Written on October 21st, 2009 by harish
You know that one friend who never seems to have cash on him? The one who says he’ll “pay you back” every time you go out for dinner or drinks, but never actually follows through? With Venmo, he now has no excuse not to (unless he loses his phone, that is).
Collecting money from someone using Venmo is easy! If your friend already has a Venmo account, send a text message to Venmo at (646) 863-9557 with the message “$5 from johnsmith” (for example, if user johnsmith owes you $5). Your friend gets a text message asking him to confirm the payment with a code, and you instantly get your money!
If your friend isn’t already on Venmo, collecting money is just as simple. Just send Venmo a text message with the from command and your friend’s cell phone number, for example “$5 from 2158098099″. Your friend will receive a text message notification of the payment request, and will then get a phone call from Venmo where he can securely enter his credit card information to process the payment.
So next time you’re out with a friend and he says he’ll pay you back “when I go to the ATM”, just collect money from him easily and quickly using Venmo!
Venmo: solving national debt problems since 2009.
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Written on October 13th, 2009 by kortina
On the main site, we just added a set of tips for sending and collecting money using Venmo SMS. If you login to the website as infrequently as I do (I only really use the SMS interface), you probably haven’t seen and won’t see these tips, so I figured I’d post them here as well.
These are the most popular Venmo SMS commands.
Send a text to (646) 863-9557:
BAL
To check your account balance.
Pay jenny $1 for good advice
To send money to a friend named “Jenny.”
$1 from (111) 111-1111 for coffee
To send an invoice to any phone.
Favs
To view your payments buddies.
Fav harish
To add Harish to your favs list.
HELP
For help on the go.
Addenda: We are keeping track of all the failed commands, and when we see enough people expect Venmo to behave a certain way, we adapt the system to their expectations. For example, the “$” is now optional, because it’s kind of inconvenient to type and people often leave it out.
Finally, we just want to add a thank you to everyone helping us test right now–you all are the ones defining the product, really. Our job is just to study how you are using Venmo, ask you questions, and respond to your needs. So please let us know when something doesn’t work as expected, when something is inconvenient, or when anything is not intuitive. As I said, we see a lot of things bubble up, but we also want to give attention to and understand all of the use cases and ways you want to use Venmo to simplify the way you pay for things.
Posted in Product Team, Venmo SMS | No Comments »
Written on September 29th, 2009 by harish
If you’re like us, you probably live in your Gmail inbox. Read on to learn how to set up a filter to automatically label and archive all Venmo receipts, so you can easily organize and keep track of all your transactions, all from within Gmail!
1. Go to Gmail settings.
2. Go to the “Filters” tab, and click “Create a new filter”.
3. Under the search criteria, enter “Venmo receipt” in the “Has the words” field. If you want, you can do a test search to see all your Venmo transactions highlighted in the search. Select “Next Step”.
4. Select “Apply the label”, and create a new label with a title like “Venmo receipts”, or something similarly simple. Optionally, if you like to archive your inbox (why archive?), you can choose to automatically archive all Venmo receipts by choosing the “Skip the inbox” option.
That’s it! You’ve just set up a filter to automatically label and (optionally) archive all your receipts for Venmo transactions. It’s the simplest way to keep track of your Venmo history if you’re a heavy Gmail user.
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Written on August 12th, 2009 by harish
Using Venmo To Accept SMS Text Message Payments
- Ask your customer for their cell phone number (let’s say it’s 215-678-9010)
- Compose an SMS Text Message to the number 646-863-9557 (Save it as Venmo in your phone book),
- In the message body type, the following command “venmo $10 from 2156789010” (eg: venmo [AMOUNT] from [PHONE-NUMBER])
- Ask the customer to follow the instructions in the text message they receive.
- You’re done!
