Apple is working on a Venmo-like money-transfer service, according to a report by Recode – and perhaps even its own debit card.
Rumors have been floating around about an Apple Money-transfer service since 2015; now it seems the company is making another push in the space. Unfortunately, it seems the service would be limited to people on Apple’s ecosystem, perhaps only from iPhone to iPhone. That would make it extremely-not-useful if you have any friends that owe you money and run Android.
The pre-paid debit card rumor is a bit more interesting. According to the report, the company has been in talks with Visa to create a card that would be tied to the payments system. The idea is that you would be able to transfer money through the peer-to-peer payment system and be able to use your funds instantly. With Venmo, you typically have to wait a day to access your funds – longer, if on a weekend or holiday.
The debit card might only come in digital form, so you’d have to either add it to Apple Pay or use it with online retailers. Apple Pay hasn’t been quite the revolution Apple promised, so this would at least be one way to get more people to use the service.
Still, limiting the payments service to Apple devices only seems absurd – here’s hoping Apple opens up its walled garden just a little bit, should the product ever come to fruition.
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