another Paypal question

[wurm]

Can't seem to find the answer on Paypal's website (that doesn't mean it isn't there somewhere), so I thought I'd ask you fine folks.

I have a client for my freelance business who would like to pay via Paypal or Venmo. It's a client I've worked with before so I trust him. Anyway, I don't have a Venmo account and I do have 2 Paypal accounts; a Personal and a Premiere, which they don't even offer any more. I think I created the Premiere account for just such instances, but since they no longer offer it, they want you to open up a Business account. I'd rather not incur any fees if I don't have to, and I'd rather the clients didn't have to either. I believe I can just have him pay me via my Personal account as a "friend" rather than for a service without either of us getting hit with a fee. But I'm wondering if there's another way.

The other question is whether it's worth looking more closely into Venmo. I think Paypal owns them anyway, but I'm wondering about security issues there. My wife and daughter both use Venmo to pay each other back for things and they've never had any issues, so I'm wondering if my trepidation is unfounded.

It should be noted that I use GMail, have no issues with EZ-Pass use, use my Loyalty card at Stop and Shop, etc. So I'm not overly paranoid, but I also try to exercise a little caution with my money if not my privacy.

Your thoughts welcome and appreciated.

[space-time]

I avoid PayPal and Venmo as much possible.

Zelle works with my bank and it is 100% free for both parties.

[graylocks]

you can have your client select friend in your personal account but If your client is paying with a credit card there will be fees involved. i'm never really sure if the payer or payee pays them. There would be no fees if paying a friend from a bank account debit or a PayPal balance.

AFAIK, Venmo does not have a credit card option so again it has to be from a bank account or Venmo balance. I haven't used it much but I've not had any issues with Venmo. I've also had people pay me from their bank account with Zelle and I've not had a problem. My consumer advocate hero Clark Howard hates Zelle with a passion, though.

[space-time]

My consumer advocate hero Clark Howard hates Zelle with a passion, though.

I am curious why, I don't follow him but now I need to look this up.

Does he had podcasts, or a log that you follow?

[Gareth]

In the beginning, Venmo was very adamant that it wasn't supposed to be used for services, but now they have "Venmo Business", so go figure. Although that could still mean the personal Venmo isn't supposed to be used for business.

When you send a PayPal "friend" payment and want to use a credit card, PayPal will charge the sender the credit card fees instead of the recipient. Bank or balance transfers will be free for both for a friend payment.

space-time wrote:
Zelle works with my bank and it is 100% free for both parties.

Last time we used Zelle (to pay a handyman) it had a $700-ish weekly limit, IIRC. We had to split up the payments and spread them out.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

There was a story on the local news about a couple of guys that were playing a 'personal golf competition' and tried to use Venmo. It locked down the money on both sides AFTER they accepted the money and held on to it for 90 days. The site demanded tax info about the guy that was getting the money, but the guy that sent the money didn't have anything but a first name and a burner phone number.

There is a reason that Bitcoin exists. It's because money transfer services suck.

[graylocks]

space-time wrote:
My consumer advocate hero Clark Howard hates Zelle with a passion, though.

I am curious why, I don't follow him but now I need to look this up.

Does he had podcasts, or a log that you follow?

He's podcasted for years even as he continued his radio work. as of january he has gone off broadcast radio completely and doing only podcasts though he may still be doing some TV work.

he feels that Venmo, CashAp, and Zelle have no consumer protections and Zelle probably gets most of his ire because it's from the mega-monster banks he hates.

[Michael]

space-time wrote:
My consumer advocate hero Clark Howard hates Zelle with a passion, though.

I am curious why, I don't follow him but now I need to look this up.

Does he had podcasts, or a log that you follow?

Here's one of his concerns with Venmo and the like: https://clark.com/scams-rip-offs/payment...nmo-zelle/

He's also said on his podcast a number of times that there's simply no do-overs for mistakes with these services. If you happen to add an extra 0 to a payment and the person receiving it won't return it, the banks say tough luck.

I listened to his radio broadcasts for years and have been listening to his podcasts (just search for Clark Howard) since he went modern.