In the News
New technological updates continue to make paying for online purchases easier. In Uber now lets you pay for rides with Venmo, Chris Welch discusses a new update to Uber that furthers Paypal’s integration with Uber, which already allows customers to pay for their Uber ride with their Paypal account and balance.
Our Take
Venmo and other payment apps are all the rage right now, especially with college students and millennials. The easy way to pay back your friends or split the costs of a good or service is highly appealing to a tech savvy generation. The introduction of Venmo pay on Uber, much like with Paypal, allows customers to use the same payment form for more services, decreasing the number of payment formats and making it easier to tracking their finances in a single place and to catch suspicious transactions. Services like Venmo and Paypal also decrease the number of places where sensitive account numbers are stored, which in turn decreases the likelihood that a breach at one company will result in an unnoticed charge, or a replaced credit card and hours of searching for online accounts that are still using the old number.
Recommendations
How can you protect your personal finances when using online applications?
- Secure your Venmo, Paypal, and other online payment accounts by using strong, unique passwords and multifactor authentication
- Minimize the number of e-commerce accounts that have direct access to your bank account or card numbers
- Track your finances closely to watch out for suspicious activity
- Stay up to data about recent news concerning applications and financial institutions you use