Venmo
 

May be of interest for those who use VENMO (70,000,000 people)..

VENMO recently added a "Button" when you send money to someone, which offers you "Protection for this Transaction" ... at no cost to the Sender. They charge the Recipient, 1.9% + 10¢. I got charged $12 when my ex-wife transferred money to me.

Be careful. This Option can be triggered by what you write in the "Notes" section. The notes are evaluated by a algorithm and automatically activate the Fee.

All this electronic crap is very dangerous. Cash is king and credit cards offer protection for card holders from fraud. That’s all we use.

It's not really a "scam" it's an enforcement of their terms. Since it just started I guess they could have made a few errors but more likely it's people avoiding their fees or PayPal fees. Venmo (owned by PayPal) is only supposed to be used for non-business P to P transactions (like PayPal send money to a "friend"). Any sales of "stuff" (goods & services) are considered commercial and charged the commercial fee. PayPal does the same. Their TOS says it's only for P to P payments. Those who are actually being paid for anything are being charged the fee. People who are dumb enough to ignore the TOS and put in the "comments" something like "for an iPhone 6" are being charged fees. If they simply had put "here's the $50 I owe you for lunch, or "repayment of your loan" there would be no problem. Lots of commercial companies have been getting away with it for years. I guess they are finally cracking down. Kind of like Netflix and password sharing.

https://www.androidpolice.com/2021/0...-to-like-them/

At the moment Venmo users who have identified themselves as a business have to pay a 1.9% + 10 cents transfer fee for any money sent to them. Starting on July 20th, all users will have to pay this fee when receiving money for goods or services, whether or not their account is identified as a business. That's according to an email sent to Venmo users yesterday.

I totally agree with you. We always pay cash at restaurants but we use a credit card for groceries and gasoline.

This has nothing to do with credit cards or gas stations or restaurants. The advantage to Venmo, PayPal, Zelle and others is if for example you want to send your grandkids or friend money you can do it for free in instantly. You can't do that with a credit card and if you want to send cash through the mail, good luck or a check would take days. Nothing is foolproof. The world is changing. You just have to be careful and not fearful of technology.

The downside of some of these systems is that you (the sender) have NO protection if the payment is part of a scam, or if someone managed to access your account and send funds. At least with credit cards there is some protection. I had someone ask me to setup Zelle, and when doing me due diligence I found there is no protection for incorrect or scam payments, needless to say I do not use Zelle.

That goes for anything. Stolen credit card numbers etc. Anyone who gets their account login stolen needs to use one of the many ways to protect their account info available.

Zelle is sent through one's own bank account and the account owner is sending it. If someone else can access that they have more problems than Zelle scams. You certainly shouldn't be sending Zelle payments to anyone you don't know and should confirm directly from them they are who they say they are. Would you leave a wad of cash on a desk for someone to come buy and pick up later in the day. Of course not. Like anything else in the world people need to be careful what they do. MOST of the issues with Zelle, PayPal, Venmo etc are all related to users not being fully aware of what they are doing. I'd bet the anount of actual scams is infinitesimal. Only the bad stuff gets posted in articles or online.

Edit: And the BEST protection is to have a totally separate bank account just for those types of things, and just transfer or keep what you need in it.

All I know is that with all those electronic payment methods some faceless wimp can remotely steal your hard earned money from you from behind a keyboard while sitting in a chair in some third world country. If someone wants to steal my cash, they will have to physically confront me, kill me, and pry it from my cold dead hands. Cash is king!

So were phone booths and 8 track tapes! It might be king but it's hard to push it through your bank or a cellphone to friends or family. :D I would assume you don't shop online or use credit cards or ever send a check because those same folks can get to those things also. I keep a $5 bill stuffed inside my cell phone case for bail money if I need it but haven't used cash in probably in forever, especially with all the cash rebate credit cards.

In addition to cash, I’ll use a credit card. The bank that issued the card will not charge me for fraudulent use and offers either cash rewards or points toward air travel. My bills are on autopay from my cash rewards card, with physical statements sent to me in the real mail so I can save them in the appropriate file. As far as all the other electronic forms of payment, I guess we agree to disagree. The only thing I push through my cell phone is a phone call or the occasional text (if I have my cheaters handy). To each his or her own.

I would add it is helpful if you read a bit about the new service & learn its advantages & limitations. That way you can make an informed decision. Just jumping in and making assumptions is how people run into problems. (By reading I mean some of the tech articles which pop up like mushrooms when something new debuts. The Terms of Service are impenetrable legalese & useless for regular folks).

FWIW, Consumer Advocates like Clark Howard do not like these services. His main issue is the lack of customer protections. A standard checking account has much more safeguards.

I've never heard of venmo or zelle.

I gotta ask???? How did you get ex wife to send you money?:confused:

There's also CashApp :) Your bank likely has Zelle under "transfers." Check it out. Most all now do. Venmo is owned by PayPal and is their peer to peer money transfer system for PERSONAL transactions which is their answer to Cash-App. :) Then there's Apple Cash (not the same as Apple PAY), Samsung Pay, Google Pay, Android Pay and maybe a couple others I missed all pretty much do the same, allows you to instantly send cash to family and friends between bank accounts. Despite the fears of many, they are quite safe but like anything in the world they can be abused if one is careless or gullible. .

Top Peer-to-Peer Payment Apps: Pros and Cons - NerdWallet