Venmo Review | Hacker News Reader

Venmo Review

alexeymk.com

35 pointsAlexeyMK14 comments

I am going to signup for 2 accounts and max out the airline miles on my credit cards every month... just kidding.

I actually did this in college when the federal government allowed people to buy savings bonds with a credit card. Unless they have really good controls, I can see some enterprising college kid pumping 250k through this service and showing off an Amex black card.

Why the downvote? I am not the OP but I agree with the basic premise. Any start up dealing with money has to think about people who will abuse the system. I hope they have checks in place to avoid something like this.

I'm not clear on Venmo's money transmitter license situation, especially in Pennsylvania. Anyone know how they can operate legally nationwide?

(I am a competitor but this is a real question.)

One of the (few?) best startups in Philly, very nice founders and employees.

I had my most recent "I live in the future" moment when I, between getting off of public transit and arriving at the food truck, received the menu from a friend, picked what I wanted, then paid the same friend for that food, all through my iPhone, and all the while knowing exactly where the other person was using GeoShare[1][2]

[1] http://geoshare.us/ [2] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2093261

I don't understand how Venmo will continue after they burn through the VC money. Won't the credit card fees eat them alive?

My understanding is that they do charge some fee to places like food trucks. The way it's structured, though, they encourage the users to keep some amount (c. $20) in their Venmo accounts, so that when you pay someone, it gets taken out of that first, then only falls back to your credit card or bank account when necessary. Depending on how frequently people cash out, they might even be able to make a small amount on interest by investing the amounts that people have on file, and just shifting the chits around.

It is a prettier PayPal.

The only difference is a few features and that (for now) they aren't charging fees.

No, it's not, at all.

They'll need to explain really strongly why it's not, then, because that'll be all most people will think.

Venmo's privacy settings need work. You can't hide the $ amount and publish only the payment description. You can either publish it to all friends or keep the whole payment private.

Sheesh, any other Aussies tired of seeing cool shit like this and not being able to use it!?

Bug, they rejected my CC with exp date of this month as expired. Lost a user.

How did this app for iPhone got accepted when the Bitcoin app was rejected ?

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