Suzanne Humphries
Venmo is doing a 180 on one of its previous policies. The mobile payment giant, owned by PayPal, will now allow users to sell products and services from their personal accounts, though for a fee, of course. The new policy will go into effect on July 20.
Currently, Venmo users with personal profiles (as opposed to dedicated business profiles) are not permitted to accept payments for business transactions. The service is strict in enforcing this policy, suspending the accounts of any viable offenders.
Now, anyone wanting to accept payments for, say, teaching music lessons or selling handmade products can now do so through the app. Venmo will tack on a 1.9% transaction charge, however, along with a $0.10 fee, which is still fairly in line when compared to Venmo’s business profile rates.
The updated policy is PayPal’s latest attempt to bolster Venmo’s numbers, following ideas like a Venmo credit card and allowing stimulus check direct deposit. Given the service’s enormous userbase (up 32% in 2020 to roughly 70 million), such a change in policy makes sense and it’s sure to make the app even more user-friendly and popular. The digital finance app will deduct its fees from the money sent to pay for the transaction, and it will also include a purchase protection plan option for recourse on transactions with issues.
via TechRadar
