Venmo adds instant transfers to counter rivals

PayPal has been working to expand Venmo's audience beyond millennials for more than a year, a strategy that it hopes to further with instant transfers.

venmo on phone
The Ebay Inc. Venmo application (app) is arranged for a photograph on an Apple Inc. iPhone 5s in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Aug. 22, 2014. After downloading the Venmo mobile-payment app onto a smartphone, users can connect them to bank and credit-card accounts, and then link up with friends to send and receive money on-the-go. Venmo, based in New York, alone handled $314 million in mobile payments in the first quarter of this year, up 62 percent from the prior quarter. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

For a fee of $0.25, users can deposit funds into their debit cards in up to 30 minutes, rather than current wait time of up to three days. The slower, free option will still exist for consumers willing to wait. Instant transfers will work with Visa and Mastercard debit cards and should be available over the next few days.

Venmo's parent company, PayPal, has made several changes to the P-to-P service to expand popularity beyond its core millennial audience, particularly given Venmo's impact on PayPal's overall business performance.

PayPal has made Venmo available for retail payments and issuing a traditional payment card.

The moves also come as Venmo faces more competition from the bank-led Zelle transfer app and Apple's new P-to-P app.

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P-to-P payments Faster payments Debit cards PayPal Venmo
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