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Venmo and Zelle use Plaid which grants them full access to your entire checking account history, even transactions completely unrelated to the payment service.

Venmo and Zelle use Plaid which grants them full access to your entire checking account history, even transactions completely unrelated to the payment service. Do not use any service that uses Plaid.

kccqzy 4y ago
I believe the use of Plaid is optional for Venmo. Instead of Plaid, just choose the traditional method of a trial deposit.
- siftrics 4y ago
  Unfortunately, this is only superficially true. I have been a long-time Venmo user and have refused to ever link my account through Plaid. Starting a couple years ago, Venmo begin to intermittently claim they "Lost the connection" to my bank and forced me to link via Plaid. I always refused and the problem eventually went away. Now, I cannot send money to anyone via Venmo. It always gives me the same error message and asks me to link via Plaid. Extremely dark pattern.
  - TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
    That has not happened to me yet but if it does, I’ll use cash instead of venmo
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
ipython 4y ago
You don’t need to use plaid to set up an external bank account with venmo. There is a little “set up bank manually” button when you go through the onboarding flow. Otherwise, I agree with plaid being bad.
patch_cable 4y ago
I’ve always just used Zelle through my bank’s app. For a large number of folks, there is no need to involve Plaid.
- LexGray 4y ago
  Zelle has different hurdles. I recently tried to pay someone and the maximum daily transaction with a single person was set at $500 with my bank unless there was some sort of "history". It took me 5 separate days of payment to accomplish what a single check could do. The identity and confirmation dialogues were exceptionally clear that the bank had no liability so I have no clue what their issue is considering what inflation is doing to the dollar.
  - Semaphor 4y ago
    Are normal bank transfers not a thing in the USA?
    - ev1 4y ago
      For person to person (not person to business), electronically, no, not really. ACH takes weeks too (yes I know your bank will credit you in advance temporarily) There's a nonzero chance you will hit some kind of risk/fraud system based on amount too. Wire is much better but frequently $50-100 per transaction as a fee.
      - Semaphor 4y ago
        Wow, that’s crazy. I knew your system had some issues, but I didn’t know it was this bad. Just for comparison, in Germany, bank transfers are free and take 1-2 days, for a fee or free (depending on the bank) you can do instant transfers taking seconds.
        Paraesthetic 4y ago
        Same as Australia
toomuchtodo 4y ago
Plaid is not used when your bank integrates with Zelle, which most banks do (some credit unions and smaller community banks aside). FedNow instant payments go GA in 8 months, at which point instant payment functionality will begin to roll out gradually to all US financial institutions. Regardless, avoid PayPal and Venmo at all costs, as there are reasonable alternatives for many use cases. They have avoided regulation more traditional financial service providers operate under (banking regs), so using them is to invite suffering.
- morpheuskafka 4y ago
  > Plaid is not used when your bank integrates with Zelle, which most banks do Zelle is a trade name of Early Warning Systems, which maintains databases of what you do in your bank account (checks paid and deposited, monthly balances, etc.). I would assume the banks that have native Zelle integration are required to become members and share this information anyway.
  - toomuchtodo 4y ago
    Early Warning Services is a consortium owned by the largest US banks themselves. https://www.earlywarning.com/about https://www.earlywarning.com/about If your threat model is that you don’t trust your bank with your deposit account balance and transaction history, that is hard to mitigate. I don’t necessarily trust my bank, but I do know what regulators to call for recourse when they misstep.
- ktta 4y ago
  > FedNow instant payments go GA in 8 months Where can I find more info about the '8 months' estimate? I hoped RTP would be useful to me, but the only bank that allows consumer accounts to use their RTP network is Chase. I hope this new network also doesn't fall short of the promise.
  - toomuchtodo 4y ago
    https://explore.fednow.org/explore-the-city?id=3&building=news-center&postId=13&postTitle=fednow-service-timing-narrows-to-mid-2023%2C-full-scale-pilot-testing-begins https://explore.fednow.org/explore-the-city?id=3&building=ne... https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/brainard20220829a.htm https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/brainard202...
404mm 4y ago
Is there any way to revoke Plaid’s access to your account?
- mox1 4y ago
  yes, go online to plaids site, create an account and revoke.

