Author: Craig Lloyd / Source: howtogeek.com
If you need to pay someone back for dinner, send rent money to a roommate, or send someone cash when they need it, you can do it all easily from your smartphone. We’ve rounded up the best mobile payment apps that help you send money easily.
We should note right upfront that you should never send money online to anybody without verifying that you are really sending to the right person, and that the person actually asked you for it (preferably with a phone or video call).
There are lots of scammers on the internet that try to trick people into sending them money.The Biggest Problem with Mobile Payment Apps
While all of these apps have pros and cons, perhaps the biggest problem in general with sending money digitally is that the recipient might not use the same mobile payment app that you do. For example, if you use PayPal to send someone money, but the recipient doesn’t use PayPal, they’ll have to sign up for a PayPal account to claim that money.
It’s hard to avoid that situation, so it’s important that setting up the app and creating an account is easy and quick. You could always just install all of the mobile payment apps so that they’re ready if you ever need them, but that’s not ideal for everyone, and many people only want to make room for one mobile payment app.
The Contenders
We picked six popular mobile payment apps to try out: Square Cash, Venmo, PayPal, Google Pay Send, Apple Pay Cash, and Facebook Messenger. Apple Pay Cash is the only one out of these six that’s proprietary to a mobile platform (iOS), and while it’s not necessarily an “app”, we felt it’s significant enough to include. We also threw in the Western Union app because if you ever need to get actual cash to someone, no matter where they are, it’s your best option.
RELATED: How to Set up Apple Pay and Google Wallet on Your Phone
Keep in mind that all of these apps do have some similarities, including the ability to link a debit card or bank account in order to add funds so you can pay people (as well as transfer funds back to your bank account). They also support credit cards (with a 2-3% fee). With that said, let’s see which of these apps are worth your time and money.
Apple Pay Cash
iPhone users will likely discover that Apple Pay Cash is the easiest mobile payment platform to use out of the bunch, especially since it’s already integrated into iMessage and setting it up is super quick and easy (especially if you already have a debit card set up with Apple Pay). The big downside is that it only works on iPhones, so you can’t send money to or receive money from people who have other types of phones.
If sending only between iPhones isn’t a problem for you, though, then there’s no better solution. It’s as quick and easy as selecting Apple Pay Cash in iMessage, choosing a dollar amount, and sending it just like you would a text message.
Venmo
When you think of mobile payment apps, you probably think of Venmo. It’s one of the more popular options out of the bunch, mostly thanks to a social aspect where you can add friends to make quicker transactions with, and even see those friends’ recent transactions (if you’re into that kind of thing). But you can also send money to any other Venmo user, as well as any phone…
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