Facebook is rolling out its person-to-person payments service via Messenger to all users in the United States. Beginning Tuesday, anyone with a Messenger account, even without a Facebook account, can send money to friends and family straight from their bank accounts.
Former head of PayPal now Facebook Vice President of Messaging David Marcus announced the new feature, which he describes as "easy and safe" on his Facebook page.
"We're happy to announce that Messenger person-to-person payments are now available to everyone in the U.S.!" Marcus says. "Add your Debit Card and pay anyone on Messenger in a few taps. Money goes straight from your checking account to the recipient's checking account."
Users who want to use the service will be prompted to link their Visa or MasterCard debit card before they can send money. Facebook says it has decided against making the new service compatible with credit cards to reduce fraud and do away with exorbitant fees that might turn off users from using the service. Venmo, for instance, is a P2P payments service that allows credit cards but charges a 3 percent fee for every credit card transaction.
To send payments, users simply tap on the dollar icon below a conversation and type in the amount they wish to send. They can then tap on Pay on the upper corner of the screen to complete the transaction. A status message will show up below the transaction to tell the user if the payment has been sent. Recipients simply have to accept the payment when they open Messenger and wait for the money to appear in their bank account usually after three days.
Security is a big deal for any sort of electronic payments service, and Facebook says the new service is contained in a secure, encrypted environment constantly monitored and controlled by an independent group of anti-fraud experts.
Facebook first unveiled its new P2P payments service integrated into Messenger in March, at first making it available only to a select group of users. The service began expanding to metropolitan New York in May before Facebook finally released it to the entire U.S. market.
The electronics payments service is expected to triple in volume from $52 billion in 2014 to $142 billion in five years, says Forrester Research, so it isn't surprising the Facebook is taking a big step toward this direction.
Take a look at the video shown on how users can send payments to each other via Messenger.
Messenger P2P PaymentsWe're happy to announce that Messenger person-to-person payments are now available to everyone in the U.S.! Add your Debit Card and pay anyone on Messenger in a few taps. Money goes straight from your checking account to the recipient's checking account. Easy and safe. As always, give it a try it and let us know how we can make even better for you!
Posted by David Marcus on Tuesday, June 30, 2015
