Venmo Raises P2P Fees, To Charge Goods, Services Providers

New Venmo rules will make it so users who get payments identified as goods and services will be charged a 1.9 percent transaction fee plus 10 cents, according to an email from the company. That change goes into effect July 20.

The email doesn’t reflect how this will work for tips added on for services at places like salons, many of which never wanted customers to tack tips onto the bill as they end up costing them money. Either those companies then have to pay the tips to their employee, which costs money because they have to pay interchange on that part of the transactions, or the worker receives a smaller tip, one with the interchange subtracted.

Additionally, instant transfers will see a 1.5 percent fee beginning Aug. 2, the email stated. The minimum fee will be 25 cents, and the maximum will be $15.

There will also be updates for visibility for friends lists, according to the email. Users will be able to pick new options for public, friends or private settings. They’ll be able to opt out of being seen on the friends lists of other users.

Ingo Money CEO Drew Edwards told PYMNTS in June that the core issue remaining for peer-to-peer (P2P) payments is whether there’s true interoperability in order to allow customers genuine choice on how to send and receive funds.

Edwards said the growth of P2P had come quite far from even how the payments had been 15 years ago. He said the remaining issue is that P2P networks are closed off, with parties to a transaction having to download and sign up for apps in order to complete the transactions.

While that’s still preferable to going through banks as it is easier and less costly, Edwards said there are still frictions that need to be worked out.