Soon you won’t have to set up a separate profile just to sell stuff through Venmo, though you’ll still be on the hook for the same transaction fee that business profiles already pay. The new policy will take effect on July 20, according to a Sunday email to users announcing the app’s updated terms of service.
Venmo, a digital payment app owned by PayPal, previously prohibited users from receiving payment for business transactions through their personal accounts. Anyone suspected of violating this policy risked getting their accounts suspended.
Starting on July 20, any user will be able to toggle whether the money they’re sending is for a good or service. Transactions marked as such will qualify for Venmo’s purchase protection plan, and the seller will pay the same 1.9% plus 10-cent fee applied to business profiles, a Venmo spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal. Venmo will automatically deduct the transaction fee from the amount sent, according to the outlet.
It makes sense for Venmo to streamline the transaction process like this so users don’t have to juggle multiple accounts. Venmo’s userbase shot up during the coronavirus pandemic as people increasingly turned to digital payment systems and the app added new features such as allowing for the direct deposit of stimulus checks, the Journal reports. But there are still plenty of other digital payment apps to choose from if users decide Venmo is no longer the most convenient to use.
Of course, this change helps Venmo’s bottom line too, which has already seen a huge jump. In February, PayPal reported that Venmo’s userbase rose 32% in 2020 to roughly 70 million active users. Net income also increased to $1.57 billion in the fourth quarter, up from $507 million a year earlier. PayPal CEO Dan Schulman previously told investors that Venmo’s revenue is expected to approach $900 million in 2021.