Is Venmo similar?

https://www.splitwise.com

I love Splitwise; almost all of my friends at uni use it and pretty much all shared expenses go on it. I also use Walnut (http://www.getwalnut.com/), not for the settlement feature, but rather for the expense tracking which automatically reads SMSes and builds up monthly expense reports.

Far better to use a vanilla expense manager. Maybe it takes an extra second to enter the details of the transaction but at least your data never leaves your device. That's the way it should be.

If it's Splitwise, then it seems like PayPal doesn't care so much for propping up Venmo. Interesting either way.

Walnut seems like an interesting product. Thanks for the link.

I, have found developers and other tech workers to be, somewhat ironically, more "Ludditic" than the general population.

I wonder if mechanical engineers tend to be safer drivers...

He has had the same car for the past 25 years now.

throwout bearing

I'd rather replace my CV joints every 10 years than be that jerk who slows down to a crawl on every turn on a mountain road.

It's the throwout bearing. Your father has a point, but I would rather keep the clutch in. Too much thinking involved putting it in neutral every time you stop.

The brakes will hold a slipped clutch and a rear end.

The clutch has an added benefit of you get rear ended and drop it - engine braking is a thing. Not good for the engine, potentially good for your forward bumper when you get reared.

There's no engine breaking when stopped, if the engine is running.

I typically do keep my foot on the brake when stopped in traffic. And I do balance brakes, clutch and throttle when stopped on a hill. But except for stop-and-go traffic, or when getting ready to punch it, using the clutch and brakes together seems pointless.

The way you phrased it makes me think of cops at lights just going around and aggressively throwing gear sticks into 1st.

> Not putting it in neutral when stopped can contribute to failing your driving test in the U.K.

So the context was specifically driving tests.

Aside from reducing the wear on the throwout bearing, what purpose is served by putting the car in neutral every time it is stopped in traffic?

In all seriousness, that's why I did it. My first stick was a truck, and even though it was small, it has a stiff clutch. You got tired of standing on it.

If that's what you like, go for it, but two posts seemed to imply that I'm doing something wrong by keeping the vehicle in gear with the clutch in while stopped in traffic, and I'd really like to know what that is. One post implied that UK law encourages or even requires that the vehicle be taken out of gear when it's stopped in traffic. I've never heard anything like that in the US.

I've never encountered a clutch that took any noticeable effort for me to operate. And, considering all of the other bearings in a vehicle that are rotating under load constantly, I question the value of trying to save the throwout bearing a few extra seconds on each stop.

So I would really like to know why I should shift to neutral when stopped in traffic. Should I do it when I'm waiting for a break in the traffic in the oncoming lane so I can turn across it? (A left turn in the US.) When I'm stopping at a stop sign, and then immediately going because there is no other traffic around? When I'm stopped for a few seconds in a stop-and-go traffic jam?

The reasoning given by my driving instructor was that this secures the vehicle and makes things just a little more safe for everyone.

If I am stopped in traffic with my parking brake on and sometime lightly rear-ends me, my vehicle may not move at all. If my parking brake were not applied, the probability of my vehicle not moving at all drops significantly.

If I am rear-ended without the parking brake applied such that my vehicle rear-ends someone in-front of me, I am partially responsible for the damage caused ahead due to my failure to secure my vehicle.

This is only tangentially related to taking my foot of the clutch. I depress the clutch in order to apply the parking brake correctly. Once the parking brake is applied, I simply have no need to continue to depress the clutch.

It takes me very little time to apply the parking brake and then release it and so I tend to do so when stopping for more than a second or two.

Now, I'm pretty sure this is because I don't live in the US. Is this a purely US-specific service, or is it available (and used) anywhere else.

If not, are there similar services in other countries? I believe Wepay in China is something similar, but I don't know much about that one either.

When I joined everyone was there and I was promptly added to tens of groups which I promptly left one by one.

I have been an Android developer for 6 years now.

Made in 1987 here. I have Paypal as well but I prefer Google Wallet. Google Wallet is directly connected to my bank account. I don't trust Paypal to connect it to my bank account. Why would you trust Venmo with your bank account I would never know. Am I... am I too old and too conservative?

I prefer square cash, but this entire app ecosystem only exists because American banks don't allow free wires for some reason.

The only people I know who use google wallet are google employees.

As far as trust there's pretty limited risk, lots of protection/laws around bank access and easy to audit.

