Thanks to Venmo, We Now All Know How Cheap Our Friends Are • Hacker News Board

Re: Thanks to Venmo, We Now All Know How Cheap Our Friends Are

#81

Post by Sir_Substance » Sun, Jul 23, 2017, 7:12 PM UTC

extr wrote: post #77

Young millennial male, every single person I know uses Venmo. IMO this article largely misses the point of the app. It's replaced cash/checks is all, it's not some huge social upheaval in the way we use money that needs to be analyzed. In my experience it's rarely used for splitting bills for dinner or picking up bar tabs (I can't remember the last time I went somewhere that wasn't able to split the bill on their end…

>Young millennial male, every single person I know uses Venmo.

Young millennial male, I'd never heard of this thing until now. These things tend to be emblematic of poor local banking infrastructure. This reminds me a lot of echocash[1].

[1] https://www.econet.co.zw/ecocash/

Re: Thanks to Venmo, We Now All Know How Cheap Our Friends Are

#82

Post by endlessvoid94 » Sun, Jul 23, 2017, 7:13 PM UTC

Sorry but this is nonsense.

The fact that there is no more rounding is a better default that we no longer must put any thought into. It's more convenient. I fail to see how it harms the relationship in a way that's "petty".

This also completely leaves out the inconvenience of planning a large gathering for friends and fronting all the money yourself. Yes, it may feel "petty" to be reminded to pay your share, but imagine if 12 people all owed you $50. I say it's petty to need to be reminded.

Please, someone explain to me how splitting expenses is a negative thing. How is it petty? How is it more "transaction" and less "relationship"?

Re: Thanks to Venmo, We Now All Know How Cheap Our Friends Are

#83

Post by cbhl » Sun, Jul 23, 2017, 7:13 PM UTC

mjevans wrote: post #58

tedivm wrote: post #22

I have never disagreed with something so much. While I'm financially not doing so bad, I grew up poor. When I was college age going out with friends was complicated- if we all handled our own bills it was one thing, but when I'm not drinking and only eating cheap food to save money splitting the check would literally mean I'm subsidizing other people friends and could be the difference between being able to afford to…

You were either too proud to tell your friends the truth or had bad friends.

Even if all your friends know, you will feel bad if someone -- anyone -- pays for you.

Being able to pay for yourself feels like control, and it's doubly important to have that feeling when you're poor.

Re: Thanks to Venmo, We Now All Know How Cheap Our Friends Are

#84

Post by aggie » Sun, Jul 23, 2017, 7:14 PM UTC

extr wrote: post #77

Young millennial male, every single person I know uses Venmo. IMO this article largely misses the point of the app. It's replaced cash/checks is all, it's not some huge social upheaval in the way we use money that needs to be analyzed. In my experience it's rarely used for splitting bills for dinner or picking up bar tabs (I can't remember the last time I went somewhere that wasn't able to split the bill on their end…

In my experience, many restaurants have a limit on how many ways they can split the bill, usually 2-4, so for larger groups venmo is an easy way to solve the issue. And there certainly are some restaurants that don't split at all (seems to be a regional thing).

Re: Thanks to Venmo, We Now All Know How Cheap Our Friends Are

#85

Post by MAGZine » Sun, Jul 23, 2017, 7:16 PM UTC

jdavis703 wrote: post #50

nitrogen wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Restaurants are definitely accustomed to splitting bills in Salt Lake City as well. I was surprised to come to a larger city like San Francisco and have to chase people for their share since most restaurants won't give individual receipts.

I've never been to Toronto, but in general it seems like more popular restaurants give you a harder time splitting the check, where as empty places will sometimes ask if you want the check to be split, without even having to prompt them.

My experience across Canada is any restaurant (Quebec/Maritimes I can't speak for), is that all restaurants, of any size, will ask you if you want split bills.

In fact, if anything, the small places that do their cheques on paper with pen are likely not to split anything.

