Venmo Money, No Problems!

If you don’t already use some type of mobile payment service, chances are your friends have tried to get you on-board. One of these services is Venmo. I must admit Venmo makes going to dinner and grabbing drinks easier than ever. One person pays the bill – and the rest can instantly transfer money to the payers account. That means no more arguing about how to split the check or one person getting shorted!

While mobile payment services are trendy and convenient, security always becomes an issue when transferring money across any type of connection.

Venmo’s only been around since 2012, but has already created ‘a verb for itself’ – “If you want to pay the tab, I’ll just Venmo you.” Their rapid growth has been impressive, but how do they plan to tackle the security for $700 million dollars in payments? Currently, they only have 70 full-time employees to handle these payments.

I use peer-to-peer payment gateways, including Venmo, on a weekly basis – mainly because of their convenience. Have I ever had fraudulent activity? No, but it’s always in the back of my mind. Here are a few tips to minimize the risk of security issues using Venmo or similar payment services:

  • Make sure you have a secure Internet connection (Not the free wi-fi at Starbucks)
  • Set up passcodes or Touch ID (iPhone 6 and 6 Plus only) within Venmo or the payment application
  • Keep an eye on your bank statements
  • Create unique user names and passwords that contain capital letters, various characters, and numbers

Before setting up a peer-to-peer payment account for yourself, do a bit of research and see if there’s anything big happening in the news with those companies that you should be aware of. Custom applications like these can be built by just about anyone who knows how to build an app. This leaves open the door to entrepreneurship and fraud.

If you’ve thought about jumping on the bandwagon and creating your own payment application, but just don’t have all the help you wish you did, please contact me by email sengel@g1440.com or phone 410-843-3826.

Sarah Engel is a Marketing Consultant at G.1440 who joined the team after graduating from Towson University with degrees in Business Administration and Electronic Business. She’s an infographic nut and a forever-long Apple fan. When she’s not behind one of her Apple devices, she is often found volunteering with her dog King, or heading to the beach for the weekend.