Image via Complex Original
Perhaps one of the most innovative things our smartphones can do is send money without us having to take a trip to the bank—or even touching our wallets. Over the past few years, paying for things with our phones has become increasingly popular. There are services you've probably heard of, like PayPal and Google Wallet, but there are many others that have proved very useful. They're not only good for sending money, but great for turning your smartphone into a wallet.
Here are The Best Digital Payment Apps Right Now. Time to go digital.
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Chirpify
Platform: iOS, Android; Free
Chirpify works with businesses to let them accept payments from you over social media. For example, brands will share hashtags for campaigns and if you want to buy something, you can just tweet or post: "Yes! I want to #buy #VIPtickets for $50"."
Chirpify will then capture the data and process the payment. The company has a lot of good clients like Sprint, Mastercard, the Portland TrailBlazers, and more. Find out more on Chirpify's website.
Lifelock Wallet
Platform: iOS, Android; Free
LifeLock Wallet holds a digital copy of all your important cards, like credit and debit cards, loyalty cards, receipts, and coupons, all in one place. Besides storing all of your information, LifeLock also gives you a look at your balances, tracks all of your transactions, and you can cancel your cards from it if you lose them. You can't use it to send money, but if you forgot your card at home and want to make an online purchase, you can just look up the number and punch it in.
Passbook
Platform: iOS; Free
Apple's Passbook comes installed with every iPhone. It's not a way to send other people money—instead, it's more of a digital wallet. Passbook keeps things like airline boarding passes, movie tickets, and gift cards all in one place. There are a ton of businesses that work with passbook, like Starbucks, Major League Baseball, and Ticketmaster.
Charge Anywhere
Charge Anywhere basically turns your smartphone into a mobile credit card terminal. This payment app is geared more toward businesses and merchants instead of consumers. With Charge Anywhere you can swipe credit cards with the reader device or plug in your credit card information on the go. In order to use Charge Anywhere, though, you must have a credit card merchant account.
LevelUp
Platform: iOS, Android; Free
LevelUp is a relatively new payment startup. It's different from the majority of other payment apps because the app generates a unique QR code that you use to pay. Businesses that accept LevelUp have to use a terminal that reads your QR code and takes the money from your bank account. LevelUp is limited since these businesses have to be onboard to accept it.
Paypal
Platform: iOS, Android; Free
What started off as a way to securely send people money has evolved into a billion-dollar business supporting merchants and customers. Paypal lets you send money using your personal account, bank account, or credit card. But unlike newer services that let you send money for free, PayPal charges a small fee. Because it has been around for so long, PayPal has a strong reputation.
Dwolla
Platform: iOS, Android; Free
With Dwolla, you can pay friends through email, over the phone, or Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Dwolla is cheaper and faster than sending or receiving paper checks, with no hidden fees. The company simply charges $0.25 per transaction, but it's free for any transaction that's under $10.
Google Wallet
Google Wallet essentially takes your wallet online: it makes it easier to pay for things by simply using your smartphone. You can store credit cards, loyalty cards, gift cards, and even coupons. Google hopes that one day Wallet will also be able to store your ID, boarding passes, and more. Wallet also lets you send money (without fees) to any friend in the US with an email address. Wallet essentially takes the best of all the other digital payment apps and combines it in one place.
Venmo
Platform: iOS, Android; Free
Venmo is a simple way to pay your friends instantly. It's great for when you need to split the check at a restaurant, pay your roommates for bills, or almost any other reason where you'd need to send money to someone. Venmo is free to use and it's free to send money, which makes it a lot more convenient and useful.
Square Cash
Square Cash might be the easiest way to send someone money. All you have to do is download the app, register your email and link it to your bank account. Then you send an email to the person you want to send money to with the amount of cash in the header. Once the email is sent you'll receive instructions on how to link your debit card. The recipient can then easily deposit the cash into their bank, all online.