Something about this reads like a viral ad for Venmo. It's as if it is trying to draw you in to the app to see what your friends are doing.
If it is, its a damn good one!
People using Venmo to spy on cheating spouses
101–110 of 209 posts
Re: People using Venmo to spy on cheating spouses
#102When I first created a Venmo account, I was shocked to see users' payments flowing through my feed and immediately found a way to make my payments private. But I could never find a way to effectively unlink the social media account (FB) that I had used to find my first friend/payee. I think I unlinked the account, but I still see payments from all the people that Venmo made me follow as a result of linking the now-un…
I'm utterly perplexed that Venmo is even a thing. When I first started hearing about it maybe 5-6 years ago, I just figured, I already have PayPal and Square Cash, I'm too old, nobody I know uses Venmo, why bother. I've mostly ignored that it existed except occasionally hearing (usually younger) folks talking about it. A couple of months ago I was telling some people at work that I'm too old for it, and Square Cash w…
> Venmo IS PayPal, just with different branding
They were a startup in 2010 but got bought by PayPal in 2013.
Re: People using Venmo to spy on cheating spouses
#103When I first created a Venmo account, I was shocked to see users' payments flowing through my feed and immediately found a way to make my payments private. But I could never find a way to effectively unlink the social media account (FB) that I had used to find my first friend/payee. I think I unlinked the account, but I still see payments from all the people that Venmo made me follow as a result of linking the now-un…
I'm utterly perplexed that Venmo is even a thing. When I first started hearing about it maybe 5-6 years ago, I just figured, I already have PayPal and Square Cash, I'm too old, nobody I know uses Venmo, why bother. I've mostly ignored that it existed except occasionally hearing (usually younger) folks talking about it. A couple of months ago I was telling some people at work that I'm too old for it, and Square Cash w…
I imagine my feelings about Venmo reflect a lot of peoples':
Basically it was the first way to send money on mobile phones that wasn't miserable or charged fees so everyone started using it. By the time PayPal owned it it was already popular.
Everyone wanted to easily send money for at least, like, 10 years before that. It was the first mainstream option and it still felt really late. (PayPal already existed but was... disliked. I think because of lots of horror stories about customer service, and maybe not having a convenient app interface, or requiring a bank account connection?)
The competitors are all equivalent now (FB, Google, whatever), but I would never embrace using a FB or Google product exclusively so Venmo feels like a 'neutral third-party option' , at least to an extent, which we can use as the 'default' payments app.
The Bank's versions (Zelle, etc) are way too coupled to banks and too big-corporation to be excited about.
If there was, say, a startup that did exactly the same thing as Venmo but wasn't affiliated with a big company (PayPal), I think everyone would happily use it. If it was, like, a B-corp or non-profit that gives proceeds to charity, I think everyone would jump ship instantly.
Basically I don't care at all about Venmo's social features, I just want to send money and prefer not to support a big corporation or give more data to FB or Google. I bet lots of people are of similar mind.
Re: People using Venmo to spy on cheating spouses
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
>it's so successful because, despite there being lots of ways to pay back friends It was far and away the simplest and easiest way to quickly transfer money electronically, at least around ~6 years ago. The "big players" that have payment apps either weren't launched or were just getting started, and PayPal just had/has this bizarre level of BS required for a process that should just take like 2 or 3 simple steps. No…
I've been told Venmo works exactly like PayPal, which is to say it's a 2 step process to get money from your Venmo account into your actual checking/savings account. So that would make it just as usable as the, what, 20-year-old PayPal, and worse than Square Cash. Am I misinformed?
When I started using Venmo, PayPal was cumbersome to use (I don't even know if it had decent mobile app 6 years ago) and tended to have additional costs. Also the UI pummeled you with all sorts of random information and options, when all anyone wants to do is send $x to y-person as fast as counting cash in your wallet takes. For a group of people sitting in a restaurant, PayPal was (is? I dunno) annoying. Venmo is effortless.
I just looked up Square Cash, and it seems like it launched in 2015 according to Wikipedia. Everyone I know (who I would want to send money to/from) was already using Venmo by 2012, 2013 at the latest. I've yet to encounter a single instance where I wanted to switch, nor (anecdotally) have I heard someone voice a single complaint about Venmo in-person.
