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PayPal will soon let US users buy, sell and shop with cryptocurrency
The company plans to bring digital currencies to Venmo next year too.
Venmo's first credit card offers adjustable cashback rewards
After an almost year-long wait, Venmo's first credit card is here, bringing with it a couple of interesting features.
PayPal and Venmo QR payments are coming to CVS Pharmacies
CVS pharmacies will soon let you do touch-free payments using your PayPal or Venmo accounts by using PayPal’s QR code payment system, PayPal has announced.
Venmo will launch its first credit card in 2020
Today, Venmo announced that it's launching a credit card in partnership with Synchrony. The card should be ready in the second half of 2020, and users will be able to apply for, use and manage it through the Venmo app. Cardholders will get real-time, granular alerts and be able to easily split and share purchases.
Pepsi's loyalty program puts cash in your Venmo account
Do you wish soft drink makers would stop using point systems for reward programs and simply give you cold, hard cash? You're about to get your wish... in a manner of speaking. Pepsi is launching a PepCoin loyalty program that rewards you for buying both a single-serve beverage and a Frito-Lay snack by sending money to PayPal and Venmo accounts. If you scan enough codes on bottles and bags, you'll receive a little bit of cash. You'll have to earn $2 before it goes to your account, but this is real spending money -- you can use it to pay your share of last night's pizza.
How to pay for things securely
We are essentially a cashless society. With the rise of debit cards in the late 1980s early '90s, fewer and fewer of us use paper money to pay for things. Throw in online shopping and single-retailer payment apps like the one from Starbucks, and ATMs seem almost quaint.
Venmo can instantly transfer money to your bank account
Venmo's instant transfers are no longer limited to sending money to debit cards. The PayPal-owned service now permits transferring money immediately to linked bank accounts. It still incurs the same 1 percent fee with a minimum 25-cent transfer cost and a maximum $10 outlay. If you can tolerate that, though, it might just save your hide if you're running low on funds or just want assurances that money is sitting in your bank account.
Snapchat Stories are coming to Tinder
Tinder ditched its Moments feature in 2015, but that doesn't mean the popular dating app is done with giving users access to ephemeral (aka disappearing) content. Later this year, those of you on Tinder can start posting Snapchat Stories directly to your dating profile, Snap announced today at its Partner Summit in Los Angeles. Thanks to Snap Kit, which lets third-party apps use Snapchat's augmented reality camera, you'll be able to use send Snaps to a new "My Tinder Story" option right inside the app. That means you'll have to use Snapchat if you want to use this feature, as the Tinder app will only be used for viewing, rather than publishing, your Snaps.
Tidal is the first music streaming service to accept Venmo
High-fidelity music streaming service Tidal now lets subscribers pay using their Venmo balance. It's the latest in a slew of partnerships for the PayPal-owned payments app, following support for Uber, Shopify and Hulu, as it looks to monetize transactions. New Tidal users will be able to select Venmo as a payment option at sign-up on the app, while existing users can make the switch by visiting the My.TIDAL.com mobile website. Once you choose Venmo as your payment option, Tidal will grab your monthly subscription cost from your account or linked payment method.
Hulu is the first streaming service to take Venmo
Hulu is expanding its payment options to include Venmo. Starting today, subscribers will be able to use the popular peer-to-peer payment app to pay off the cost of their Hulu membership each month. It marks the first time a streaming video service has adopted Venmo for payments.
Venmo lost a lot of cash due to payment fraud
Venmo apparently had a good reason for disabling web payments and temporarily shutting off instant money transfers -- it was losing money hand over fist. The Wall Street Journal has obtained documents indicating that the PayPal-owned service took a 40 percent larger than expected operating loss ($40 million) in the first quarter of 2018, and payment fraud played a major factor in that financial blow. Where Venmo had expected dodgy transactions to represent 0.24 percent of its activity, the numbers shot up to 0.4 percent in March.
Venmo increases fees on instant money transfers
Effective November 6th, Venmo patrons who use Instant Transfer to move money from their Venmo accounts to their debit cards will notice increased service fees. Instead of a flat $.25 per transfer, Instant Transfer fees will be set at 1% of the total sum.
New York sues US treasury for allowing fintechs to become banks
New York is suing the US over a decision to permit US financial technology firms to apply for national bank charters, blasting it as "lawless" and "ill-conceived". Maria Vullo, superintendent of New York's Department of Financial Services, filed the suit against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in a Manhattan federal court.
Apple Pay Cash leads Consumer Reports' first payment service test
Peer-to-peer mobile payment services are all the rage these days (eMarketer expects a 24 percent jump in US adoption in 2018), but which of them is actually the safest to use? Consumer Reports might have an idea. The publication has conducted its first head-to-head test of payment services, and it's clear that some services are better picks than others. While all of the payment platforms were "good enough to use," Apple Pay Cash was the victor due to its stronger-than-usual privacy and security.
Uber lets riders pay with Venmo
Uber riders in the US can now pay for their rides with Venmo. Starting today, users will see a "Pay With Venmo" option next to one for Apple Pay. This could make it easier for anyone who prefers not to link their financial informaiton to the ridesharing company, especially temporary users. Of course, it'll also benefit the lazier folks among us who just end up sending cash to their friends for ordering them a ride.
Venmo's debit card turns your balance into real-world money
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.
Venmo won't let you pay or charge people from its website anymore
If you've ever used Venmo to pay someone your share of the electric bill or for a half a pizza, you probably did it from your smartphone. Most of the service's users do. There's a loyal subset of people who prefer using Venmo's website for all that, too, but they're all pretty upset right now. According to a statement included in users' May 2018 account summaries, Venmo will "phase out some of the functionality on the Venmo.com website over the coming months," and it's starting with the ability to send payment requests and complete charges from inside a web browser. (In a chilling coda, the company reiterates at the end of the statement that "this is just the start.")
Venmo temporarily halts instant money transfers
Did you need a friend to pay you back on Venmo as soon as humanly possible? You might have to twiddle your thumbs for a little while. Venmo has temporarily pulled its instant transfer feature in order to make a "few changes" to the service. You can still use regular bank transfers, but that won't help much if you need that money to pay a bill.
PayPal settles with FTC over Venmo disclosure and transfer policies
The FTC filed a complaint against PayPal over its Venmo peer-to-peer payment service back in 2016. The trade commission alleged that Venmo did not adequately disclose that customer transfers to external bank accounts were subject to review and could be frozen or removed. The FTC's filing also said that Venmo misled consumers around privacy as well as how protected their accounts were and violated the Privacy and Safeguard Rules of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. PayPal has just settled with the FTC around these allegations. No monetary penalties have been levied for the infractions.
Amazon's QR-like 'SmileCodes' are the key to discounts and Lockers
Amazon will start rolling out its own version of QR codes, TechCrunch reports. Called SmileCodes, they function just like a typical QR code -- scan it with your phone and see where it leads -- but they'll only be scannable through the Amazon app and, naturally, they feature the very recognizable Amazon smile right in the center. According to TechCrunch, Amazon has been piloting them for the past few weeks in pop-up shops and Amazon Lockers in Europe and next month, SmileCodes will hit the US. They'll debut in magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Seventeen.
