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I still can't figure out for the life of me why anyone uses Venmo. I tried it once and had an awful experience. For those that use it, what is the appeal over s

I still can't figure out for the life of me why anyone uses Venmo. I tried it once and had an awful experience. For those that use it, what is the appeal over simply using PayPal? That also lets you send money to friends for free. As far as I can tell, all the differences are very much in PayPal's favor: 1. Must use mobile app to send payments. You cannot send through the website. WTF? 2. When I tried to send $250, from my Venmo balance no less, I got an opaque error about please try again later. Only through trial and error did I figure out that it would let me send up to $100, but no more. 3. Everything about the social feed aspect. Among the Venmo users I know, no one actually uses it. Everyone talks about how easy it is to turn it off. But isn't this its only differentiator? If you're going to turn it off, why not just stick with PayPal which doesn't have this annoying anti-feature in the first place? 4. I could be wrong, but I think that even if you turn the feed off, you can't hide your list of "friends" from the public.

barbarr 6y ago
The main value of Venmo to me is that it feels a lot less awkward than other alternatives. I think the main reason it's less awkward is because you can safely assume a friend will have it set up already (unlike with PayPal or even similar services like Facebook Pay), and because it's easy to find people.
- boring_twenties 6y ago
  I guess the question is something of a chicken and egg, then. Why did all your friends already set up Venmo, when it seems to be strictly worse (worse in some ways, not better in any ways) than the existing solution (Paypal)?
  - jeffy90 6y ago
    in 2014 I'm not sure that paypal had a nice clean simple mobile app like Venmo did. In 2014 Venmo was the best, and today I think it still fulfills its purpose quite well.
renewiltord 6y ago
It's seamless. That's why. The use-case is small amounts of money like splitting dinner. It's super-fast. You select the four friends you want to split with, type in $400/5 and 'Request' and they get requests for $80. You're done moments after you've signed the receipt.
- boring_twenties 6y ago
  That makes sense. Where I live, restaurants will offer to split your bill without even being asked. So this use case didn't really occur to me. Where I see it being used is for simple A->B transactions. E.g., items for sale in local classified ads. (I had one seller who didn't even want to take cash, Venmo only!) Or simply paying back $100 you borrowed from your friend the other night. In such cases it seems to just be a pain in the ass.
  - NikolaeVarius 6y ago
    Nothing you've pointed out is a reason to not use Venmo 1. Okay? I use venmo on my phone since there nothing that is lost from not using desktop. There are 3 buttons and a keypad to use. what else do I want? 2. That limit is probably only for brand new accounts. I started paying rent using Venmo, which initial amount FAR exceeded the total amount I've ever spent through venmo in total. 3. I'm able to ignore it and it doesn't matter. Who the hell cares. 4. I solve this by not adding friends.
  - renewiltord 6y ago
    The low transaction limit is likely an anti-fraud device. I am able to transfer much larger amounts than that on Venmo. I don't know how they handle KYC for this stuff. I don't recall filling in many details.
    - boring_twenties 6y ago
      The thing is that it let me send the whole $250 in three transactions, immediately after each other. So if it's an anti-fraud device it's a questionable one at very best.
TheJoeMan 6y ago
Well, Zelle needs to figure out a verification method BEFORE you send some random person money because your friend got a new phone number. With Venmo, scan their QR code and done

barbarr 6y ago

The main value of Venmo to me is that it feels a lot less awkward than other alternatives. I think the main reason it's less awkward is because you can safely assume a friend will have it set up already (unlike with PayPal or even similar services like Facebook Pay), and because it's easy to find people.

boring_twenties 6y ago
I guess the question is something of a chicken and egg, then. Why did all your friends already set up Venmo, when it seems to be strictly worse (worse in some ways, not better in any ways) than the existing solution (Paypal)?
- jeffy90 6y ago
  in 2014 I'm not sure that paypal had a nice clean simple mobile app like Venmo did. In 2014 Venmo was the best, and today I think it still fulfills its purpose quite well.

renewiltord 6y ago

It's seamless. That's why. The use-case is small amounts of money like splitting dinner. It's super-fast. You select the four friends you want to split with, type in $400/5 and 'Request' and they get requests for $80. You're done moments after you've signed the receipt.

boring_twenties 6y ago
That makes sense. Where I live, restaurants will offer to split your bill without even being asked. So this use case didn't really occur to me. Where I see it being used is for simple A->B transactions. E.g., items for sale in local classified ads. (I had one seller who didn't even want to take cash, Venmo only!) Or simply paying back $100 you borrowed from your friend the other night. In such cases it seems to just be a pain in the ass.
- NikolaeVarius 6y ago
  Nothing you've pointed out is a reason to not use Venmo 1. Okay? I use venmo on my phone since there nothing that is lost from not using desktop. There are 3 buttons and a keypad to use. what else do I want? 2. That limit is probably only for brand new accounts. I started paying rent using Venmo, which initial amount FAR exceeded the total amount I've ever spent through venmo in total. 3. I'm able to ignore it and it doesn't matter. Who the hell cares. 4. I solve this by not adding friends.
- renewiltord 6y ago
  The low transaction limit is likely an anti-fraud device. I am able to transfer much larger amounts than that on Venmo. I don't know how they handle KYC for this stuff. I don't recall filling in many details.
  - boring_twenties 6y ago
    The thing is that it let me send the whole $250 in three transactions, immediately after each other. So if it's an anti-fraud device it's a questionable one at very best.

TheJoeMan 6y ago

Well, Zelle needs to figure out a verification method BEFORE you send some random person money because your friend got a new phone number. With Venmo, scan their QR code and done