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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

#321

Post by naner »

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.

Same here. I only know about Venmo because the people who stole my credit card number used it to pay themselves.

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

#322

Post by nindalf »

abritinthebay wrote: post #237
EliRivers wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Far other end of what often gets labelled "millenial". Hadn't heard of Venmo until this HN thread. I do live in the UK where interbank transfer of cash is almost instant and free of charge, so the need for it is rather less, I suspect.

Yeah, the UK has so much contactless payment and cheap or free transfers that it has, somewhat ironically, limited competition in this sector. Even things like Google Wallet & Apple Pay seem to be treated with a “but... why?” attitude.

From my experience in the UK, those apps allow you to leave your card at home. Not much of a difference if you're carrying a wallet anyway, but if you carry just a phone and a card + ID in the phone case, you can now ditch the card. Otherwise I don't see the benefit.

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

#323

Post by ac29 »

tunetine wrote: post #135
ac29 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Perfectly normal for any groups I've ever eaten with. Easy to ask the server to split the bill. Try that with a group of 8-12 people, especially if they all want to be charged different amounts. Some places will do it, but many wont. A lot easier for one person to pay, and others to pay them back with cash (or one of the million free payment apps like Venmo).

Where does this happen? If they want their money, they will split it and do what they have to do.

In the US, I believe the only the only way businesses are legally obligated to settle debts is cash. Accepting credit/debit cards is a convenience offered for the customer, and printing 12 different checks (then entering them all in), is not something some places will do. Whether this is business policy or individual service staff who just won't do it, I don't know, but I've seen it happen enough times that I rarely try any more.

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

#324

Post by [deleted] »

tunetine wrote: post #135
ac29 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Perfectly normal for any groups I've ever eaten with. Easy to ask the server to split the bill. Try that with a group of 8-12 people, especially if they all want to be charged different amounts. Some places will do it, but many wont. A lot easier for one person to pay, and others to pay them back with cash (or one of the million free payment apps like Venmo).

Where does this happen? If they want their money, they will split it and do what they have to do.

[deleted]

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

#325

Post by Moru »

webignition wrote: post #318
rhapsodic wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 th…

As a UK driver, I was taught to shift to neutral and apply the parking brake when stopped for long enough to do so. The reasoning given by my driving instructor was that this secures the vehicle and makes things just a little more safe for everyone. If I am stopped in traffic with my parking brake on and sometime lightly rear-ends me, my vehicle may not move at all. If my parking brake were not applied, the probabili…

And many newer cars will stop the engine if you stop the car with the clutch up. And also can activate the parking break at the same time.

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

#326

Post by joncrocks »

mirimir wrote: post #315
rhapsodic wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aside from reducing wear on the throwout bearing, what is the purpose?

Not having the car jerk forward if your foot slips off the clutch.

Which it may well do if you get rear-ended. One 'accident' can become two.

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

#327

Post by aviraldg »

skinnymuch wrote: post #306
aviraldg wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 e…

Who is they in your first paragraph? Venmo? Or Splitwise? Venmo supporting PayPal makes complete sense considering it is a subsidiary of a subsidiary of PayPal. If it's Splitwise, then it seems like PayPal doesn't care so much for propping up Venmo. Interesting either way. Walnut seems like an interesting product. Thanks for the link.

Sorry for the ambiguity, it's Splitwise.

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

#328

Post by wink »

sshanky wrote: post #152
wink wrote: post #139

Ha, such a non-issue to us petty bean counting Germans, we always split the bill and it's only a problem like once a year with particularly stubborn wait staff. Yes, maybe I'm generalizing a bit too much, but you're usually asked if the bill will be split if you're obviously looking like a couple. I'm leaning towards preferring that way. I've no problems buying friends a beer or two, but a) I don't want to be overthi…

I lived in Germany in the '90s and loved the way they split bills at the restaurant. In fact, there wasn't even any "splitting"—you paid for whatever you ordered. The server wore a money pouch and sometimes even a coin dispensing machine. She would walk around the table and ask each person what they ordered, would write the prices down on a neat little recycled paper pad that was about 1" wide and 6" tall, hand it to…

Well I'd say tips are common - but in the ballpark of 5%-10%, and also usually no hard feelings if you don't tip or just round to the nearest EUR.

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

#329

Post by ajdlinux »

OJFord wrote: post #215
algesten wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Good for you? Maybe try one sometime: as it turns out, old things are not de facto bad.

I'm a 20-something Australian who is possibly the only 20-something Australian I know who at one point had a chequebook.

The only time I've found cheques useful outside of paying for my rental bond (for which you need a bank cheque anyway) is when I've had to pay for something by posting in a form, and I don't feel like writing down all my credit card details on paper and having them stored rather insecurely.

The only other relatively common uses of cheques I hear of here are using bank cheques to exchange money when privately selling a car. Other than that, cheques are dead. As they should be.

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

#330

Post by ajdlinux »

duck wrote: post #294
ryandrake wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

As a non-American, it surprises me greatly that a restaurant that doesn't take credit cards would happily accept a cheque of all things.
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