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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

#281

Post by balladeer »

tikhonj wrote: post #126
rc_kas wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

In India a lot of people use Splitwise. I am on it and my bill splitting, and personal borrowing/leding records are handled by the app. Though it doesn't handle actual money transfers yet; they have no such integrations.

Is Venmo similar?

https://www.splitwise.com

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

#282

Post by 2_listerine_pls »

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.

Maybe he works at Venmo.

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

#283

Post by mehwoot »

jchw wrote: post #78

I'm reading this as someone being upset that they were asked to pay for what they ordered, with the excuse that the app somehow makes the world less "chivalrous." I say whatever. I'm not friends with people because I trade off doing nice gestures. Some people account for their money and would greatly prefer to balance the books. Fine. Is it really a big deal to pay what you owe? It's not like they asked you more effo…

I'm reading this as someone being upset that they were asked to pay for what they ordered

So you assume some unstated motivation behind something and then get angry about the thing you just made up? Hmmm...

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

#284

Post by rhapsodic »

Moru wrote: post #269
rhapsodic wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>keep the clutch depressed when you're standing still(wears some bearings I don't remember the name of). It's the throwout bearing. Your father has a point, but I would rather keep the clutch in. Too much thinking involved putting it in neutral every time you stop.

If you need to think for thar, you're not driving enough :)

>If you need to think for thar, you're not driving enough :)

Aside from reducing the wear on the throwout bearing, what purpose is served by putting the car in neutral every time it is stopped in traffic?

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

#285

Post by bogomipz »

Swizec wrote: post #247
bogomipz wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"A lot of restaurants are won't split bills too many ways because it takes time and impacts table turnover." How much time time does it really take? Let's compare it to a single check with with cash as the form of payment. Some diner at the table needs to go through the bill and and collect the money or else the bill gets passed around and then everyone antes up their portion, there always come confusion about what…

Yeah people don't do that. The way splitting works in the US is that you split evenly. So 1 person pays then says "Everyone venmo me $X" and the party leaves.

I'm quite familiar with the way it works in the US. If it's a birthday dinner or your circle of friends then yes people will likely split it evenly, but if you are a mixed group of people then people will generally pay for what they had. But regardless if its just "60 bucks a head" everyone at the table needs to settle up, and everyone throws in cash in a pile and takes their change out of the pile and then the pile needs to be sorted and counted and sometimes its short etc.

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

#286

Post by titanomachy »

mjw1007 wrote: post #53
Overtonwindow wrote: post #32

I don't use this app and this article kind of explains why. If I go to dinner with friends, or anything, I'd rather pick up the check than worry about splitting it. The next time, they'll pickup the tab, and so forth. That's what friends do. I don't know if I'd want to go out with someone who is going to bill me for it later, or wants to use an app to split things up. For me it just makes things superficial, awkward,…

That's a good way to make sure that people with significantly different amounts of money don't socialise together.

Or they can "pay you back" a different way. Maybe invite you over for a home-cooked dinner or something.

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

#287

Post by freddie_mercury »

bit48 wrote: post #51
pyrrhotech wrote: post #45

>“It’s making people less generous and chivalrous,” Ms. Pennoyer said. “It used to be you’d go to a restaurant, and you’d put down your credit cards and split it 50-50, even if one person had steak and one had chicken. But now people pay exactly to the cent.” How is this portrayed as a bad thing in the article? This solution to this problem is the ONLY reason I use Venmo. Perhaps the author was always the one orderin…

> 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.

There are other countries on this planet that have long had the custom of paying for exactly what you ordered instead of splitting the bill 50-50. Near as I can tell, having lived in a few of those places for many years, the people there have plenty of humanity and generosity and lack pettiness.

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

#288

Post by hyperpape »

rhapsodic wrote: post #284
Moru wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you need to think for thar, you're not driving enough :)

>If you need to think for thar, you're not driving enough :) Aside from reducing the wear on the throwout bearing, what purpose is served by putting the car in neutral every time it is stopped in traffic?

It lets you take your foot off the clutch ;)

In all seriousness, that's why I did it. My first stick was a truck, and even though it was small, it has a stiff clutch. You got tired of standing on it.

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

#289

Post by aviraldg »

balladeer wrote: post #281
tikhonj wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In India a lot of people use Splitwise. I am on it and my bill splitting, and personal borrowing/leding records are handled by the app. Though it doesn't handle actual money transfers yet; they have no such integrations. Is Venmo similar? https://www.splitwise.com

They've recently added support for settling via Paytm (which is the most popular mobile wallet in India) and I believe they also support Paypal.

I love Splitwise; almost all of my friends at uni use it and pretty much all shared expenses go on it. I also use Walnut (http://www.getwalnut.com/), not for the settlement feature, but rather for the expense tracking which automatically reads SMSes and builds up monthly expense reports.

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

#290

Post by Pxtl »

Huh. I've never even heard of this app in Canada. Around my office we just use PayPal for that kind of thing where needed. Hamilton here (near Toronto).

I've found a lot of us startup brands missed the boat invading Canada and let eBay eat their lunch here. Kijiji beat Craigslist for example.

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