Venmo Raises Rate For Instant Transfers

Venmo, the digital payment unit of PayPal, has raised the fee for instant transfers when moving money from their account to a traditional bank account, according to reports.

Reports citing an email Venmo sent to users late last week said the fee is going up to one percent of the transferred amount, with the payment company taking a $0.25 fee at the minimum. According to reports, that means if you are transferring more than $25 via that method on Venmo you will pay the digital payment company. “The change reflects the value that Venmo’s services offer – providing speed and convenience for customers that want to transfer their funds to their bank accounts in 30 minutes or less,” a PayPal spokesperson told reporters.

For those that transfer larger payments this could be bad news, since it means more of their money is going to fees. Instant transfers is geared toward users that want to move money in their Venmo account to their bank account in under a half hour, noted the report.

This comes as executives at PayPal are deciding whether they should remove the option to post and view public transactions on Venmo. According to Bloomberg, an anonymous source said that regardless of what is decided, payments between friends would still be visible on the home feed. “Venmo is always evaluating what’s best for our customers,” a PayPal spokesman wrote in an emailed statement.

“The safety and privacy of Venmo users and their information is always a top priority, and we do a number of things to keep our users informed and help them protect and control their privacy.” The discussions are the result of growing concerns over the app’s privacy. Venmo users link their bank accounts or credit cards to the app so they can send and receive payments using their smartphones. Users often send messages with their payments, which are visible on a public newsfeed by default unless the settings are changed.