Venmo got to market with a pretty much pure product before anyone else, and has yet to give any cause for switching.
Re: People using Venmo to spy on cheating spouses
#105When I first created a Venmo account, I was shocked to see users' payments flowing through my feed and immediately found a way to make my payments private. But I could never find a way to effectively unlink the social media account (FB) that I had used to find my first friend/payee. I think I unlinked the account, but I still see payments from all the people that Venmo made me follow as a result of linking the now-un…
I'm utterly perplexed that Venmo is even a thing. When I first started hearing about it maybe 5-6 years ago, I just figured, I already have PayPal and Square Cash, I'm too old, nobody I know uses Venmo, why bother. I've mostly ignored that it existed except occasionally hearing (usually younger) folks talking about it. A couple of months ago I was telling some people at work that I'm too old for it, and Square Cash w…
I use it for the fact that it's popular, of course. Worse than the fact that your balance stays in Venmo is that if you make a transaction larger than your balance, it gets paid exclusively from your bank account and doesn't clear out your balance first.
Moreover, Venmo is garbage at the simplest thing of letting me find the person I'm paying. The only way to distinguish between all the many people of the same name (profile pictures being far too small to see in the selection list) is to have the person actually tell you their exact ID. The fact that I have previously done transactions with them or that they are a once-removed transaction friend from me isn't displayed.
Re: People using Venmo to spy on cheating spouses
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hmm, I think most people use it to pay friends back for brunch or drinks. It's not like you're streaming all your credit card purchases. It's kinda like checking in on Foursquare with friends... it's a public way to expose your social graph a bit. It may not be for you, but people love social media. To put it a different way: it's so successful because, despite there being lots of ways to pay back friends, none of th…
> It may not be for you, but people love social media People also love heroin and alcohol and tobacco. People love lots of things that are terrible for them.
People also love exercise, healthy food, and sleep.
I don't think payments is something that is social worthy, but comparing them to chemically-addicting substances is a little absurd.
Re: People using Venmo to spy on cheating spouses
#107Cash App (by Square) cares more about your privacy, has more perks, and is IMO from a much better company than PayPal.
They also are doing a lot more. Cash App issues a debit card and allows ATM withdrawals and direct deposit. In effect, they've become a pop-up bank to the under-banked.
Re: People using Venmo to spy on cheating spouses
#108This article has an interesting (and strange) take on the issue, mostly, though with some reservations, characterizing the lack of privacy as something empowering. I liked the anecdotes about people digitally stalking their partners and friends.
I guess you can make that argument if you believe that some aspects a post-privacy world is something positive, but it is still strange to read.
Re: People using Venmo to spy on cheating spouses
#109Every time I encounter venmo whoever has it usually apologizes for it and explains that you can turn the weird social stuff off. If that's the case, then what's the point? Moreover, it demonstrates that the people who made it have weird philosophies on things. What other choices have they made that I don't know of, can't turn off and would disagree with?
Square Cash is great, btw. No bloat, very simple, does what you expect it to. (I suppose PayPal is looking that way now these days too though)
Re: People using Venmo to spy on cheating spouses
#110Cash App (by Square) cares more about your privacy, has more perks, and is IMO from a much better company than PayPal. https://cash.app/ They also are doing a lot more . Cash App issues a debit card and allows ATM withdrawals and direct deposit. In effect, they've become a pop-up bank to the under-banked.
Square Cash is every bit as bad as PayPal during their early "paypalsucks" days, complete with opaque "security" policies and unreachable support.
I have had multiple Cash accounts (one business, a couple personal) which have been stuck in limbo for more than a year. At some point, a transaction must have flagged me because Square reverted all of my recent transactions, locked my funds, and won't process any incoming or outgoing transactions on ANY of my accounts.
I've contacted support over and over through their tool, and I have gotten ZERO response. Not even a formulaic "you're off the platform" email. There's no phone support for Square Cash, so outside of my emails going into a black hole, there is no way to get a human to review any of it.
I have given up. If the filing fee for a small claims case wasn't higher than the cash I still had left in there, I would have sued them long ago. They are every bit as shady and uncommunicative as PayPal and I would never trust them with my money again.