Linking your credit card will cost you a 3% fee, but if you send money to someone you shouldn’t, you can get it back.
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Cash is king, as the saying goes, but not many of us carry it around anymore. Instead, peer-to-peer payment apps, such as PayPal, Venmo, and Zelle, give the convenience of cash right on our phones. What happens when something goes wrong—for example, a type of scam?
Could your hard-earned money be at risk? Consumer Reports explains how to protect your P2P electronic payments.
The main risk in using a P2P app is that you have no recourse in getting your money back if you send money to a scammer or to the wrong person, or if you send the wrong amount because of a typo.
Last year alone, the Federal Trade Commission says, there were more than 70,000 reports of fraud and $130 million in losses with mobile payment apps.
The apps are under fire from consumer advocates demanding protection from fraud and user error.
Until that happens, CR says one way to protect your payments using P2P apps is to link your credit card to the app and fund your payments through the credit card. When you do that, you could benefit from the same purchase protection that your credit card offers, but it might not be…