Ah - I kept wondering what the main hook for these services was, appreciate efficiency and social effects are the USP, but wondered what the main reason was over and above just a direct transfer from your mobile banking app (how most people I know here in the UK do this).

* If I know their bank routing number and account number, I can just send them money directly without any involvement on their end.

    * Most people will not just give out their account info, even though it's on every check they write.    

None of this would be a problem except that each bank uses a different system. Chase uses ChasePay. Ally and PNC use PopMoney. There are several others. This causes a lot of friction when sending money. "Oh, you use chase pay? Now I have to set up an account there, too."

Venmo (and others) let you abstract away the bank details. Everyone in your friend group signs up for 1 account (and it could be a competing service. I like Sqaure Cash) and is ready to send. They also offer better account lookup and the ability to send a payment request.

They also often require using a clunky web UI without an ability to do it from a mobile app.

I can understand not wanting to support the company as a matter of principle, but I'm not sure I buy the risk angle.

But for the past several years I've just defaulted to Wallet ever since they added the ability to attach money to an email like you're attaching a file. I know it's just UI but that was sort of brilliant (if done in the typical fuss-less Google fashion so most don't even notice it).

So while I still lean toward buying rounds or taking turns paying for things with friends I see often, occasionally I'll be out someplace and unexpectedly need cash without a nearby ATM. If a friend has cash, I can just send them funds to pay back. Same goes the other way around.

Other times it's something like ordering tickets to an event and I just buy for myself and a few friends at the same time. Then if they end up going, they can forward me funds at their leisure and no messing with ATMs or writing checks.

Sounds like Venmo is used in a similar way but I've not started using it if only because I already have something I'm satisfied with and the handful of people who even want to use such a thing have it as well. I tend not to proselytize to other people who don't express an interest in doing things this way, but I've yet to run into anyone who is using Venmo.

Although maybe half a year ago I was single for the first time in years and saw a lot of people mostly-jokingly (I hope) on Tinder asking people to Venmo them $5 to get their attention. Seemed like either a cynical/ironic "why not?" sort of joke or the least ambitious prostitutes in history.

If you don't trust Paypal, I can understand why you don't trust Venmo.

Venmo is a service of PayPal, Inc., a licensed provider of money transfer services (NMLS ID: 910457). All money transmission is provided by PayPal, Inc. pursuant to PayPal, Inc.’s licenses. © 2017 PayPal, Inc.

I’m 37 and probably wouldn’t know anyone using it in my normal social circle except I happen to know a bunch of ~24 yr olds (some younger) via a younger colleague.

Of those you are younger guess how many use Venmo? Every. Single. One.

Not every day, or all the time, but regularly: especially with friends & at weekends. It’s spread so we’ll split lunches at work occasionally with it.

Hell, there are several restaurants in Berkeley that allow you to pay with it because college kids use it so much.

This may vary by your group and where they at in life, but by my late 20s, those things mattered a lot less. If I buy someone a beer, I just hope they will get me back at some point and if not, then I bought them a beer- no big deal-enjoy! (well enjoy, unless this is the fifth time in a row I have done this and you haven't gotten me back).

I am in my mid-late 30s, and I have Venmo. I just tend to not use it very often, only for fairly big ticket items- concert/event tickets, someone buys a gift for someone else that we all chip in on, a restaurant gives a hard time about taking multiple credit cards, etc.

I much prefer it for payments amongst friends than anything else now though. It’s rather good.

I would love to know if the college crowd was a specific target for venmo: it’s nailed it

Even my dad who has virtually no real friends outside the husbands of my mom's friends, had multiple contacts using Venmo when I got him to use the app so we would have an easier time paying for stuff between us.

I don't know a lot of people, but my Venmo activity feed of friends has at least a dozen transactions a week. I have ~300 FB friends and about half that in Venmo "friends".

She viewed it like a newer paypal. She has paid friends with it, and they have paid her with it.

Our use case tends to be for fantasy football, splitting vacation homes, hotels, bigger gifts for the parents, and other more expensive things. Replaces checks more than cash I'd say.

I am.

My neighbor's kid introduced me to it. Now I can't live without it. Being able to pay my maid or gardener when I'm not home... priceless. I never carry cash or a wallet any more. Slip an ID card in my phone case... good to go.

Basically if you're doing a transaction with an untrusted person the time it takes for things to clear means you can be taken advantage of.

Venmo has a similar dispute system and you can often bounce on credit card too.

I didn't use it until I shared an apartment with some friends who were ~15 years younger than me. Every single one of their cohorts used it, all the time.