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

nytimes.com

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

#121

Post by extr »

cbhl wrote: post #79
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…

For our generation, this pettiness goes the other way, too. I will literally try to buy lunch/coffee/dinner for someone, and after I've gone home, they've sent an unsolicited 'repayment' to me by Venmo. And on the other hand, it's difficult to "split your case of beer" with someone -- people are afraid to partake because they're worried you'll bill them afterwards, and they can't afford the $3 in this month's budget.

I'm not sure this is anything new though. Even before Venmo, I've always had friends who were overly concerned with keeping things "even" between us and friends who were very loose with money and wouldn't mind spotting me $20 with no immediate expectation of repayment. It's one of those social things that really depends on the history, social norms, income...etc of those involved. I try to just go with whatever makes people comfortable without thinking about it too much. And for friends I already have a set of expectations.

Also, beer example was just meant to highlight that friend we all have who practices "selective accounting" with our informal running tab. If I had any suspicion that $3 is make or break to someone I would gladly pay them what's owed and forget about the beer. Beer (and all vices really) have their own set of norms.

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

#122

Post by colejohnson66 »

mherdeg wrote: post #74

I think a lot of people are totally unaware that Venmo transaction details are public-to-the-world. Fascinating experiment in radical transparency. Also, per NYT: ""More supportively, Noam Waksman, a 24-year-old who works in digital marketing in New York, said he has “been called out by friends before, for charging my girlfriend for a meal,” which they had spotted on Venmo."" This is an interesting dynamic - normally…

You can change the publicity of a transaction to private or friends only.

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

#123

Post by robbintt »

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…

I don't mind being a wet blanket and these are communications issues not payment facilitation issues.

Explain to people why it is frustrating that they don't communicate how you're going to split things before doing it and don't expect anything back when you give away half a case of beer.

Both are equal offenses in the same class.

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

#124

Post by komali2 »

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).

I get airline points for putting charges on my credit card. 2x for restaurants. So at meetups, I drop the 300-400$ bill on the card, get Venmos from everyone, cash is dropped directly into my bank account with no skimming. Boom, free points.

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

#125

Post by regulation_d »

mpweiher wrote: post #105
cbhl wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It does. (European, lived 8 years in the US in 2 installments of 4 years each).

In what way? Is small, easy P2P payments a solved problem in Europe?

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

#126

Post by tikhonj »

rc_kas wrote: post #117
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…

"every single person I know uses Venmo" How does that happen. I don't know a single person who uses Venmo. Not one. I know a lot of people and I work in Tech.

Venmo is, effectively, a social network; it's going to get popular along social lines. Depending on whether it's caught on among your immediate friends and acquaintances, you'd expect to either know a lot of people using Venmo or very few.

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

#127

Post by backtoyoujim »

rc_kas wrote: post #117
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…

"every single person I know uses Venmo" How does that happen. I don't know a single person who uses Venmo. Not one. I know a lot of people and I work in Tech.

charismatic early adopter is among the peer group would be my guess.

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

#128

Post by algesten »

code_duck wrote: post #104
Sir_Substance wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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've never heard of it except as an obscure Paypal competitor. And, it turns out it's essentially the same service as Paypal and is even owned by Paypal, since 2014. I agree that services like this only serve to fill gaps in antiquated banking systems. From what I understand, in Australia, for instance, people can send money easily for free between bank accounts and do so routinely without 3rd party services - includ…

I remember checks from the 80s, my mum/dad used to have them. I never owned a check book.

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

#129

Post by jamescostian »

rc_kas wrote: post #117
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…

"every single person I know uses Venmo" How does that happen. I don't know a single person who uses Venmo. Not one. I know a lot of people and I work in Tech.

I'm 19 and most people I know use Venmo. I'm curious - around what age are your friends? My parents don't know what Venmo is, and I don't think many of their friends (most in the age range of 40-60) do either.

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

#130

Post by uiri »

johnchristopher wrote: post #29
wutbrodo wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is only the case if you were very late to p2p transactions. Venmo was well embedded in my social circles by the time there was any competition (with the possible exception of Google wallet. With something so utility-oriented, why go out of your way to rebuild an entire network? You may as well ask why anyone uses Facebook when Google+ had better features on launch (like post visibility granularity).

But it's a US thing, right ? Here in Belgium/Europe I can take out my smartphone, open my bank app, input my friend's account number and send him money right away (35 years ago you had to do it by paper, 25 years ago there were computers in the bank and now it's on the phone/tablet/web browser). Of course it's really going from one bank to the other so it's not p2p but the UX is as smooth.

In North America, given a bank account number, you can pull money from it (this is how cheques work over there).

In Europe, given a bank account number, you can put money into it (this is how "giros" work).

This fundamental difference in banking system has caused endless pain for the US and its hyperlocal banking system. Canada overcame this by having a home grown debit card system expand into online payments.

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