Venmo Going Plastic? A New Push for Cards in Mobile Payments

June 29, 2024         By: Steven Anderson

A strange development recently cropped up from Venmo, which made a name for itself on its ability to pay small debts between people using a peer-to-peer (P2P) system, a point that even Apple Pay didn’t always cover. Recently, reports emerged that Venmo was working on a new payment card system using the standard plastic card.

While Venmo itself was staying mum on the matter, noting that it had “…nothing to announce at this time,” this was to be expected, particularly if it’s just working on such a system.Venmo did note to NBC News that the company was poised to “…continue to test, introduce and expand features that allow people to use Venmo to pay friends and shop in new ways.”

In fact, some reports suggest that cards were involved in tests at Taco Bell and Chipotle locations, suggesting that perhaps these developments are farther along than previously indicated. One source noted that, with physical cards, there would be less of a wait to actually get access to funds sent on a P2P basis.

Venmo isn’t even alone here, as reports noted that Square has been seen working in plastic as well, and the plastic card may represent a useful bridge to get more users into mobile payment systems by connecting these to a familiar medium.

It’s a rational response; while 46 percent of US consumers in a Pew Charitable Trusts study turned to mobile payments at some point in the last year, that means 54 percent of consumers never did. That’s a fairly large market to work with, and if users can start in with something nice and familiar like plastic cards, then that may be the thing that gets users interested. Theoretically, it doesn’t have to be that different from a standard mobile device interface; we’ve already seen some system-on-a-chip systems that can operate like a mobile payment system. Just touch the card to a terminal and let it do the job.

Regardless of the final form, Venmo et al may be able to bring in some of that non-mobile payment using public with just a little adjustment to form f