A couple of days after having dinner with friends last summer, Jazzmin Golden was surprised to find a payment request pop up on her Venmo app.
The ask: $5 to help cover a bottle of wine.
“I was thinking, this is so petty,” said Golden, 34 of Los Angeles, who noted that she’s been getting more trivial payment requests during the past two years. “It’s important to be sensitive to your loved ones’ financial situation, but I don’t know. I find it really odd to nickel and dime your close friends and family.”
A recent study from Forbes Advisor found people are changing the way they use peer-to-peer payment apps like Venmo, Zelle and Cash App as high inflation dampens consumers’ spending power.
Consumer prices in December were up 6.5% from the year prior, according to the Labor Department.
Survey: Inflation is making more people lean on payment apps
More people are splitting costs with payment apps: About half (47%) of users say they’re using payment apps to split costs in ways they normally wouldn’t due to inflation, according to an online survey conducted on 1,000 U.S. adults in November by Forbes Advisor and OnePoll.
- Six in 10 of the surveyed 18- to 25-year-olds said they were turning to payment apps to split bills at least once a week, while the same held true for 58% of those in the 26- to 41-year-old group.
- Half of 26- to 41-year-olds and 53% of 18- to 25-year-olds say they rely on payment apps more often due to inflation. The majority of respondents in older…
