Venmo. I find it easy and very useful. I notice a lot of people don't seem to set it to "private" so I am always seeing the payments some of my friends send to others.

Yikes! Is it considered social media? You can see your friends on what, on Venmo? Or does FB own it?

I use Zelle all the time. DH uses both Zelle and Venmo. I will have to make sure he has it set to private. This is just the kind of thing that he would ignore!

I use Venmo for one gardener. I have my settings on private. I pay the extra 3% so payments are charged to my credit card instead of having my banking information on the site. I think Zelle might be a bit more secure as banks often have it available on their apps.

Gee, I don’t use my bank’s app.

I've used Venmo a couple of times and found it to be very easy and intuitive. Don't understand why others don't set their transactions to private, as it seems an odd feature to announce publicly that you just spent $30 on tacos or whatever.

No, I don't use these. I use Paypal, or else contactless payments like Apple Pay. Our new CITI American Airlines card is also contactless. They sent new cards this spring. Just need to wave it .

I’ve tried to set up Venmo but it tells me my phone number can’t be accepted.

I set up Venmo and the first thing I saw was a payment my friend's son made for something. He's not even one of my contacts, he's a contact of a contact. Yikes.

I know Venmo is easy and does have privacy settings but I just can't support something where the default is so invasive. I have very few apps on my phone for that reason.

I know privacy is futile but I do feel better for trying.

PayPal owns Venmo.

The pandemic and my neighborhood's willingness to shop for one another caused me to need one of these systems. I chose Zelle. It is so easy!

E-transfer via my bank's website. Just need the person's email address.

In my circle, everyone uses Venmo. Yeah, I don't understand why people don't just choose the privacy setting.

bpath I think you and I might be the only dinosaurs left in this world. I don't use my bank's app either - no banking from my phone. No Venmo acct either. I do use Zelle, on my laptop, through my bank for certain people/payments. Had a Paypal acct years ago that was hacked so don't use that anymore either. It may be better managed now and more secure, that was close to 20 years ago.

Thank you for mentioning the private/public option on Venmo. I didn't have a clue and I just checked and my setting was on public. I have only used Venmo twice to pay for Meditation classes and now the world knows. I also use Zelle through my bank.

For some reason I did not see the option to set the account on private when I signed up. Perhaps I was in too much of a hurry. In any event, I don't know why anyone would purposely want anyone on the internet to be able to see what payments they make.

I've never understood the "social" aspect of Venmo. It seems very odd to me.

I used to use Square Cash quite a bit with a couple of friends. I think that they have changed the name to just Cash.

DLM, we have a separate bank account for PayPal because of stories like yours. We keep just enough in it to cover what we are paying. The balance is often in the single digits! When we are making a payment, we transfer money in.

Our local fb etc marketplaces, and even the live farmers markets, are encouraging P2P, although when I bought masks from a neighbor who was taking p2p, I asked if she would take cash and she replied “cash is king!”

Okay, so what is the difference between Zelle and Venmo? Is it that Zelle is directly from your bank account, and Venmo has its own balance, kind of like my tollway thingy?

I’ve used Zelle through my bank a few times for friends who wanted to reimburse me electronically. Worked well enough but I haven’t felt a need to use it to pay anyone.

I've used PayPal for years, then started using Venmo, and now, because my bank uses it, I use Zelle a bit too. I have a friend who occasionally makes comments to me like, "Wow, so-and-so's parents are helping with her rent," after seeing a Venmo post, so I always make sure mine are set to private. I don't understand the interest in other people's payments -why is public even an option??! I've started using Apple Pay a bit since the quarantine, just to eliminate having to carry my purse into the store, pull out a card, touch the pay pad, etc.

I love apple pay, but I am annoyed by places that still make you press "ok" and/or "sign," both of which are totally unnecessary and undermine the whole purpose!

How do Zelle and Venmo make money for their company?

Like Mtn, I use Venmo on private. Why anyone would have public is beyond me. I also use Apple Pay now and then.. Since CV19, I use 2 bank apps as much as I can, but personal accounts have a monthly deposit limit which causes it useless most of the time. We charge anything and everything (but I'm not paying 3% for Venmo or the like), pay off each month.

I think Venmo only exacts a fee if payment is vis your credit card, since they ostensibly pay them a fee.

What are the "extra steps" of Apple Pay? I just double click my phone, and done.

Venmo makes money on float. Zelle does too, but Zelle was created by banks to fight losing market share in the P2P sphere.

On float? What does that mean?

Between accounts, bpath.

Sorry, Mtn, the extra steps is with bank deposits. I edited my comment.

Between accounts? So, in the time it takes my money to get to my friend's Venmo, Venmo is using it?

I am fairly certain Venmo does not earn any float.

Yes, sort of. Say my son Venmo’s me $100 to cover his car insurance. Now, I have $100 sitting in my Venmo account.A week later I send my gf $20 to cover a shower gift contribution. Now my Venmo balance is $80. Maybe I say clear my balance send the $80 to my bank, now they no longer have the money. But I can honestly say I have had balances there for a while sometimes.

I equate it to EZPass, they also make money on float. My EZPass says must have minimum balance of 20 so they always have $20 of everyone’s money, that’s a lot of money to play with.

Ahh, I knew I'd read about this somewhere ...Here's an article on Venmo (and Zelle) and some insight into why the default is public payments! Not sure if you need to subscribe to The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/07/venmo-makes-money-banks/533946/

A quick excerpt if you cannot view it:

Currently, Venmo doesn’t directly generate all that much revenue for the company that owns it, PayPal. (Contrary to what some of its users may have guessed, the app doesn’t make money “on the float”—that is, by investing whatever funds users keep as a positive balance in their Venmo accounts.)

Things could look different not too long from now. Venmo’s plan, which it has already initiated and will expand in the coming year, is to facilitate more transactions between businesses and their customers. Last summer, Venmo introduced partnerships with about a dozen apps (including the food-delivery service Munchery and the fast-food chain White Castle) that now let users pay straight from their Venmo accounts. The idea, Crone explains, is that Venmo would take a cut—its standard rate is 2.9 percent plus a small flat fee, which is at the higher end of what merchants pay for a typical credit-card transaction—of not just in-app purchases like these, but of in-person transactions at physical checkout counters, where customers spend trillions of dollars a year.

I've used Venmo in the past but recently Zelle is what my lawn person prefers. It's incredibly easy; he texts me when he has done my tenant's yard and I just send the payment with a couple of clicks via my bank's app. I like it a lot, especially for that kind of simple transaction.

I just mentioned it to my housekeeper since I pay her via check. It would probably be better for her to use Zelle since the money wouldn't be delayed but would appear in her checking account instantly.

I have used Venmo because it’s quick and easy. I’ve sent cash from my bank account to my DGD’s bank account and our DGS’s bank account a few times. A surprise from Nonnie when they were going on a trip and some extra cash available on their bank card.

The podcast Reply All on technology, social media and related issues had an episode on VenMo that was so captivating. It was all about one woman seeing all the transactions of her friend. Sounds creepy and it was a little creepy, but eye-opening, for me at least.

I also only use e-transfer, directly from my bank to your bank.

is this not done in USA.

How is e-transfer done? Is it an app?

No, not an app. I go to my online banking. Go to e transfer and then send an amount of money to an email address. My bank sends it and that person deposits to her bank of choice.

After reading Mtn’s article I wonder if e transfer uses the same technology as Zelle just with a different name.