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Written on August 6th, 2009 by harish
Kathryn Hawkins over at MintLife has a great post up on the top 10 little-known credit card perks. Some of the tips include:
2. Delay a payment. “If you’re having difficulty paying, skip a month,” says Sara Petty, vice president of The Members Group payment consulting firm. Times are tough for everyone these days, and sometimes it can be difficult to even make the minimum monthly payment on your credit card if you’ve just incurred a big expense. If you know in advance that you’re not going to be able to cover a monthly bill, call your credit card provider and ask for permission to delay payment until the following month. Assuming that you’re a customer in good standing without a history of late payments, your provider is likely to waive your late fee and continue to report a “current” payment status to credit bureaus until the following month when you can make the full payment. While it’s never ideal to miss a payment, you can reduce your risk of hurting your credit rating by being honest and open with your provider.
3. Waive your late fee. If you attempt to make an online payment that doesn’t go through, or you never receive an invoice from your credit card provider, you have a good excuse to request that the credit company remove the resulting late payment fee on your next statement. Simply call your provider and explain the circumstances, and the fee will likely be waived. Even if the error is your own fault, you may still be able to get the fee removed from your bill “if you’re a great consumer and haven’t missed a payment in a year or two,” says Clark—however, this request will probably only work once, so be careful about paying on time in the future.
4. Negotiate a lower interest rate. This one is easy, says Clark: “Simply call in with another offer in your hand, and negotiate with them for a better rate.” Be polite, and tell your credit card company that you’ve enjoyed using their service, but you’ve found a better value option. Your credit card provider doesn’t want to lose your business, so you can leverage another provider’s offer to reduce your interest rate significantly, matching or even beating the competitor’s offer.
Sign up for Venmo today to experience the advantages of using credit cards without having to carry cash around!
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Written on July 27th, 2009 by harish
We found that it was pretty hard to get exact numbers on Craigslist transaction data, so we decided to dig in with some research to get a better idea of how people use Craiglist. We ended up with some interesting data, by compiling a week’s worth of transactions in the “for sale” section of the Philadelphia Craigslist community. Philadelphia, the 6th largest city in the United States by population with 1.5M residents, is probably a little more active than most other city communities on Craigslist; however, the relative transaction data (breakdown of different categories) is likely to be similar in other cities, regardless of size.
The Philadelphia Craigslist community featured around 38,000 listings a week, averaging about 5,400 advertised transactions per day. Of those 38,000, just about 18% (7000) were devoted to cars and automobiles, making it easily the most popular category in “for sale”. Another 13% (5000) of listings were in the furniture section. Other popular categories included electronics (7%), baby+kids (6%), tickets (5%), auto parts (5%), and general (5%).
When is the best time to sell something on Craigslist? The data we collected showed that Mondays are by far the most active days, presumably because everyone is coming back from the weekend and looking to go through the week’s to-do list and sell their items. Conversely, Saturday was the least active day, in terms of listed transactions.
What are you waiting for? Use this knowledge and combine it with the power of Venmo to sell your items today.
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Written on July 27th, 2009 by harish
A recent report released by the Taxi and Limousine Commission has revealed some interesting information about the link between credit cards and the health of the taxi industry. According to Matthew Daus, chairman of the Commission, speaking to the New York Times, “The credit card [reader] that we put in cabs has helped keep them afloat”.
Riders paid with a credit card one out of every five trips (20%), compared with just 6% a year ago. While other similar service industries are reeling from the economic downturn, like the black car business, which is down 30% this year, the taxi industry is relatively stable. Data shows that they are maintaining consistent levels of business, with just about 400,000-450,000 cab rides a day. Part of the success can be attributed to black car clients choosing to ride in cabs instead, since the new credit card machines enable them to now charge their cab rides to their corporate cards.
Tips and Credit Card Fees
While drivers have to pay transaction fees of up to 5% on credit card transactions, overall data seems to indicate that their revenues go up with credit cards. Information about tips before credit card machines were installed is uncertain; however, the average tip after the machines were acquired was $2.85 per trip, while bank and other fees on taxi transactions averaged 86 cents. Mr. Daus told reporters including the NYTimes, “If you really look at the big picture, the drivers aren’t paying one cent for this,” referring to the credit card system. “They are, on average, making three times as much in tips as they are paying in fees.”
