Best for You: Venmo vs. PayPal?

You can perform almost anything via your mobile phone or laptop nowadays, including sending money or asking for it. One of the two well-known platforms to move money is PayPal and Venmo. Both allow you to transfer and receive money electronically. Both have made significant progress in the past few years to make them more robust and even experimenting with cryptocurrency. It could have started as a way of transferring the cash off to a family member or purchasing something you bought in an eBay auction; however, Venmo and PayPal are almost as good as banks these days with features like mobile check deposits as well as the ability to link a credit or debit card.

Payments

Both Venmo and PayPal allow users to transfer funds using their account balance or linked credit cards and bank accounts. In the past, only a handful of companies would accept payments directly via Venmo, which included Uber, Grubhub, Forever 21, J. Crew, and Poshmark. But, the company has recently allowed retailers to provide customers with payment options that are touchless Venmo payment options using store-to-store QR codes beginning with CVS.

PayPal already allows touchless QR payments in partnership with retailers. PayPal is utilized by online retailers and various online stores that permit customers to purchase items using PayPal. Since PayPal is designed for use by business customers, the account has many transactions that can be as high as $60,000 (and it is possible to limit the amount to $10,000 in one transaction).

Sending Money

The Venmo app has been specifically developed to make sending funds to different Venmo users quick and simple. It is possible to transfer money to another user through a search for their account or by scanning the QR code in the application. Users can also view purchases shared by friends via a social media feed or send a text message that includes payment or "heart" a friend's purchase.

PayPal has some remarkable features for paying money. Instead of sending an email address to make the payment PayPal allows users to create PayPal.Me link they can then share. PayPal allows users to transfer money to a bank account of a person or cash pickup locations across more than 130 countries using its Xoom service even if they don't have an existing PayPal account. The fees vary depending on the country and deposit or withdrawal and start at $4.99 for one transaction.

The first limit of person-to-person sending for Venmo is $299.99. After verification, a user's limit increases to $4,999.99, and verified; the limit is increased to a weekly roll-over limitation of $4,999.99. PayPal requires that all users be verified. It lets users send up to $60,000 in one transaction; however, they can limit it to $10,000 per transaction.

Fees

The charges for the two services are similar. Both allow free payments through linked bank accounts, and both charge around 3 percent when making payments using credit cards. They do differ because Venmo allows no-fee payments to debit cards, but PayPal does not allow payment without charge directly from bank accounts. In the case of credit or debit card transactions, PayPal's fee is technically 2.9 30% with a 30c surcharge. A possible exception to the fees for transactions made with credit cards is payments made with American Express. In a new and exciting development, American Express is offering no-cost payments via PayPal and Venmo; however, the transaction is to be initiated via American Express. This allows customers to pay using a credit card and thus eliminate the three percent cost associated with the transaction.

The speed at which you wish to transfer your accumulated cash to your PayPal or Venmo balance to your bank account offers free options for both platforms. Each of Venmo and PayPal let you choose an average transfer time of between one and three days for no charge or to change your transfer to be completed within a matter of seconds for a charge of 1.5 percent of the amount transferred. Both of these services set the fee for transfers at $15 and require a minimum cost that is 25 cents. If you are using PayPal as a retailer collecting customers' payments, PayPal provides various pricing options. In addition, Venmo is not geared to business transactions with merchants, and it comes with a limitation if it believes that users treat their accounts in the same way as a company account.