Gone are the days of fishing through your pockets for loose change and bills to pay your portion of the restaurant bill, taxi fare, or shared gift. With a few quick taps, mobile payment apps allow you to send a couple of bucks (or much more) to cover shared expenses and pay for products. I've tested five leading digital payment methods: PayPal, Apple Cash, Venmo, Facebook Pay, and Square Cash. How did these heavyweights stack up? To cover this, we'll dive into which payment methods are the most trusted and secure, how much the transfer fees are costing you, and who shares your personal information with third-party data collectors.
PAYPAL
With more than 425 million users, PayPal dominates the digital payment scene and is the most versatile payment system. It is the fifth-most accepted form of payment following American Express, Visa, MasterCard, and Discover. With PayPal, you can make payments from your computer browser, transfer money using your PayPal mobile app, and use it as a secure payment method for in-person and online shopping.
With buyer protection, encrypted transactions, and a host of additional security features, PayPal is one of the most trusted intermediaries for secure payments. If you can make an online purchase with PayPal, I recommend doing so to avoid entering your credit or debit card. While sending money via a linked bank account is free, PayPal does charge a domestic fee of 2.9 percent of your transfer amount for a debit or credit card, plus a $0.30 fixed fee per transaction. So, if you use PayPal, link a bank account to avoid the associated costs.
VENMO
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Denne historien er fra Summer 2022-utgaven av iPhone Life Magazine.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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LOCK YOUR APPLE ID WITH A PHYSICAL KEY
Security keys are physical items that can be used to verify your identity when logging into your Apple ID. If you are planning to use security keys, make sure you have at least two. Apple requires you use two, so that if you lose one, you will have another as a backup. At iPhone Life, a brand we recommend is the Yubico Yubikey 5Ci ($75).
IT'S TIME TO USE YOUR APPLE WALLET!
Apple Wallet lets you virtually store your credit and debit cards, rewards cards, boarding passes, movie tickets, and more all in one secure place.
END-OF-LIFE PLANNING
APPS & RESOURCES FOR PEACE OF MIND
PHOTO SHARING FACE-OFF: ICLOUD VS. GOOGLE PHOTOS
If there’s one thing that keeps me hooked on Google Photos, it’s sharing.
MY PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY
TIPS, APPS & GEAR FROM A LIFELONG LOVE OF PHOTOGRAPHY
SMART OUTDOOR LIVING
CREATING A HAVEN FOR YOUR FAVORITE POLLINATORS & PEOPLE
FROM ZERO TO GYM BRO
GET FIT AT HOME WITH THE SPEEDIANCE GYM MONSTER
WHY I DITCHED MY APPLE WATCH FOR THE OURA RING
Every morning for the past three months, I wake up wearing a shiny gold ring on my right pointer finger. If you look closely, you can see beams of red or green light leaking out the sides as it scans my heart rate, respiratory rate, and body temperature. I roll out of bed, grab my phone, and open the Oura app.
THE BEST APPS OF 2024
One of the most frequent questions I’m asked by friends and family is “Which app should I download?” With millions of options out there, choosing which apps to use is a task that stumps many people. Will a free version overload you with ads? Is the paid version worth it?
OPINION: I HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE WITH APPLE VISION PRO, AND IT SUCKS.
Color me a virtual-reality optimist. Alongside writing for iPhone Life, I’m a video game developer, 3D artist, and sci-fi author. I own a Meta Quest 3 and use it all the time to play games and view 3D models as I work.
