Peer-to-peer (P2P) mobile payment apps let people send and receive money electronically. People are increasingly using these apps because they’re fast, convenient, and easy to set up and use. If you’re new to how these apps work, keep reading to:
- Get to know the big three: PayPal, Venmo and Zelle ® .
- Learn about important safety and security precautions.
- Understand why you should use debit for your app’s payment method.
- Check out eight ways to use P2P mobile payment apps to make your life easier.
You’ve been there before – dining out with a large group. It’s a great time until the bill comes, and everyone awkwardly pulls out their wallets. How do you pay?
- Give cash to whoever foots the bill or throw down cash to pay for what you owe.
- Tally up what everyone ordered on the back of the receipt. All parties mark down their total and card number. (The server loves this one.)
- Throw in everyone’s cards and split the bill, which always ends up being unfair to those who skipped drinks and appetizers.
With the emergence of peer-to-peer payment apps, these payment methods are history. Mobile payment apps (or cash apps) make it easy to pay someone for what you owe, and request and receive money. Pay your portion for the Airbnb you’re splitting with family, send your roommate half the rent or reimburse a friend for the money you borrowed. Any time you need to transfer funds to others, payment apps are the way to go. Now paying the dinner bill can be a pleasant and comfortable experience for all parties! So, what is a cash app?
Easy, huh? Here’s why: Payment apps provide streamlined electronic transactions between people. Link your bank account, or your debit or credit card, to the app. You may also be able to use funds from the balance on the app. If you’re an overspender, using debit may be the preferred option for avoiding debt and the growing interest that comes with credit. Next, you’ll search for the recipient by phone number, email address, username or even Facebook (if you choose to sync to that social platform). From there, simply fork over the 24 hour payday loans East Liverpool funds! Here’s how to get a cash app – like with any other app setup, it’s fairly simple: Search and download the app, sign up for an account and follow the prompts, including any steps for verification and passwords to increase security. To learn more about how to get a cash app, give this video a quick view.
The Big Three
Venmo, PayPal and Zelle are among the top P2P apps people use. There are a number of contactless payment apps, including Google Pay, Apple Pay and Facebook Pay, but apps like these are less inclusive. If you don’t have an Apple-compatible device, you can’t use Apple Pay. The big three are more convenient because they’re more universal.
PayPal
PayPal arguably reigns as king of P2P payment apps. It dates back to 1998 when it was founded as a money transfer service for online vendors and customers. Known for revolutionizing this type of payment processing, PayPal was bought by eBay in 2002 and skyrocketed in popularity around the globe as a growing number of people use PayPal for personal transactions. It’s also a large commerce platform where merchants can do business with customers while managing their cash flow.
Venmo
This app is so popular that it’s coined the phrase “just Venmo me!” Not only is PayPal-owned Venmo a P2P mobile payment app, but it’s also a social network. Send a memo line and emoji with your payment and select Public to enable the feed where everyone can see who’s paying whom for what. Through this broadcast, requesting and sending money becomes a social experience. As of 2020, Venmo has an estimated 10 million monthly active users and 52 million users total! 1
