Venmo has launched a physical debit card which will allow you to make purchases using funds directly from your Venmo account. The card is a Mastercard and is issued by Bancorp. You can apply for the card within the Venmo app (Settings > Venmo Card). The app will say if you’re eligible currently for the card, or else it’ll put you on a waitlist.
Venmo debit card FAQÂ | Card agreement
The debit card has no monthly fees or applications fees. There is an ATM fee for cash withdrawal.
There’s a neat Reload feature which allows you to make purchases beyond your Venmo balance by pulling funds from a designated Reload source. This is similar to how Paypal, parent company of Venmo, has it set up with the prepaid Paypal debit cards.
It’s not clear if you can set up a credit card as your Reload Method. If that does work, I’d assume there’s the standard 3% credit card fee. This still could be a play to earn unlimited UR points with CIP since that card has been earning 3x on Venmo or to easily meet spend requirements at a 3% fee. Let us know if you try this out.
The Paypal debit and prepaid products are more logical given that many small businesses have huge amounts of money running through their Paypal account, and the card gives them faster access to the funds. In the case of Venmo, no one has any serious funds there, and it sound more like a ploy to try grasping at millennials who find the app cool. (Have you ever heard of ‘Venmo Anxiety‘ before? Who would have thought.)
Rival Square Cash also launched a physical debit card, and they even have some cashback offers on the card. It’ll be interesting to see if Venmo tries competing in the rewards space.