Venmo and Zelle use Plaid which grants them full access to your entire checking account history, even transactions completely unrelated to the payment service. Do not use any service that uses Plaid.

kccqzy 4y ago

I believe the use of Plaid is optional for Venmo. Instead of Plaid, just choose the traditional method of a trial deposit.

siftrics 4y ago
Unfortunately, this is only superficially true. I have been a long-time Venmo user and have refused to ever link my account through Plaid. Starting a couple years ago, Venmo begin to intermittently claim they "Lost the connection" to my bank and forced me to link via Plaid. I always refused and the problem eventually went away. Now, I cannot send money to anyone via Venmo. It always gives me the same error message and asks me to link via Plaid. Extremely dark pattern.
- TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
  That has not happened to me yet but if it does, I’ll use cash instead of venmo

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

ipython 4y ago

You don’t need to use plaid to set up an external bank account with venmo. There is a little “set up bank manually” button when you go through the onboarding flow. Otherwise, I agree with plaid being bad.

patch_cable 4y ago

I’ve always just used Zelle through my bank’s app. For a large number of folks, there is no need to involve Plaid.

LexGray 4y ago
Zelle has different hurdles. I recently tried to pay someone and the maximum daily transaction with a single person was set at $500 with my bank unless there was some sort of "history". It took me 5 separate days of payment to accomplish what a single check could do. The identity and confirmation dialogues were exceptionally clear that the bank had no liability so I have no clue what their issue is considering what inflation is doing to the dollar.
- Semaphor 4y ago
  Are normal bank transfers not a thing in the USA?
  - ev1 4y ago
    For person to person (not person to business), electronically, no, not really. ACH takes weeks too (yes I know your bank will credit you in advance temporarily) There's a nonzero chance you will hit some kind of risk/fraud system based on amount too. Wire is much better but frequently $50-100 per transaction as a fee.
    - Semaphor 4y ago
      Wow, that’s crazy. I knew your system had some issues, but I didn’t know it was this bad. Just for comparison, in Germany, bank transfers are free and take 1-2 days, for a fee or free (depending on the bank) you can do instant transfers taking seconds.
      - Paraesthetic 4y ago
        Same as Australia

toomuchtodo 4y ago

Plaid is not used when your bank integrates with Zelle, which most banks do (some credit unions and smaller community banks aside). FedNow instant payments go GA in 8 months, at which point instant payment functionality will begin to roll out gradually to all US financial institutions. Regardless, avoid PayPal and Venmo at all costs, as there are reasonable alternatives for many use cases. They have avoided regulation more traditional financial service providers operate under (banking regs), so using them is to invite suffering.

morpheuskafka 4y ago
> Plaid is not used when your bank integrates with Zelle, which most banks do Zelle is a trade name of Early Warning Systems, which maintains databases of what you do in your bank account (checks paid and deposited, monthly balances, etc.). I would assume the banks that have native Zelle integration are required to become members and share this information anyway.
- toomuchtodo 4y ago
  Early Warning Services is a consortium owned by the largest US banks themselves. https://www.earlywarning.com/about https://www.earlywarning.com/about If your threat model is that you don’t trust your bank with your deposit account balance and transaction history, that is hard to mitigate. I don’t necessarily trust my bank, but I do know what regulators to call for recourse when they misstep.
ktta 4y ago
> FedNow instant payments go GA in 8 months Where can I find more info about the '8 months' estimate? I hoped RTP would be useful to me, but the only bank that allows consumer accounts to use their RTP network is Chase. I hope this new network also doesn't fall short of the promise.
- toomuchtodo 4y ago
  https://explore.fednow.org/explore-the-city?id=3&building=news-center&postId=13&postTitle=fednow-service-timing-narrows-to-mid-2023%2C-full-scale-pilot-testing-begins https://explore.fednow.org/explore-the-city?id=3&building=ne... https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/brainard20220829a.htm https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/brainard202...

404mm 4y ago

Is there any way to revoke Plaid’s access to your account?

mox1 4y ago
yes, go online to plaids site, create an account and revoke.