Bravo App Review: Pay or Tip People Standing Nearby, 2% Transaction Fee

The Bravo app is a payment app, similar to the Venmo concept, but with a very specific specialty of paying people who are physically standing nearby for services. The app uses GPS technology to locate each user (you turn it off when you don’t want it to track you), and it only allows you to pay people standing nearby.

iOS | Android

They were featured on Shark Tank in November 2017, see the episode on ABC here (begin at minute 13:30). Techchrunch wrote about it back in 2015.

Since payments run on GPS, there’s no need to exchange personal information, not even an email address or phone number. This makes it an excellent choice for things like tipping a waiter, valet, or musician. Their blog indicates that payments can not be cancelled once sent making it a prime choice for Craigslist sales. Bravo has also began working with some local charities as well to allow donations through the app.

Payments are made via bank or credit/debit card. No payment information is stored in the app itself, it’s all handled by Braintree.

The app charges a 2% fee to the sender on each transaction; no fees for recipient. 2% fee is quite reasonable, and you can typically recoup that fee from credit card rewards. They primarily hope to monetize the service with a $5 monthly subscription fee for business owner recipients.

The terms exclude peer payments and payments to family or friends. There might also be payment limits. Anyway, this isn’t anything scalable, but sounds like a neat way to tip or pay artists using a credit card.

The big caveat, of course, is that the service provider needs to have the app. They began in Phoenix and seem to have gotten a decent footprint in that area, but for the rest of the nation their reach is much more sparse.

Thanks to u/ridgedivergent on Reddit for letting us know about the app

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25 Comments
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Avi
Avi (@guest_1056646)
September 17, 2020 12:19

They’ve recently raised the fees. The new fee structure is as follows:

2% for payments $10 or below
2.9% + $0.31 for payments $10.01 to $499.99
3% + $0.31 for payments $500 or above

Selena Odom
Selena Odom (@guest_811205)
September 17, 2019 14:13

Does anyone know how to contact bravo tip and pay support phone number? I can’t find it anywhere and can’t get them to reply to my emails about a payment sent to me over 10 days ago I still haven’t got?

JimBobJr
JimBobJr (@guest_845577)
November 18, 2019 23:59

Did you ever receive your payment? I’m concerned about the friends and family policy and prepaid cards.

Aaron
Aaron (@guest_704298)
January 11, 2019 03:04

Are debit cards still charged 2%?

kups
kups (@guest_576367)
April 1, 2018 21:32

guess what they clawed back my points Am and still talking with them to show all my spending

Bert
Bert (@guest_576444)
April 2, 2018 01:22

Who are “they”?

Kups
Kups (@guest_576504)
April 2, 2018 09:47

@meX

Matthew
Matthew (@guest_712168)
January 25, 2019 23:25

Which card?

Albert H
Albert H (@guest_574587)
March 27, 2018 14:27

If this codes 3x with cip and/or citi access more, this would be big!

John
John (@guest_704680)
January 11, 2019 17:53

Any data point on this?

Matthew
Matthew (@guest_712169)
January 25, 2019 23:26

It works as of 1/10/19

Abey
Abey (@guest_574578)
March 27, 2018 14:14

I downloaded this cool app,
And i see they allow even to pay yourself.
It comes up you are attempting to pay yourself, are you sure? Lol but it works.

J
J (@guest_574602)
March 27, 2018 15:09

They only let me pay myself 3 times before blocking me. I now pay my wife without any issues.

Abey
Abey (@guest_574615)
March 27, 2018 15:46
  J

👍

RAM
RAM (@guest_574572)
March 27, 2018 14:03

Good to have this after being banned on venmo!

Frank
Frank (@guest_574524)
March 27, 2018 12:31

Definitely not messing with this since p2p is banned. Not sure why they would do that…

tinytavosa
tinytavosa (@guest_574517)
March 27, 2018 12:14

Anyone actually getting this app to work? I’ve added my bank info 3 times and it still keeps acting like I haven’t, even after it says I’m ready to receive payments. Oh developers.

J
J (@guest_574498)
March 27, 2018 11:36

I have been using bravo for about a month to maybe 2 months now to pay my wife for her “child care costs”. I’ve been able to hit ms on delta gold, Citi aa biz and Hilton cards in the last month with no question from bravo. I think I’d sent at least 5500 so far

Abey
Abey (@guest_574503)
March 27, 2018 11:53
  J

Wow. Good way to reach minimum spend on the SPG business 7K in 3M.

Parts Unknown
Parts Unknown (@guest_574522)
March 27, 2018 12:27

I’d be hesitant there since Amex added the no person to person payments language. Of course I funded $7k worth of bank accounts for my MSR lol.

J
J (@guest_574529)
March 27, 2018 12:40

Id hesitant if the amex card wasn’t a cobranded one (spg, Hilton, delta, Mercedes, etc)…maybe..I have seen my points post without issue to all these cards. I also read where a guy hit 10k on his platinum via bravo just fine too, just 2 weeks ago.

tinytavosa
tinytavosa (@guest_574505)
March 27, 2018 11:53
  J

Now thats the DP we wanted to see!
I have so much Amex Biz Plat MS to conquer, lol.

Thanks 🙂