PayPal’s Venmo is introducing automatic payments with the ability to schedule one-time and recurring payments with friends and family.
Those who use Venmo but don’t have the scheduling feature yet should check back later. According to PayPal, automatic payments will be widely available “in the coming weeks.” You can manually update your installed copy of Venmo on Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store instead of waiting for automatic updates to get the latest version of the app. The company said in an announcement, “Venmo’s new feature makes it easier to manage one-time or recurring expenses by setting up automatic payments or payment requests to another Venmo user.”
For those unfamiliar with Venmo, it’s a peer-to-peer mobile payments service that enables people to split bills, like a restaurant bill, a taxi fare, utilities, rent, and similar, using the mobile app for Android and iPhone. The service is only available in the United States.
To schedule a payment, choose the Pay/Request option in the app, select whom to send the money to, and hit the Schedule button. Next, set the payment date and choose whether this is a one-time or recurring payment. In case of the latter, you’ll need to choose a payment frequency such as monthly, weekly, or bi-weekly.
Finally, touch the Save button, choose how much you’d like to send, and hit “Pay,” then select the Schedule Payment option. If setting up a scheduled payment request, choose “Request” and select “Schedule Request” instead. You don’t need to leave the Venmo app open for the payment to go out on schedule or for you to receive a scheduled payment. In fact, Venmo will even send a push notification and email 24 hours to all recipients before the requested payment date.
If there are insufficient funds on your Venmo balance, the app will fall back to your other billing methods, such as your linked bank account, debit card, or credit card, to cover the full amount. You can cancel a scheduled payment request anytime in the Venmo settings.
Venmo recently brought a tap-to-pay option on Android, so other folks can send you money by tapping their card on your phone without using a card reader. That feature could come to the iOS app, too, as Apple’s upcoming iOS 18.1 update will finally open up the iPhone’s NFC chip for contactless payments to third-party apps and wallets.
Source: PayPal
