More info… though not sure I’ve seen the “goods and services” toggle switch Press Release: Everything You Need to Know About Goods and Services Payments on Venmo
Venmo is a PayPal company. Square is a payment processor, not a bank.
I have never had this happen before. Asked 2 of my kids here who use Venmo regularly, nope, no problems.
When you pay someone it will sort of ask you “what for?” - use an emoticon to define. When I pay the local French baker I put a 
symbol. When my kids pay us for their portion of the phone bill they put 
.
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Speaking of SQUARE … that seems a helpful system for small vendors. It’s used at our farmer’s market (sometimes with $1 fee added), a local bread bakery, my hairdresser and then this month the Christmas craft fair at church.
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Square has been around for years.
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Frank Abagnale (Catch Me If You Can guy), 17:50 minute mark to 20:38 minute mark. Best 3 minutes you’ll spend today. And you’re welcome!
Frank Abagnale Interview - YouTube Frank Abagnale Interview - YouTube
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Thanks! Helpful cautions about use of paper checks and debit cards.
Glad he likes the protections of using a credit card. We use ours a lot, ha some months perhaps more than we’d like.
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Yes, and these apps want to sync with your checking account. I think of that interview and how he would probably say you shouldn’t do that because these apps now have that info about you and your checking numbers stored in their system.
I’m a fan of CCards. I especially like ones that give me cash back. I have had them advocate on my behalf with difficult vendors and gotten my reimbursement.
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Thanks for the quick feedback. I suspect the “good or service” designation was somehow baked into the sender’s selected icon. But as recipient I can’t debug til she has time to discuss it more. Just thought it could be a good thing for new users to watch out for.
Update: I see in the online receipt (for money received, minus fee) had “Type of Transaction” = Purchase. When I successfully sent without fee it was Payment between friends.
Venmo and other similar accts seem to increase risk to acct holders without added benefit. I’ve not had anyone take money from our checking accts in the many, many decades we’ve had them. Have had some attempted petty fraud of CCards but the CC companies were happy to take our side and reimburse us. Considering the volume of CC usage we’ve have over the decades, the attempted fraud to date was a rounding error, but we caught and stopped it with Cc company’s assistance.
CCs also sometimes offer extra additional benefits such as extended warranty, purchase protection, insurance. We’ve benefitted from those sometimes as well. Venmo and other similar apps don’t offer these extras.
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I wouldn’t use Venmo for a purchase (well I did buy some 50/50 tickets sold on a local Facebook page from a member of my church), but it’s SO convenient with friends, family, tutors, hairdressers (for cash tips). No more forgetting to pay someone back (or get paid back by my kids). My kids hate cash so they’ll give it to me and I Venmo them.
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My hair stylist uses Venmo. I’ve gone to her for a dozen years. She has only a few clients anymore and while she accepted credit cards, she mentioned that she liked that I wrote her a check or used Venmo to pay her so she didn’t have to pay fees. Since I’m very comfortable doing that, I pay her using Venmo.
The only other people I use Venmo with are people I am related to.
I don’t feel uncomfortable with the app. I do have it set to private and use sparingly.
It’s ok if you don’t feel comfortable with it. There is PayPal or Zelle or writing a check and sending it in the mail. Lots of options.
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I use Venmo mainly to send money to my kids. Or they send me money to pay me back for a purchase I made for them. I also have recently used it to pay my hairstylist and the woman who does my facials. I have it set to private.
My husband uses Zelle. If he needs something done through Venmo I do it for him.
Another way of getting money to someone is ApplePay. I don’t use it but one time my son paid me for something with ApplePay. It was a small amount and I just used the balance at the market instead of sending it to my bank.
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I started using Venmo because my hair stylist and therapist prefer it (nope, they are not the same person lol). I also use it to send money to friends and to pay for services. I love the fun little emojis and the convenience of it.
I also use Apple Pay to send money to my kiddos when I want to surprise them with some “Treat Yo Self” money. It’s the modern day version of cash in a greeting card and it improves the odds that they’ll actually read my texts! 
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Think of your $200 Venmo balance as having $200 cash in your wallet. Both are subject to be accidentally lost - but with Venmo, a mugger only gets the small change you have in your jeans pocket.
Daughter, and college friends, room mates, friends in town, co-workers, etc. use it intensely - on some days several transactions daily.
Basically, someone pays restaurant, tickets or other group expenses with their credit/charge card (no Venmo) and that someone “splits” the charge total, “requesting” the split amount from everyone else with a push of a button.
Later that day, or the next, the various people simply fulfill the pending pay request, covering their share.
If they mostly take turns, then most of these payments are just going back and forth from one’s Venmo balance to another’s. But if my daughter occasionally has accumulated a larger Venmo balance, she’ll transfer it to her checking account a few days before her charge card balance is due.
Key advantage is the simplicity of not having to have everyone pay every vendor individually, ability to “request” the split amount, and fewer individual credit card transactions per month - meaning less exposure of that information to third parties / network / vendor-site hacks.
Used that way, the “risk” to pay the wrong party are almost nil, and risk to lose one’s balance is probably similar to me losing my wallet or being mugged.
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I lost my wallet on the Ohio turnpike recently going east. Shelping 3 grandparents to see the kids will do it to you. Left it trying to get a moments peace/Starbucks fix.
Thankfully the turnpike people are wonderful and my wallet was turned in. The manager even came over to the west bound center so I could pick it up.
When I got my wallet back, I had no cash in it. Did I have cash in my wallet when I lost it? No idea but if the person who found it helped themselves to a tip, go for it. My credit cards were safe.
Maybe that’s how to think about these money sharing vehicles. They are great, reasonably safe and we try to do what we can. But things happen and try not to lose too much.
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And that’s my problem with the app. As Frank Abagnale said in the video, I don’t want anything or any information about my checking account anywhere. Sites can be hacked, information stolen. Hacker, or an employee at said site, has name, email address, phone number and checking information.
I have a Venmo account to pay my DD friends, I do not allow her to have her own account. I did at one point but saw her sending so much money to so many people (hundreds in a week), I thought that she could send $5,000 to a friend for nothing and there’s no way for me to prevent excessive, frivolous charges. So she lost her account. I do not link my checking account for the reasons Mr. Abagnale mentioned. So now when someone wants money, I am stuck paying a 3% service fee. To the app. Waste of my money when I can do that on the credit card or give cash to pay a friend my portion of the lunch or whatever. Plus now I have over $100 sitting in my account from her friends who are sending me money to pay her back. I don’t have a linked checking account to transfer the money into. What do I do with this money? And it keeps building up. I would like cash please. Ugh. Rant over. Sorry…
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I don’t have cash in my wallet and I haven’t used cash for many, many years (other than for tipping at hotels or when I was overseas in some countries where I had to pay with cash).
You could link, transfer to checking, and then unlink again once the money was deposited.
You could order the debit card (which I wouldn’t - but you could).
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