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Venmo's debit card turns your balance into real-world money

It'll help you split bills with friends, too.

After months of testing, Venmo is ready to offer its own debit card in the US. The new piece of plastic now works at Mastercard-friendly locations instead of Visa (the company hasn't explained the switch), but the concept otherwise remains the same. The card lets you spend your Venmo balance at retail locations, and helps you split bills -- you can share transactions to have friends pay for their share of dinner or movie tickets. Naturally, you can use the Venmo mobile app to manage or disable a card.

The finished card can withdraw up to $400 in cash per day from ATMs that take MasterCard, Cirrus, MoneyPass or Pulse. Only the MoneyPass logo will help you avoid a $2.50 withdrawal fee, though, so you may want to avoid the generic ATM at the pub unless you're willing to take that slight hit to your bank balance.

You can use the card now, but it's currently in "limited release." You'll have to get in a queue for a chance to apply if you weren't already a beta tester. The card's launch is well-timed, though. TechCrunch pointed out that there's a whole generation growing up with not only peer-to-peer payment services like Venmo, but internet-only banks. It may need a card like this to court customers who never visit a physical bank but still want to spend their hard-earned money in the real world.