Venmo can access bank balance and transactions if you connect your bank account

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19620554

by Calvin02 • 7 years ago

14 12 7 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

"If you connect your Venmo account to other financial accounts, ... , we may have access to your account balance and account and transactional information, such as purchases and funds transfers."

src: https://venmo.com/legal/us-privacy-policy

BoorishBears3• 7 years ago

https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/221073067-Verifying...

I mean it makes perfect sense, they want to know you have enough money to start transfers.

And the ability to do X doesn’t mean they’re doing X, It sounds like they might be tracking transfers related to Venmo, but their being honest and admitting that same power allows them much more access.

AFAIK they’re using Plaid, and nothing here is an unusual application of Plaid

Calvin022• 7 years ago

Whoa! I didn't know they used Plaid. Plaid's terms are even more alarming. Why does Plaid need all this information?

"The types of information we collect from your financial institutions may include, but are not limited to:

Account information, including financial institution name, account name, account type, and account and routing number;

Information about an account balance, including current and available balance;

Information about credit accounts, including statement due dates and balances owed, payment amounts and dates, transaction history, and interest;

Information about loan accounts, including due dates, balances, payment amounts and dates, interest, loan type, payment plan, and term;

Information about the account owner(s), including name, email address, phone number, and address information.

Information about account transactions, including amount, date, type, and a description of the transaction."

src: https://plaid.com/legal/

BoorishBears3• 7 years ago

A large part is because that’s how your bank exposes it. There’s not that much granularity in bank account access.

Another part is they’re not going to tailor the terms of service per usecase, they’ll list everything they can do, then narrow it down per application

randomacct3847• 7 years ago

Never use Plaid. I’m guessing the apps that would apply to most on here are Venmo and Robinhood. Square Cash probably use them too.

1123581321• 7 years ago

You Need a Budget also uses Plaid.

stephenr3• 7 years ago

Can someone confirm if I understand this correctly?

Venmo is what Americans use for small transfers because the US banking system is ridiculously antiquated and still revolves around paper cheque’s if you want to make a transfer from one bank to another?

fetus8• 7 years ago

Yeah, it's one of the easiest ways to send money back and forth between people.

stephenr3• 7 years ago

I wonder if US banks will ever catch up to the rest of the world in this regard.

Venmo can access bank balance and transactions if you connect your bank account

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