Description
Venmo is a mobile payment service owned by PayPal. Venmo account holders can transfer funds to others via a mobile phone app; both the sender and receiver have to live in the U.S. It handled $12 billion in transactions in the first quarter of 2018. Venmo was launched in 2009 targeting friends splitting bills, e.g. for movies, dinner, rent, tickets, etc.
By default, Venmo publishes every peer-to-peer transaction (excluding the amount), a feature which was shown by researchers to reveal sensitive details about users' lives in some situations.
In 2018, the company settled with the FTC about several privacy and security violations related to this and other features, and made changes to the corresponding settings, but it continued to attract criticism for exposing users to privacy risks.
Since 2008, cash transfers using Venmo have not been instantaneous and could be canceled after an initial transfer is sent. Like traditional wire transfers, they can take one to three business days to become final.
In January 2018, PayPal rolled out an instant transfer feature on Venmo, allowing users to deposit funds to their debit cards typically within 30 minutes. A fee is deducted from the amount for each transfer; 1% or $10, whichever is less. The standard bank transfer (typically completed within 1–3 business days) is available for no fee.
