Review on Venmo by Benaiah A. Akinlade
Venmo: Financial Transactions made easy for US Citizens
The world is going paperless in all works of life and this transition does not leave the financial sector behind. Every day, people are looking for the easiest way to complete their financial transactions without leaving the comfort of their homes. Gone are the days when you are only limited to accessing your funds by being physically present at the bank, as payment and financial transactions services have gone virtual.
Venmo is a type of virtual P2P (Peer to Peer) mobile payment platform owned by PayPal. You can use the mobile application on your iOS and Android devices to send funds. The service is also linked to The Bancorp Bank who issues Venmo Mastercard which may be used anywhere.
There is no fee attached to any payment or transactions attached to your debit cards or bank account but there are some fees that you need to pay for premium and other special services. The service also allows you to transfer money from your Venmo account balance to your bank account easily. I discovered that here is also provision for sharing payments with friends such paying for rents and utilities.
The KYC is very dynamic as it accepts a wide variety of means of valid identification documents such as Driver’s license, Government issued ID Cards, Credit Cards and Bank Statements (not more than a year), letter from IRS (not more than a year), among other documents.
I discovered that due to its high flexibility, Venmo is susceptible to one flaw as fraudsters can use the platform to incite users to provide their bank account details or their Social Security numbers which in turn can be used for fraudulent activities.
One other hitch I also discovered about Venmo is that is requires both the sender and receiver to live in the US, and also, they need to add their US based bank account, credit or debit cards for payments and transactions. Venmo doesn’t allow you to transact an amount larger than the funds in your Venmo balance unless you add your US based bank account, credit or debit cards.
Pros
- Businesses can easily register to accept Venmo payments
- The platform is so easy and flexible to use.
- The Venmo Mastercard can be used anywhere
- Venmo supports up to 8 variety of valid documents that can be submitted for the KYC and proof of address
- Venmo services is available on Web, iOS, and Android
Cons
- The platform is only available for US residents
- It can be easily exploited by fraudsters due to its dynamic nature of KYC registration
