This mobile app allows you to digitally pay your friends, without having to worry about transferring money from your actual bank account.
If you haven’t heard your gal pals gab about the Venmo app, you may be slightly behind the times. Venmo, a money-sharing app owned and created by the parent company PayPal, allows users to transfer money easily with the tap of a button.
Recently, my roommate and I struggled to find an easy way to pay our utility bills and split our Time Warner Cable bill evenly. Handling and finding cash can be stressful, especially since many millennials hardly have cash on hand anymore. We joked about Apple Wallet, which was released about year ago and hardly used by anyone we know — we couldn’t even figure out how to set up the service on our iPhones.
If you haven’t heard of Venmo, or deemed it unsafe, read on — it’s quite an interesting, and seemingly successful concept.
My roomie and I looked into Venmo because it links users’ bank accounts or debit card accounts to a profile so they can make an instant free transfer within minutes. No waiting for days for the money to show up. As long as the money is paid, users avoid the awkward encounters with splitting up the rent or even a check at a restaurant.
A message will appear in the users notifications when a person’s friend has requested money, or a notification when one has received money. It is essentially a digital wallet, minus the cash.
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My roommate was hesitant about transferring money because the app will post the money transfers on the Venmo “social feed” or to a social networking site if a Twitter or Facebook is linked. “Seems really sketchy, and a bit intrusive,” she said. She may be right.
The company has naturally run into some safety issues — as any money wiring service would face. If the whole concept sounded unsafe to you in the beginning, you pegged that one correctly. Recently users have experienced scams through the digital transfer system, holding PayPal liable for the damages.
The app is attempting to make borrowing and lending money cool with millennials, because no one our age uses PayPal on the daily.
Is Venmo the best thing since sliced bread? No, but it might make it easier to split up your rent with your roomie, or pay your friend back for the loaf of bread you just bought.
Clare Palo is a senior studying journalism and Digital Content Director for The Post. What do you think of Venmo? Tweet her @clarepalo or email her at cp954211@ohio.edu.
