These are Venmo's etiquette tips when splitting, sharing, sending money
Splitting and sending money to people can get messy when it’s not done properly, but Venmo wants to help prevent those issues by instilling proper etiquette.
The money-sharing app released a list of Venmo etiquette tips for its users on a slew of issues, from splitting a bill on a group dinner or intimate date to sending monetary birthday gifts. The app gathered results from an online survey conducted by Atomik Research, which found that 65 percent of users would use Venmo to send money for a birthday gift.
“Venmo’s popularity has sparked an ongoing debate about the proper way to split payments for a dinner bill, group travel, gifts and more,” Venmo’s general manager Amit Jhawar said in a news release. “We wanted to crowdsource what our users thought was most appropriate and share it back with the community to help them navigate these complicated situations.”
The survey also found that men and women differ when it comes to splitting the bill for a date. Of the people surveyed, 41 percent of men felt it was appropriate to request their date pay half the bill after the date ended. Only 26 percent felt that sending a Venmo request to split the bill was okay. About half of survey responders also felt they should only pay for the items they ordered when it comes to splitting a bill. The report did not specify whether this referred to group meals or dates.
Venmo teamed up with Beaumont Etiquette founder Myka Meier to come up with 10 tips on sending and requesting money from friends and those who’ve you met for the first time.
Some of Meier’s top tips include requesting money within 24 hours after the purchase. She recommended using the same timeframe when it comes to completing a money request for the “most efficient experience.”
When it comes to dates, the majority of users believed the person who asked to go out and selects where to go should be the one settling the bill. The tip goes for all genders.
“Thirty percent of users agree the bill should be split, but unless that’s discussed ahead of time, we do not recommend sending a post-date request,” Meier said.
Meier also suggested people discuss possible Venmo transactions before sending requests so there are no surprises.
“Not all Venmo requests have to happen after the fact. If you are the person who has taken on any group trip expenses, it’s fine to request payment ahead of the trip if you’re fronting the payment, but be as detailed as possible when requesting and be sure to have the total amount and breakdown per person available in case someone asks,” one tip said.
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More people are also preferring money instead of items as gifts. Also, no monetary gift is too small these days.
“When it comes to requests, 24 percent of Venmo users believe the request can be between $1 and $5. Some people use Venmo to send small surprise payments of $1 or less just to say hey or thank you to a friend - Venmo calls these ‘penny pokes’ and over 3 million were sent in 2018 alone,” the app said.