I still don't get it. My bank's app lets me send money to people via interac e-transfer. It's kind of a pain in the ass to add a new payee each time, but the payee doesn't need to have any app themselves. It works through email and the bank's website. It's free too. What does venmo have that isn't covered by that?

> I still don't get it. My bank's app lets me send money to people via interac e-transfer.

You don't get it that most banks do not do that? I am unsure why you are confused about that?

Every bank in Canada does it, even the tiny credit unions. It's common throughout Europe. I don't know about Australia, but they probably have it too. I don't know, just another example of Americans being backwards and thinking everyone else has the same problems. I seriously can't believe it's 2018 and this isn't mandatory for every bank yet.

Australia just got PayId this year which means you can send any amount of money to anybody who signs up via their banks and receive money in seconds.

Until last year you had to wait up to 3 days to do an interbank transfer but not anymore. (same bank transfer would usually clear within the day)

I have used it quite a bit since it was released and I have to say that it does the job. The only downside is that it is tied to your phone number and I am not really sure what the process is if you want to change it.

Perhaps it's the people's problem for not demanding a better system.

Many other countries in the world bank transfers are easy and free (within the country). I can transfer to anyone from my phone, and do all the time. No apps or special services needed.

IMHO America likes to hinge these arguments on "our system is too old, we're just too big, etc.", but when it comes down to it are just excuses to allow banks to continue fleecing their customers.

> It’s kind of a pain in the ass to add a new payer each time

This is one reason Venmo is successful. Paying someone is easy. Receiving money is easy. No one wants to spend 5 minutes setting up a payee on their phone when they’re splitting a dinner bill.

I don't know where you live, but most banks in the US don't have that, and if they do, the UI and messaging is often terrible.

In fact Venmo's popularity, in my mind, is directly related to US banks finally making a push for free user-to-user transfers (even if their apps still need massive work).

So Square Cash then?

At this point there are too many network effects around venmo, if you're splitting the BBQ with 5 people and 4 have venmo and you don't, it's not as convenient for the requester. That's why I got venmo initially, and now it's super easy to request money from friends and 2nd degree friends, since my network is all venmo. I know 1 person who uses square cash and he's over 40, and I know 2 or 3 less tech-literate friends who use paypal and refuse to try venmo. It's just a hassle to split costs with them because I have to do it in 2 apps instead of adding everyone to the same request in venmo.

Yep, it’s network effects. All my friends were impressed by Square Cash’s ability to instantly transfer to their bank accounts for a small fee, but nobody wants to install another cash app (and another virtual wallet) to use with just one friend.

When Apple Pay Cash came out, I was sure that it would replace Venmo, but even after all my friends updated to iOS 11 they continued to use Venmo. I’m guessing this has something to do with Apple Pay Cash not having any way to keep track of pending payments and requests, meaning your friend will probably never pay you back for lunch if the request isn’t paid as soon as it’s sent, before getting buried in history by conversation (iOS-only is another network-effect factor, but my social group is pretty much exclusively iOS).

I feel like I'm missing something here.

If I go out somewhere with a bunch of friends, we just ask for separate checks.

I think "splitting the BBQ" as in someone is buying and cooking a bunch of food and their friends are helping with the cost.

But anyway, some restaurants don't split checks and most don't like to because it's extra work for their staff.

How does PayPal fail this use case? Or cash (the horror)?

My friends and I largely don't carry cash, and even though I typically carry a single 20 and a 100 dollar bill for emergencies, it's hard to split cash unless someone else can give you change, which requires them to carry a bunch of 5s 10s 1s (coins?).

Paypal fails like I said because of network effects. More people in my friend group have venmo than paypal (even though paypal owns both), so when it's time to pay, venmo is the default.

Nothing is inherently wrong with paypal, it's just that nobody in my group uses it. So, just plain old network effects.

People don't carry cash as much as they used to, because they don't need to, because apps can do it.

We used to do that, but splitting with an app is easier so we've gradually stopped. Especially because many restaurants don't like doing separate checks, or have a limit to how much they will split, or it just feels mean and inordinately complicated to ask the waiter to do it when we have a way to sort it out ourselves.

Works well unless:

- the restaurant doesn't do separate checks for large groups - friends ordered meals with significant variance in case, and the server wasn't initially told to keep items separated - you want to split communal items in an arbitrary fashion

Me too. This is not a problem I've ever encountered.