Venmo

[onodera]

As i get older, I'm liking cash better and better. No record of the transaction, and can't be hacked.

Usually only one check a month. My Mortgage since their only electronic option is an auto one, and I'm uncomfortable with an auto pay of that much.

The only other checks are usually to my mechanic if the bill is for more than I have cash in my pocket. He's a buddy and figure why stick him for the Credit card service fee.

Aren't you too old to have a mortgage, rah?

[rah]

Down to less than 18 months to go.

It will probably coincide with my retirement.

[Lorizael]

I pay my rent with a check. Everything else is done by card. I even pay my therapist by card, because she's got a little dongle on her iPhone.

[C0ckney]

i used to do everything is cash, but in recent years i've had to start receiving money using paypal and bank transfers. i still pay for everything in brazil with cash. i have never written a cheque.

[ZEE]

LOL c0cKney listens to ****ty musicK.

[Hauldren Collider]

Down to less than 18 months to go.

It will probably coincide with my retirement.

Surely then you could have paid it off faster and saved money on interest? Unless your retirement account pulls a much higher interest rate than your mortgage, putting money into debt service ought to be a greater savings than putting it into your 401(k) or whatever you have.

[rah]

No, not really, you also have to take into account taxes, penalties from when I was not 59 1/5 yet), and company matching so it's not that straight forward. But yes in the last couple of years the 401k (since I turned 59.5) has well out performed the interest rate on my mortgage.

[Nikolai]

My student loan is huge. Currently almost 600k NOK(ca 72k USD). OTOH, it's the best loan on the market, and it gave me a good education. I've used up my allotted share, so have to begin paying within 1.5 years, but by then I will be more or less finished with my education. Only pedagogics left, needed for permanent job as teacher. 1 year's study, but I need to take it part time due to need for work in the mean time to pay bills, so ~2 years from now.

[MRT144]

Is anyone here familiar with it? It has spread like wildfire here at CMU and it strikes me as very fishy. I refuse to use it.

Here's how it works: You give Venmo your bank information. It can then withdraw from your account and in return gives you a sort of scrip, kind of like Microsoft Points back when they had that for xbox live. You can add friends on Venmo if they have a Venmo account. You can then send them money by transferring scrip from your account to theirs. The notion is that you use this to do things like split a bill at a restaurant or pay them back for gas after a road trip or similar things that I would honestly just use cash for. When it's time to actually get some US dollars back, you use the "cash out" button and it deposits the scrip in your bank account.

None of my friends seem to realize what this means. You're giving this random startup (admittedly owned by PayPal) an interest-free loan without any bank guarantees at all, no regulation on depositor reserves or anything. It's a substantial financial risk. Plus the opportunity for fraud is tremendous, if you accept a friend request from someone who isn't actually your friend, just a faker, you might end up giving money to a fraudulent stranger.

Has anyone here used this service? What do you think of it? I know I have a reputation on this site for being anti-regulation. I think probably 99% of government regulations, even (especially?) those concerning banks could and ought to be done away with. But this strikes me as an unexploded land mine if not a ticking time bomb...

I understand in-kind trades but this...

You know how I always make fun of supposedly smart people being stupid?

The biggest issue for me is how is this any easier than 1. getting cash 2. doing an in-kind trade of similar value? You cover dinner, I'll buy drinks at the next place etc etc.

[MRT144]

If you violate any of Paypal's sometimes obscure terms of service it can just snag all of your money, for instance if you engage in perfectly legal firearms or firearms-related transactions (purchasing parts, magazines, ammunition, etc.) via paypal they will yank everything in your account, which is massively bull****. I don't use paypal for this reason.

[Hauldren Collider]

It's actually happened before, MRT. And it's a totally reasonable thing to say, you know what, I'm not going to hand my money to a company that can crash my account just because they feel like it.

[MRT144]

you should totally bring up west virginia coal miners and ask if they are more dignified than that.

[Hauldren Collider]

What are you referencing?

[MRT144]

16 tons and whaddya get, another day older and deeper in debt. seriously teasing them about their ignorance of scrip and preying on their arrogance of intelligence and class is the way to go

[Hauldren Collider]

Who and what the **** are you talking about? Are you comparing this to coal miners getting paid in scrip?