^^Just like you thought your Facebook friends etc. were “private” - but they were shared with anyone willing to pay for the data.
We got a text from American Express that someone had attempted to venmo a material amount of money using our AMEX account. Fortunately they double checked and it was thwarted.
Call me biased, but that’s the extent of my knowledge, so I’m suspicious of it. Maybe its a good thing for people who don’t have much money to begin with. Or if you link only to a small account where you limit the balance.
This Wired article discusses alternatives:
I think what @busenburner is saying is that she thinks that Venmo will sell (or be hacked) what you are using Venmo for and who is using it. Data mining what Venmo is being used for. For instance, is it being used for restaurant meals or Uber sharing. And who you are doing these things with. To target advertising, especially to young consumers.
Am I right? And I wonder how Venmo is different than PayPal? Is PayPal data mining what I use it for? Does Zelle?
My question is how Venmo is different than other ways of having people pay you? I did have people pay me through PayPal but the young people wanted to use Venmo.
Is it because even though you can have privacy settings, that 3rd parties can still see what the people on your feed cannot?
Zelle was developed by banks for interbank transactions (it was not without glitches). Young people can do Zelle if they have a bank account. My kid pays us rent using Zelle.
You are absolutely correct that you pay $0 for the privilege of using Venmo but in exchange, your data is for grabs.
You can use Venmo balance and credit card or debit card to send payment.
Credit card incurs a fee.
25 - yes, old news. Fixed. You need to know who sends you what.
I use Cashapp or Zelle.
My daughter just started using Venmo a few months ago. Her friends were all already on it. They use it to share cost of meals when one person pays the check. She created a separate bank account to use exclusively for Venmo and seeded it with just a few hundred dollars. She also did not allow Venmo to be linked to anything (like Facebook, etc.) and didn’t give it the password for her online banking portal (which it asked for but didn’t require). I don’t think there is anything there that she wouldn’t care if it went public. It is mostly paying friend A $10 for pizza, getting $15 from friends B for Chinese food.
“You are absolutely correct that you pay $0 for the privilege of using Venmo but in exchange, your data is for grabs.”
@BunsenBurner, are you saying banks aren’t selling our data?
Is there a reason people aren’t using PayPal anymore? Or do some still use that? How is Venmo different or better?
Most college kids use it to share meal or ride cost. It’s as secure as anything else. I only allowed my DD to use it if attached to her credit card since credit card companies has more protection then bank accounts. I don’t think kids use PayPal anymore.
^^^I’m unclear about connecting Venmo account to a credit card account. So, if somebody pays me $30 for a shared meal, the money goes to my CC and appears as a payment?
I have gone through about 8 weeks of hell thanks to Venmo. Someone created a Venmo account and stole several of my credit card numbers and transferred money to themselves that way! I had no idea one could do that and Venmo was no help at all. The card companies were great about removing the charges but then they had to reissue cards (Twice on one account!).
If you pay someone for shared meal money get deducted from your credit card. If someone pays you funds added to your Venmo account to be used next time you need to make a payment . All payments funded by credit cards are subject to 3% fee. Purchases from authorized merchants with Venmo is always free, even if you use a credit card.
Years ago we used a credit union and subsequently switched to a different institution. I’m not sure why but I never closed the first account. So, when paypal came around, I linked it to the credit union account where I keep a small balance. I never fully trusted that somehow someone might not hack it and I could lose whatever money I had in the account. I’ve actually never heard of that happening but that was my fear.
I love venmo. It’s so easy and convenient to use. I only use it with my friends and kids, have my privacy setting as high as they can go and it’s linked to my credit union account. IF the account was depleted (again, I’ve never heard of this happening) or if my data/activity was sold, while I hate the idea of it, there’s just nothing all that interesting (I sent $30 to my friend for my share of a birthday gift). I guess I’ve decided that the benefits outweigh the risks with the way that I use it.
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My kid uses Venmo. I use ApplePay.
Our pastor set up a bank account in his own name, funded with parish funds, and accessible to no one but him. He maintained the account for 7+ years, apparently without anyone else knowing. He was removed from ministry after a brief investigation in which he admitted fault.
Why post this on the Venmo thread? Well, the investigation started after a young woman working in the office noticed the pastor’s Venmo transactions because he had no (or limited) privacy settings in place! She mentioned it to her boss, who followed up, discovered the separate account, and then the Archdiocese took over.
Makes me wonder how many users are unaware of how public Venmo data can be.