Pay your friends via email with Square Cash
Unlike other services, Cash requires no sign ups, no specific email, and doesn't do stored accounts
Moochers of the world, consider yourself warned. Your freeloading days are over. Your excuse that you left your wallet at home will fly no more! Because now, sending cash is as simple as sending an email.
So says Square, which unveiled its new peer-to-peer cash payments service, Cash, Tuesday night. Unlike other P2P payment services like Venmo and Google Wallet’s soon-to-be-released Gmail-linked payments, you don’t need to have an account with Square, and it can be used across any and all email platforms.
The service is literally as simple as sending someone an email that says “I’m sending you money.” To be specific, you send the email to the recipient, CC “cash@square.com,” and include the amount in the subject line. Square will then send you an email asking you for your debit card number—and poof, you’re done.
The recipient then receives an email asking for her debit card number, and the funds are deposited directly in her bank account. No sign ups, no stored balance account—just straight-forward cash.
“Square has always believed in creating solutions for individuals and businesses that work with the tools they already have in their pocket,” said Square Cash lead Brian Grassadonia, in a statement. “Square Cash makes it convenient to send money to anyone—without making them jump through hoops to retrieve it. Now it’s easier than ever to split a bill, send a birthday gift, or settle up with a friend, no matter where you are.”
Users will be limited to sending $2,500 a week, and there are no fees. Recipients have two weeks to claim their cash, and deposits are made within 1-2 business days.
Obviously, one of the big appeals for such a quick, lightweight payment service is the ability to send cash on the fly, as soon as you find yourself in a situation where you need to pay back a buddy or send your new college freshman some survival cash. To that end, Square has released a Cash mobile app for iOS and Android that lets users store their debit card info to make super-fast payments or receive payments from their phone.
Square obviously isn’t the first company to jump into the peer-to-peer cash payments space. Venmo, a subsidiary of Braintree (which was recently acquired by PayPal), allows users to make payments to one another via a stored balance account. Recipients can then transfer the funds from their balance account into their bank account overnight.
And earlier this year, Google revealed that soon, Gmail users will be able to send money via email by hovering over the attachment paperclip icon and clicking on the ($) dollar sign. The service is free if the user’s bank account is linked to Google Wallet, but otherwise, a 2.9% fee will be charged per transaction.
Square’s Cash service clearly differs from Venmo and Gmail payments in that it doesn’t charge fees or require users to have an account. So now you have no excuse for not paying your friend back for lunch, ya bum.