Venmo, the mobile payment service owned by PayPal that lets users send money to friends, is increasing its Instant Transfer fee to 1 percent.
The Instant Transfer features allowed Venmo users to send their account balances directly to their Mastercard or Visa debit cards within 30 minutes for a 25 cent flat fee. The standard transfer which takes one to three business days will remain free.
Joshua Perrin, a Washington, D.C. resident, said he started using Venmo in September when his apartment burned down, specifically for the 25-cent fee.
“I was getting huge donations. Some were several hundred to $1,000, so it made sense to only have to spend a quarter to have instant access to the money,” Perrin said.
Perrin said that now that the fee has increased, there is no advantage to using Venmo over its competitor Cash App which also has a 1 percent fee for instant deposits.
In June, Venmo announced that it is releasing a debit card for its users. Venmo competitor Square began releasing debit cards earlier this year, while services like Google Pay and Apple Pay gained popularity. Venmo’s debit cards are ATM-friendly and users can track their transactions through the mobile app. Users also receive notifications every time they make a transaction.
Uber and Venmo announced a partnership in July to help streamline users’ split payments for Uber rides and UberEats.
Venmo’s new Instant Transfer fee starts on November 6.
