I have resisted using payment apps. I had an ongoing nightmare with Zelle, where I would make payments and then later be informed that I had to “verify my identity” before the payment would go through — even though I was using Zelle through my bank’s web site, where they had presumably done something to make sure I was who I said I was. “Just call this number,” they said. Don’t forget that I loathe telephone calls. Of course, what followed was a voice jail with long menus and waits on hold and multiple requests for the same information ending with “we can’t help you; you’ll have to call your bank.” The call to the bank, BMO, was even worse, and ended with “we can’t help you; you have to go into your branch.”
In the branch, I had to wait in line until I got to a teller who informed me that the only thing they were able to do was call the same number I called in the first place. Which she did, and went through the same long, involved process while the folks in line behind me got increasingly frustrated and angry. In the end, after what seemed like an eternity, the teller said that Zelle said my account was verified and I’d be able to use it.
- They never did send the payment that they had already told me was complete.
- The next time I tried to send a payment, I went through the entire process again and, again, I was told at several points that everything was good but no payment ever went through.
- Nobody, anywhere in the chain, at any time, was able to tell me why this service — which was heavily promoted by my bank and presumably works for somebody — simply wouldn’t work for me.
A few weeks ago I got an invitation to an event that I wanted to attend. The only way to buy tickets, though, was with Venmo. Now, Venmo has a horrible privacy reputation and are owned by PayPal who are notorious for wrongfully locking people out of their accounts. Normally, I would have let the folks hosting the event know that I would like to attend but won’t do payment apps. But I thought I was being too curmudgeonly and I should try to get along with these here new-fangled apps. I created a Venmo account and, glory be, it actually worked. I’m a privacy freak and I knew that many people, some famous, had “accidentally” left their Venmo accounts public so I took great care to make sure that I set everything to private.
Yesterday, I got the letter excerpted above:
Hi Twoprops,
We’re excited to share that starting in November 2025, Venmo users and PayPal users will be able to pay each other in the U.S. and worldwide. That means that PayPal users will be able to find and pay you using your phone number, and later by using your email address.
If you’d like to be searchable, no action is needed. If you’d like to limit how PayPal users find you, you can adjust your settings here or in the Venmo app under Settings > Privacy > Find me.
We’re also adding ways for Venmo users to search for other Venmo profiles. Today, you can search by name or username only. Starting in November, you’ll be able to search for Venmo profiles by phone number, and later by email address.
If you prefer not to let other Venmo users find you by your phone number or email address, you can adjust your settings here or in the Venmo app under Settings > Privacy > Find me.
We’ll be updating our Privacy Statement to reflect these updates. You can review it here to learn more about how we handle your personal information and the choices available to you.
Thanks for being a Venmo customer!
Letters from arrogant platforms that start “We’re excited to share” means that they’re going to cheat you. Again.
Now, I didn’t, and won’t, install the app. That’s a rant for another day. Fortunately, the adjust your settings here phrase was a link. I clicked on it. Nothing, absolutely nothing on that page or any linked pages would let me opt-out of sharing my personal data with PayPal users. I tried again the next day, thinking maybe the idiots just sent the email before updating the web site, but no. The email, of course, came from a “noreply” address because, well, when you’re an arrogant platform reneging on promises you made to customers about their privacy you wouldn’t want them to be able to argue, would you? It wasn’t a total waste of time, however, because I discovered that they had changed my preferences from “private” to “public”. No wonder all those celebrities had somehow “accidentally” set their profiles to “public.”
I don’t know why I expect anything other than underhanded scumbaggery from big online platforms, but it still disappoints. Now, I guess, I get to discover just how difficult they’ve made it to cancel an account.
—2p