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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

#291

Post by Bahamut »

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…

As someone in their early 30s living in the Valley, I actually don’t know too many people who uses Venmo. My friends are generally not too hung up on having exact numbers, as it isn’t worth the awkwardness & gives the opportunity for someone to be generous.

Maybe I generally just know decent human beings though. Greediness/cheapness is just not a problem in my circles.

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

#292

Post by smnrchrds »

bogomipz wrote: post #154
aggie wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

>"In my experience, many restaurants have a limit on how many ways they can split the bill," That limit is artificially imposed though isn't? I also think this is mostly an American thing because its perceived as a "hassle" which is ironic because they're being tipped for their "service" in the US. In Sweden I noticed for instance instance you can get a meal with a group of 10 people and at the end of the meal the se…

Same in Canada. Sometimes you have to tell them in advance so they keep track of each person's orders separately instead of assigning all purchases to the table. I haven't seen a restaurant that outright wouldn't do split bills.

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

#293

Post by fma »

Swizec wrote: post #170
bogomipz wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"In my experience, many restaurants have a limit on how many ways they can split the bill," That limit is artificially imposed though isn't? I also think this is mostly an American thing because its perceived as a "hassle" which is ironic because they're being tipped for their "service" in the US. In Sweden I noticed for instance instance you can get a meal with a group of 10 people and at the end of the meal the se…

A lot of restaurants are won't split bills too many ways because it takes time and impacts table turnover. When you have a line out the door, turnover matters. Back in Slovenia bill splitting doesn't exist. To me it's a completely American thing. The best they can do in Slovenia is charge everyone individually for their items, but that's not really bill splitting.

Restaurants in China don't split bills. It's a foreign concept.

You'll often find people at a table fight each other to pay for the entire bill.

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

#294

Post by duck »

ryandrake wrote: post #268
egypturnash wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you enjoy keeping a running tally of how much is in your account, and love knowing that what you see when you check your balance at the bank is never up-to-date, checks are great! man i quit doing that as soon as i could check my balance on the internet and just use a credit/debit card, just make sure you turn off 'overdraft protection' before doing this or you can dig a very deep hole of compound interest. - sign…

I use paper checks quite often. A lot of places still don’t take credit cards. Honestly, you don’t need to be a math major or accountant to keep track of how much money you have.

I agree, plus a lot of the best hole in the wall restaurants don't take credit cards.

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

#295

Post by rhapsodic »

hyperpape wrote: post #288
rhapsodic wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

> It lets you take your foot off the clutch ;)

If that's what you like, go for it, but two posts seemed to imply that I'm doing something wrong by keeping the vehicle in gear with the clutch in while stopped in traffic, and I'd really like to know what that is. One post implied that UK law encourages or even requires that the vehicle be taken out of gear when it's stopped in traffic. I've never heard anything like that in the US.

I've never encountered a clutch that took any noticeable effort for me to operate. And, considering all of the other bearings in a vehicle that are rotating under load constantly, I question the value of trying to save the throwout bearing a few extra seconds on each stop.

So I would really like to know why I should shift to neutral when stopped in traffic. Should I do it when I'm waiting for a break in the traffic in the oncoming lane so I can turn across it? (A left turn in the US.) When I'm stopping at a stop sign, and then immediately going because there is no other traffic around? When I'm stopped for a few seconds in a stop-and-go traffic jam?

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

#296

Post by Smaug123 »

el_benhameen wrote: post #112
jensvdh wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

30%?? How much do you tip??

With ~10% tax and 20% tip, that seems right on the mark to me. I guess it would be less in places without sales tax.

That was one of the really weird things I noticed in the USA when I visited recently: this bizarre tendency not to include tax in the prices. Tell me what I need to pay you, not what you're going to end up having received!

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

#297

Post by Atheros »

KekDemaga wrote: post #52
guiomie wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was shocked by the inability of restaurants (literally their policy) in California to do individual bills. I still can't understand why it's this way... The only reason I used Venmo was for that.

Some credit card services charge a per transaction fee as well as a percentage so spiting the check can begin to eat into his margins.

Then pass the fee on to the customer.

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

#298

Post by bsder »

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…

What I worry about is that Venmo is an expression of "everybody is too poor to actually cover each other", and that's a damn shame if true.

The way we, now aged, uncool, unhip folks used to deal with this was that we would cover people like you discreetly.

One of the better off folks (read: professional receiving a paycheck rather than starving grad student) would take charge of the "pot", would figure out what was lacking and generally "tell" a couple of the other better off folks what to put in. I never had an issue covering an entire bill for someone and neither did any of the other folks. 1) We asked you to join us because we appreciate your company and 2) people probably did this for us when we were the poor ones.

This works very well unless you have someone freeriding who shouldn't (we had two people in our group who were really well-paid programmers who did this). When that happens, I would itemize the free-rider in excruciating detail and if he didn't put in every red cent, I would call him out on it.

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

#299

Post by el_benhameen »

Smaug123 wrote: post #296
el_benhameen wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With ~10% tax and 20% tip, that seems right on the mark to me. I guess it would be less in places without sales tax.

That was one of the really weird things I noticed in the USA when I visited recently: this bizarre tendency not to include tax in the prices. Tell me what I need to pay you, not what you're going to end up having received!

Couldn't agree more. There are lots of other nefarious tactics, like "resort fees" at hotels. We're the land of the fee, I suppose.

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

#300

Post by bsder »

treehau5 wrote: post #102
dsjoerg wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This problem is even worse when it's not even necessarily income levels that is the problem, but just different values around money & spending. If you have the same income level, but find it outrageous to spend x on y, you just get viewed as a "cheap ass" It's not my fault I don't want to pay 13 dollars+tip for a cocktail when I can make 20 of them at home for the same price.

> It's not my fault I don't want to pay 13 dollars+tip for a cocktail when I can make 20 of them at home for the same price.

Then stay the hell home, please. Everybody will be happier.

When I organize something like this either A) I think the cocktails/beer/food/etc. is genuinely amazing and if you don't then you should stay home or B) I'm more interested in the company and I think the ambiance is acceptable.

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