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.
Unfortunately, they have frozen my account for good.
I find it funny that Venmo (a mobile payment platform) has decided to release a product that is counter-intuitive to their whole strategy of mobile payments.
They are owned by Paypal after all.
I was a little interested in this, as I’ve cut back on some extra cards and am one of those weirdos without a Visa or Mastercard credit card (no international travel plans soon, and usually run into no-Amex/Discover merchants about 5 times a year or less). I may get a credit card on one of those two networks, but I’m mostly weighing my options and working on a SUB for other cards first. To avoid using a debit card directly, my backup option has become the Square Cash Card (basically treat it as a prepaid Visa card – the spend otherwise enough to really matter on rewards elsewhere).
As Square’s has been a neat little product, I figured Venmo’s option would be similar. The contactless addition is nice, as are the color choices, but their roll out seems more random than when Square launched theirs and there’s no Apple Pay/Google Pay support. I figured they would’ve at least matched what Square did. For what it’s worth, I’ve been using Square’s a bit more (via Apple Pay) with the Boost feature – $1 off coffee has been nice and bests the rewards programs for Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts.
I don’t see the Venmo card option on my app. I’m running version 7.18.1(970) on Android.
Android users are left out
It sounds similar to Chime, they also provide free debit card….
There’s nothing under settings at all.
Update the app first.
I did. I think Android people are just left out.
I’m powering up my old iPad to see what the deal is. BRB.
Yup, the option is available on iOS but not Android. I was able to join the wait-list on the iPad. The option says that they will let me know when I will be eligible to apply, so it sounds like they can still turn me down even after I get picked off the wait-list.
If there is even slight possibility to ms without a 3% fee they will close the loophole or cancel your account. I hate Venmo.
any VGC poosibility?