Anyone use this? My sons do - but I do not trust it. My older son owes us $135 and rather than mailing a check - he sent it to us through Venmo! I looked at some how-to articles - and it appears I can enter my bank account routing number and account number to transfer the balance from Venmo to my checking account. Do I want to do this? Why couldn’t he just mail a check!
On behalf of the Millennial Generation: “What’s a check?” 
Venmo is fine
http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-11-20/mobile-payment-startup-venmo-is-killing-cash
@rockvillemom - my kids use Venmo, too and I am considering downloading the app onto my smartphone as I despise checks. All their friends use it as well. It is a mobile payment app that is also part social media.
Hi there RVM! We all use venmo and love it. I have “venmoed” large amounts of money to the boys and never had a problem. You can easily monitor it by checking your own account and confirming the correct amount has been withdrawn/deposited.
We recently took a 2 week trip to Europe with 6 friends and we all used venmo as a way to pay each other back at restaurants and such - easy peasy.
Do you used venmo only with people you are close to (friends/family)? Does anyone use it in place of, say, credit card payments?
@jym626 - I’ve only used it with friends/family. I don’t think I have evolved enough to use it beyond that 
Thanks. I would not be comfortable giving someone my bank account and routing #!
My kid and all her friends use it. Young people don’t write checks or carry cash much.
I use it only with friends and family. It really does make paying one another back much simpler.
My son uses it to pay his roommate for rent (their landlord-- a Luddite-- requires a paper check and only one check from the group).
My question: how does it differ from paypal?
Sending and receiving money w/ Venmo is free- PayPal charges to receive money. None of my kids write checks- my youngest does not even have a check book as he uses Venmo for everything. His landlord even uses it so he can pay his rent easily.
@jym626- you do not give your secure info to individuals. You open a Venmo account with that info and they do all of the transactions. No individual gets your info. You can even send money to people who don’t have Venmo if you have a telephone # or email address. It is very easy to use and great for splitting checks, etc.!
If it’s free how does Venmo make money?
My S uses it all the time with his good friends and has had no issue.
Yet, that is EXACTLY what you do when you hand them a check! (All the numbers at the bottom.)
OP, @takeitallin has put it well… no extra concerns about privacy or security compared to say using PayPal. and quite heavily used by the younger generations nowadays (my college kids use it often).
Disclaimer : Venmo/Braintree/PayPal happens to be a client of mine. PM me if you have specific concerns.
Ok, Venmo, here I come!
Bank of America and Wells Fargo both now offer a competing service for free. You can transfer money via someone’s email address, and the recipient doesn’t have to have accounts at the same bank. It can take up to three days for the transaction to clear, however, and there’s a limit of $2500, I believe. For some reason, I feel more comfortable using the bank’s service, but everyone I know – especially kids – uses Venmo.
I’ve used a similar service as B of A and WF through US Bank. It’s a third party called Pop Money.
I have been meaning to get Venmo since it does seem to be easy and it is all my kids use. Reading this thread motivated me to jump in and get the app.
I finally got it all set up, but I thought it was creepy when a screen popped up showing me all of the transactions that my kids and friends have made. I don’t know if there is a setting to opt out of this but it seems a bit of an invasion of privacy. I am not sure my kids or anyone really would want me seeing who they paid or got paid from and what it was for. I could really make my kids think I am spying on them by dropping some of these transaction details :))
I think that’s the social media part of it - they like seeing the transactions and interactions. Makes no sense to me - but that what I read.