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It’s a safe bet that you’ve used or are at least aware of peer-to-peer (P2P) money-sending services such as Venmo, PayPal, Cash App and Zelle. Which one is best is up for debate, but one undeniable fact is that these services have become ubiquitous. In 2023, P2P payment volume was an estimated $993 billion in the U.S.
The one hurdle that had remained was interoperability—the ability to send and receive money between different P2P services. Now, that hurdle has been cleared as Visa announced that PayPal and Venmo are offering the Visa+ P2P payment system.
Visa+ is a service that allows individuals to send and receive money across different digital payment apps. Now, Visa cardholders can sign up for a Visa+ payname, link that address to their Venmo or PayPal account and send or receive money across the two platforms. And more partners are coming according to a press release from Visa: “As we continue to expand the P2P use case in the U.S., Current and Western Union will join PayPal and Venmo in enabling cross-platform money movement.”
Plus, there are further expansions planned for business-to-consumer (B2C) payouts. Partners who have already implemented Visa+ for sending funds to customers or that plan to do so by fall 2024 include DailyPay, Tabapay, I2c, Astra, Brightwell, Cross River Bank and Fiserv.
Depending on how much you use P2P services and whether or not you are loyal to a specific one, this news may or may not impact you. One thing that is certain, though, is that Visa plans to expand its network of P2P services to make them accessible to everyone.
Read more. Current Review: Mobile Banking 2024
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P2P Co-Branded Credit Cards
You likely won’t be surprised to learn that several P2P services have their own co-branded credit cards. While these cards are likely not going to be a better choice than a general cash-back or rewards card, there are niche cases where they may be valuable. If you’re making a significant percentage of your financial moves through a P2P service, give these cards a look.
Venmo Credit Card*
The Venmo Credit Card* is Venmo’s co-branded card offering. The card provides above-average rewards for a no annual fee card. Cardholders earn 3% cash back in the top spend category, 2% on the next category and 1% on all other purchases. Cash back is sent to your Venmo account.
Venmo’s list of available categories is pretty extensive: bills and utilities, dining and nightlife, entertainment, gas, health and beauty, transportation and travel. If you spend heavily in at least two of these categories, you could see a pretty decent return on that spending. Cardholders have the ability to receive their cash back in the form of cryptocurrency with no transaction fees (though we do not necessarily recommend this).
Still, the card is light on additional benefits, has no welcome bonus and requires you to keep a Venmo account in good standing to cash out your rewards. This card should most likely not be considered for everyday spending unless, as we said, you simply love Venmo.
PayPal Cashback Mastercard®*
Like the Venmo Credit Card*, the PayPal Cashback Mastercard®* is a no annual fee card that earns 3% cash back when checking out with Paypal and 2% on all other purchases. A baseline earning rate of 2% is strong and puts it in line with other top flat-rate cards. However, some of those cards come with additional benefits like cellphone protection which the PayPal Cashback Mastercard®* lacks.
Since this card has no annual fee, there’s little downside to adding it to your wallet if you want to earn a top cash-back rate on PayPal spending (assuming you can manage another card responsibly). But if you don’t use PayPal often, this card has little appeal.
Bottom Line
How much this change will impact the average consumer remains to be seen. If most of your friends, family and business connections all use the same P2P app, adding a Visa+ payname isn’t likely to benefit you much. But the interoperability of Visa+ could provide additional convenience and flexibility for those who send or receive funds from multiple payment apps.
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