to send money to on Zelle as the PIX key.

To make transfers from my Itaú bank account to a friend’s account, no matter their bank, all I need is their PIX key, which could be a phone number, email address, tax ID, or some random number that your bank app can generate.

Venmo works like a wallet, where you need to connect your bank account to it before transferring funds and splitting bills. Money doesn’t move quite so fast from Venmo to your bank account; it’s the same concept, but with different rails.

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