For those who are older, Venmo is used today probably more than cash by college students (for things like paying a friend back, paying membership dues, paying to get into a party, etc.)
It's pretty easy to use venmo without giving them your banking information. That's how I've been using it for years. You just have to be willing to carry a balance. What I did is went to a coworker who has venmo and gave him $50 in cash, and in return he transferred $50 to my venmo.
That wouldn't work so well if you were always receiving money or always sending it, but if you have a pretty even mix then it works great.
But it does require you to walk to the nearest ATM, withdraw the nearest round amount to the amount you need, then somehow try to get change from your friend (or just call it even) then walk around with the remainder.
I get what you're saying, but it isn't difficult to see why people find Venom a better option. What is exactly that bad about Venmo having your credit card number? You're protected from fraud anyway.
It's friction. If you have two entities providing the same service (money exchange), but one is easy to use and one is much harder to use, the easier one will win (all other things being equal.
Check method:
Needed items:
Payer - checkbook, pen
Payee - phone
Steps:
Payer Payee
Write check
Give check Receive check
Sign check
Use app to photograph and submit check
A similar occurrence in the financial field, mobile banking. Depositing checks via phone is easier than going to an ATM which was easier than making it to a physical branch of the right bank during business hours.
Cash is a better equivalence to Venmo, but only works when you're physically collocated. And then requires one or both parties to carry around cash (and it's not as easy to be precise, if you care about getting it right down to the penny).
You then have to write out a check to the right person, the amount, the other person has to sign it and then take two pictures. Venmo just reduces all of that to. Send $10 to X
Unfortunately, America hasn't reached the same level of financial sophistication as the UK regarding money transfers. It will eventually, obsoleting hacks like Venmo.
I don't know about all banks, but my bank has a flat fee on that service, which seems like it would make it significantly worse for paying back small sums (of which the flat fee is a greater percentage of).
Your kid's school doesn't take Venmo for field trips. Or school lunch programs. Or extracurricular activities. That's just to name a few "adult" things Venmo doesn't support, and requires a checkbook.
Great, you can pay friends back for rent, drinks, or eating out. #millenialproblems
It seems more like #twentysomethingproblems, not #millenialproblems. As a GenXer this was stuff I dealt with far more in college and just after than I do these days. I imagine it was similar for my Boomer parents.
I think services like Venmo are the way of the future, but there's something the minimalist in me really likes about the completely analog transfer of paper money. There's an app for everything and they all require mental overhead (the least of which is remembering which silly oft-nonsensical app name translates to the real-world thing you want it to do). I'm not a Luddite, but simplicity to me is not 100 different apps for 100 different everyday tasks they handle.
It's surprisingly hard to settle a dinner bill between 8 people who only have $20 bills, and no one actually goes inside the bank branch to get other denominations (or buys anything with cash to get change).
Its not very hard to ask for change from a restaurant or get change from a bar later on in the night.
If everyone got $20 from the ATM earlier what's to stop them from using their debt card to pay the bill? I was a server for many years and splitting the bill is standard for most younger people.
Let's take a specific example, then. Last week I ordered ~$140 worth of pizza for a party at our office. I paid with my credit card on the website of the pizza joint. Everyone owed about $12-13 in the end (yeah I know, it's an expensive local pizza chain).
Getting paid back with cash would've been a nightmare. Instead I opened Venmo, put in $150, entered the names of my colleagues who were partaking, and hit request. Venmo did the math and requested each person's portion with a push notification. They each confirmed, and I was paid back in full in a few minutes, without even needing to talk directly to most of the people involved.
There are so many situations like this. "But you could do it another more inconvenient way instead" or "you could continue to deal with recouping for hours afterward" aren't especially compelling arguments once you've had the convenience.
>Its not very hard to ask for change from a restaurant or get change from a bar later on in the night.
If everyone chips in a $20 or two, but there's a wide spread in min and max spend per person, getting the correct increments of change to distribute to each diner in the party becomes an efficiency nightmare. Nevermind the fact that it's just plain stupid when reasonable alternatives (Venmo, Square Cash, etc.) exist.
>splitting the bill is standard for most younger people
There are many food and drink establishments with a "no splitting of bills, ever" policy. This is more prevalent in some cities than others.
Paying off a bet about who would become CEO of twitter
Paying someone for my portion of a bar tab.
Fantasy Football league dues
Receiving money from someone for their portion of a bar tab
Paying someone for movie tickets
I use it for just about everything I would have previously had to write a check to an individual for. Most of the time this ends up being some form of paying someone back for my portion of a split bill or if they purchased something on my behalf.
Even though I have had paypal for years, most people cringe when someone doesn't yet have Venmo and offers to send via paypal.
I'm in my 30s. Today is the first day I've ever heard of Venmo.
I think the reason why I never heard of it is cause of the way my friends and I handle money. One person will grab drinks one day and the next time the next person picks up lunch. If someone buys a pizza everyone just gives them whatever bill from their pocket. None of us really "keep track" in specific dollar figures. Nobody says "this is only $5, you owe me $6."
Of course this kind of thing doesn't work out for every group.
I bought concert tickets and a friend paid me for one of them. I need help moving and my friend let me use her zipcar membership. I venmo'd her money for the cost of the van. A few friends and I wanted to send flowers to a friend who had a baby. One person bought them and charged us each the split amount. etc.
So is it useful in countries with good banking systems? In the UK transactions are pretty much instantaneous and only require account number/sort code.