Best Mobile Payment Apps to Send and Receive Money
With so many payment apps on the market, it can be hard to know which is the best, especially in a world where cybersecurity is an increasing concern every day.
The last thing you want to do is trust your money to a service that isn’t reliable or secure enough to handle it.
Thankfully, we have a full breakdown of which is the best app to send and receive money, which mobile payment apps are most trustworthy, and how to pick which is right for you.
We will guide you through this information, making the process as easy and pain-free as possible without withholding any important information.
Gone are the days when a money order or a tidy check in the mail were the only ways to transfer money between people and businesses. Now that smartphones are quickly becoming one of the most essential tools in most people’s lives, naturally, the money market is adjusting to reflect that. Now there are many safe and convenient money transfer apps.
Apps to send money might be a relatively new thing but much has been done to make them safe and user-friendly.
Never again will you have to ask a server to split a check or jot down an IOU to a friend on the back of a receipt. Now you can transfer the money from your bank account instantly using one of these mobile apps.
Need-to-Know Basics About Payment Apps
- Always use either the Apple App Store or Google Play to download your cash apps. Even if a quick Google search brings up a promising website or if you get an email touting how good some new product is, don’t chance it. Scammers are out there getting better at what they do every day. the Apple Store and Google Play are safe, secure, and trustworthy. Any app worth having can be downloaded through one of those two.
- Accounting may be a bit tougher if you use mobile payment apps. Many different accounting software services have not yet integrated these apps into an automated system to say, align these payments with invoices.
- Avoid linking to savings accounts using payment apps. Your bank may well charge you fees for using savings instead of checking accounts for payment app transfers.
- Some mobile apps charge you fees. There are so many good, free options that you can avoid all the fee-chargers right out the gate. You have nothing to gain by paying more. By attaching your debit card or bank account to the app directly, you should be able to avoid fees for most domestic payments.
- International transfers might take longer, come with a fee, or be disallowed altogether. To be honest, international payments are such a headache that you should probably find advice specifically for that scenario if it’s a pressing concern of yours.
- Payment apps are simple and easy to use for small payments, but one of the ways they limit fraud is by requiring you to verify your account more thoroughly before you can send larger amounts of money. Not all apps have the same limitations but if you’re looking to spend more than $250 on something, for instance, you should be aware of this.
Breaking Down Each App
Here we will give a brief summation of each app followed by its pros and cons.
Venmo
Pros
- Super Popular and well known
- Easy to use, and set up
- Fun little stickers you can add to the description of your payment
Cons
- Wants to share your transactions like a social media feed. It’s important to make sure you set your transactions to “private” if you don’t want to the world to see them
- 3% fee charged for using your credit card
- Not meant for contactless payment
- Not meant for commercial use, only personal.
Apple Pay
Apple is a true lifestyle brand, and it so enormously popular that even pointing out how huge it feels like calling the ocean “big” (a bit of an understatement, obviously).
You must first link up a credit card or debit card into your iPhone or iPad’s Wallet to begin. Then all you have to do is bring your iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch near a POS (point of sale) wireless register at a store et voila: contactless payment. If you are using your debit card you can also send money person to person, as long as they are also using an Apple device.
Pros
- Great for contactless payments in-store
- Great for transferring money to someone else who uses Apple products.
Cons
- Can’t send money to someone with an Android device.
- No credit card option for person-to-person payments
Google Pay
Google Pay is much like Apple Pay with one huge difference: Google Pay is much more compatible and allows you to transfer money to anyone on any device whereas Apple Pay is only for Apple users.
The process of signing up for Google Pay is that you must first sign-in to a Google Account and link your payment method and bank information.
Pros
- Does not matter if the sender or recipient has Android or iOS devices
- Some merchants occasionally run small-to-medium-sized promotions with this service
- Best contactless digital wallet payment in-store and online payments
Cons
- Absolutely no international transactions are allowed.
- No credit card option for person-to-person payments
Cash App
Cash App is a product of Square, the popular smartphone add-on that lets people accept credit cards at the farmers’ market, craft fair, and wherever traditional registers cannot be found. Cash App was created specifically with person-to-person payments in mind.
Cash App is unique among the competition in that it offers its own debit card and an award program called “Cash boosts” that can net you discounts. Select retail partners, among them DoorDash, will give you an automatic discount when using Cash App.
Other unique features include the ability to buy bitcoin and to invest in stocks with CashApp, though limits apply.
Pros
- Discount program and merchant partnerships
- Ability to invest in stocks
- Ability to buy Bitcoin
- Ability to activate a “Cash Boost” for promotional discounts
Cons
- Too much work to acquire Cash Boosts
- When using a credit card to send money person-to-person a 3% fee is charged
- For instant access of money received a 1.5% fee is charged