Re: Thanks to Venmo, We Now All Know How Cheap Our Friends Are

#86

Post by cbhl » Sun, Jul 23, 2017, 7:17 PM UTC

wfunction wrote: post #73

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #63

When I spend more at dinner, I eyeball the cheque and ask for a little more to be put on my card. If we're alternating between who picks up the tab, I'm mindful about buying them drinks. Venmo just makes cash-only, "no more than 2 cards" dining and vacation booking easier. Note that I've had friends try to split bills to the penny. I tell them to stop, because both our times are worth more than that. (The exception b…

Addendum: One useful thing I've found about reimbursing (note: NOT splitting, which is what you were talking about) some other bills down to the penny is that it makes it much easier to search for them afterward if you want to figure out whether you remembered to pay for them. Like if you buy someone dinner and they insist on paying, don't round $10.49 down to $10 or up to $11. Because then you have different numbers…

If you like this, you might like the free workshops from You Need a Budget. I like to think of it as teaching "poor person's double entry accounting". (The workshop is free because they're trying to sell you their $50/year SaaS.)

https://www.youneedabudget.com/classes/

Re: Thanks to Venmo, We Now All Know How Cheap Our Friends Are

#87

Post by cbhl » Sun, Jul 23, 2017, 7:19 PM UTC

Sir_Substance wrote: post #81

extr wrote: post #77

Young millennial male, every single person I know uses Venmo. IMO this article largely misses the point of the app. It's replaced cash/checks is all, it's not some huge social upheaval in the way we use money that needs to be analyzed. In my experience it's rarely used for splitting bills for dinner or picking up bar tabs (I can't remember the last time I went somewhere that wasn't able to split the bill on their end…

>Young millennial male, every single person I know uses Venmo. Young millennial male, I'd never heard of this thing until now. These things tend to be emblematic of poor local banking infrastructure. This reminds me a lot of echocash[1]. [1] https://www.econet.co.zw/ecocash/

I believe Venmo is US-only. Determining whether the US has poor local banking infra is left as an exercise to the reader. ;)

Re: Thanks to Venmo, We Now All Know How Cheap Our Friends Are

#88

Post by detaro » Sun, Jul 23, 2017, 7:19 PM UTC

nevi-me wrote: post #80

dsjoerg wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You haven't had many friendships with diverse income levels.

This. It's not even about whether one can afford things, but the unfairness of splitting the bill. I have an anecdote where a friend of mine had 2 glasses of juice, while her friends were drinking wine and all sorts. When her part of the bill was $4 she ended up paying $50 (currency approxm, but you get the point). Even with similar incomes, as young adults in our mid-20's, working hard for our money, we'd like more…

I understood mjevans as saying that they thus should have not split the bill evenly (and their friends should not insist on it), for exactly those reasons?

Re: Thanks to Venmo, We Now All Know How Cheap Our Friends Are

#89

Post by greggyb » Sun, Jul 23, 2017, 7:21 PM UTC

aggie wrote: post #84

extr wrote: post #77

Young millennial male, every single person I know uses Venmo. IMO this article largely misses the point of the app. It's replaced cash/checks is all, it's not some huge social upheaval in the way we use money that needs to be analyzed. In my experience it's rarely used for splitting bills for dinner or picking up bar tabs (I can't remember the last time I went somewhere that wasn't able to split the bill on their end…

In my experience, many restaurants have a limit on how many ways they can split the bill, usually 2-4, so for larger groups venmo is an easy way to solve the issue. And there certainly are some restaurants that don't split at all (seems to be a regional thing).

Restaurants have a limit on how many ways they will split the bill.

I used to wait tables and it's annoying to split many ways, but every POS system I ever used allowed splitting many ways. I never tested for an upper limit, but I soul routinely split to mid-teens of separate checks.

Re: Thanks to Venmo, We Now All Know How Cheap Our Friends Are

#90

Post by vertex-four » Sun, Jul 23, 2017, 7:21 PM UTC

snakeboy wrote: post #64

bit48 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How is this portrayed as a bad thing in the article? It takes some of the humanity out of the time spent together. Being generous with each other is part of how friendships and other relations are formed. Among friends, boiling it down to a precise transaction is petty. If a friend is abusing this approach, that says something about both him and your friendship.

What if you just happen to enjoy steak and your friend enjoys chicken? Then in the 50-50 split, you could be seen as "abusing" the system if you two go out to dinner often, yes?

A 50-50 split is never how it works out - you look at the bill and think "X spent about £15 and Y spent about £20, so we'll put that down and then make up the change between us". Or "let's split the food 50-50 and I'll get the drinks".