Despite the increase in tips, many drivers are fiercely resistant to the installation and use of credit card machines. It’s not uncommon to see drivers refuse to take passengers who want to pay by credit card, even if they already have a machine installed. On top of transaction fees, the machines are expensive and not easy to maintain, with malfunctions being costly and annoying. The NYTimes reports, “Beresford Simmons, a driver, testified that once his credit card machine malfunctioned, and the passenger gave him all of her cash — $7 — though the fare was $45, and said she did not want to drive around looking for an A.T.M.” Just as aggravating, drivers sometimes have to wait for weeks or even months to receive their reimbursements from credit card transactions.
Venmo allows cab drivers to keep their customers happy and accept their preferred method of payment– credit cards, but to do so without the hassle of credit card machines. Venmo does not have expensive setup fees, and does not require bulky equipment that can be difficult and costly to maintain. Venmo allows the driver to instantly receive payments directly to his own Venmo account, from where he can transfer funds to his bank account within 3-5 business days. Cab drivers and companies, make a smart long-term business decision and adopt Venmo today– accept credit card payments without the accompanying hassle!
Posted in Venmo | No Comments »
Written on July 24th, 2009 by harish
As a tutor or any on-location service provider, it’s especially difficult to accept credit card payments. Since cash may not be the most convenient payment option, let’s take a look at how you can use Venmo to enable mobile payments and promote yourself using SMS.
Promote your Services
By setting up a Venmo merchant account and a username, you can set up a profile on Venmo Marketplace where you promote your services. Use our social media tools to get the word out about your offerings on Twitter and Facebook, and make sure that you always have clients.
Accept Easy Payments
When you’re on location after your task is completed, just send Venmo a text message with your client’s phone number, email address, or Venmo username with the amount he owes you, with the syntax “$45 from 5156088009 for math tutoring”. He’ll instantly receive notification of the invoice, and will receive reminders until the payment has been made. Once it has, it’ll be instantly transferred to your Venmo account.
Never deal with cash anymore! Sign up for Venmo today and use it as a service provider.
Posted in Recommended Articles, Venmo | No Comments »
Written on July 24th, 2009 by harish
With over 40 million registered users and thousands of active listings per week in every major city in the US, Craigslist is a haven for easily buying and selling items you want. However, while the classifieds listings are simple and convenient to look through, transactions on Craigslist are sometimes more complicated than they need to be. This is especially so since you’re dealing with another party who you’re unfamiliar with, with no straightforward “reputation system” like that on eBay or other merchant sites. As a result, Craigslist has become a popular place for scammers and con artists, who trick earnest buyers and sellers out of their money and goods. Learn how to avoid Craigslist scams and make secure person-to-person transactions by using Venmo.
Popular Craigslist Scams
One of the most popular Craigsist scams involves check fraud. From SmartMoney:
Such is the typical fake-check scam: A remote buyer feigns interest in buying your goods — sight unseen — and sends you a check or money order for more than the item costs. You are asked to wire the difference. Several days later, the bank discovers that the check is fraudulent and you’re responsible for the balance.
The worst part about this scam is that there’s not much that can be done after the fact, since federal law offers little protection for check fraud.
In addition, fake cashier checks and money orders are common, and you can be held responsible by the bank when they are discovered a few weeks after trying to deposit them.
Face-to-Face Transactions
Often, the best way to avoid this type of fraud is to insist on a face-to-face transaction where cash can be exchanged. However, for expensive items, it is uncomfortable for both parties to exchange large amounts of cash on the spot, most importantly for security issues with carrying so much cash (both before, during, and after the transaction with the unfamiliar party).
Use Venmo Instead
Venmo offers an easy solution. Avoid check fraud, but still use your debit/credit account to pay for or receive payment for your goods. At the same time, get around the hassle of having to carry large quantities of cash, which is always a safety hazard. Simply use Venmo SMS Pay to send a payment to the seller of the item, after meeting with him face-to-face and verifying that the item is in good condition and as advertised. The seller will immediately receive confirmation of the payment via SMS, with instructions on how to use Venmo and access the money.
