Hello and welcome back to the newsletter! Now that almost everything has “gone digital,” making digital payments for goods and services has become much easier. If you’re still only paying with cash, credit card, or check, it’s time to upgrade your financial toolkit.
For electronic payments to work, both the payer and the seller must both use the same app. So remember to coordinate and pick an app before you start sending payments.
Keep in mind the seller might pay a fee when they receive an electronic payment. Many feel that since the money transfers instantly, it is worth the charge. They simply view it as a cost of doing business.
Here are several apps that make electronic payments easy while also being safe and reliable.
PayPal: Mobile Cash
Really, PayPal is the company that started it all for electronic payments. Launched back in 1998 and then acquired by eBay in 2002, PayPal became the preferred method for making purchases on eBay. Now publicly traded, PayPal is the standard-bearer for electronic payments.
The PayPal Mobile Cash app allows money to be sent and received between users in the PayPal network. Use the app for purchases wherever PayPal is accepted.
Zelle
The Zelle app is a popular payment app created jointly by several huge banks (Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase, and more). If you have a bank account at one of those big banks, you should be able to transfer funds using the app or directly from your bank’s app. Unlike these other payment apps, there is no fee to instantly transfer funds into your bank account.
Venmo
Venmo is a mobile app subsidiary of PayPal but it has more of a social network mentality. Transaction histories are displayed like your Facebook or Twitter feed (emojis included!) and depending on your privacy settings, can be visible to the world. Like PayPal, you can send and request money from friends and connect the app to your bank account. If you receive money and want to instantly transfer it to your bank there is a 1% fee or it’s free if you wait 1-3 days.
Cash App
Cash App is a very popular app (#1 in Finance in the iTunes store) from Square, the maker of the widely used POS (point of sale) app. There isn’t much difference between the Cash App and the other apps on this list except that you don’t need a verified account (submitting your SSN) to use this service. However, if you don’t have a verified account, then you’ll be capped at a spending limit of $250 per day. If you want to invest in stocks or bitcoins, you can do that from the app, as well.
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