Venmo is the easiest way to make safe transactions and ensure that you experience all the benefits of Craigslist, without the usual pitfalls. Sign up for Venmo today and use it next time you make a transaction online!
Posted in Recommended Articles, Sell By Text, Venmo | No Comments »
Written on July 24th, 2009 by harish
Credit card and charge fraud causes cardholders and issuers numerous problems and wastes time and money; the amount of goods and services purchased with fraudulently obtained personal identity was more than $50 billion dollars last year. Read on to learn about how to keep your information secure and avoid credit card fraud.
Here are some tips from the FBI and Scambusters:
- Keep an eye on your credit card every time you use it, and make sure you get it back as quickly as possible. Try not to let your credit card out of your sight whenever possible.
- Be very careful to whom you give your credit card. Don’t give out your account number over the phone unless you initiate the call and you know the company is reputable. Never give your credit card info out when you receive a phone call. (For example, if you’re told there has been a ‘computer problem’ and the caller needs you to verify information.) Legitimate companies don’t call you to ask for a credit card number over the phone.
- Never respond to emails that request you provide your credit card info via email — and don’t ever respond to emails that ask you to go to a website to verify personal (and credit card) information. These are called ‘phishing’ scams.
- Never provide your credit card information on a website that is not a secure site.
- Sign your credit cards as soon as you receive them.
- Shred all credit card applications you receive.
- Don’t write your PIN number on your credit card — or have it anywhere near your credit card (in the event that your wallet gets stolen).
- Never leave your credit cards or receipts lying around.
- Shield your credit card number so that others around you can’t copy it or capture it on a cell phone or other camera.
- Keep a list in a secure place with all of your account numbers and expiration dates, as well as the phone number and address of each bank that has issued you a credit card. Keep this list updated each time you get a new credit card.
- Only carry around credit cards that you absolutely need. Don’t carry around extra credit cards that you rarely use.
- Open credit card bills promptly and make sure there are no bogus charges. Treat your credit card bill like your checking account — reconcile it monthly. Save your receipts so you can compare them with your monthly bills.
- If you find any charges that you don’t have a receipt for — or that you don’t recognize — report these charges promptly (and in writing) to the credit card issuer.
- Always void and destroy incorrect receipts.
- Shred anything with your credit card number written on it.
- Never sign a blank credit card receipt. Carefully draw a line through blank portions of the receipt where additional charges could be fraudulently added.
- Carbon paper is rarely used these days, but if there is a carbon that is used in a credit card transaction, destroy it immediately.
- Never write your credit card account number in a public place (such as on a postcard or so that it shows through the envelope payment window).
- Ideally, it’s a good idea to carry your credit cards separately from your wallet — perhaps in a zippered compartment or a small pouch.
- Never lend a credit card to anyone else.
- If you move, notify your credit card issuers in advance of your change of address.
- Review the privacy policy of websites you shop at, making sure that they protect your personal data. Check out Venmo’s privacy policy here.
- Always check your receipts against your billing statement. If you think a charge amount was changed, call your credit card company immediately.
One of the biggest points of vulnerability of credit card fraud is when you’re making an actual payment transaction and the card is with the merchant. There are numerous stories of employees swiping cards multiple times or writing down card numbers, online vendors selling credit card information, or credit card information being solicited by phone calls. When you use Venmo for payment transactions, you elimination this hassle of vulnerability, since your credit card information is never transmitted to the vendor. Instead, they interact solely with Venmo’s servers, meaning your credit card information is never out in the open for others to intercept or hack into. Venmo helps you guard your credit card number, since you never actually have to give it out to vendors that accept Venmo payments. Let your favorite online vendor know that you want to use Venmo to buy goods online.
Protect your credit card information and avoid fraud by signing up for Venmo.
And merchants– it is your responsibility to ensure that credit card fraud never happens. Make sure that this is the case by adopting Venmo today!
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