It seems Facebook is tapping into the electronic payments market by introducing the ability to send money to anyone on your Facebook friends list via the Facebook Messenger app. Once you have your debit card added to your Facebook account you literally just start a chat, click a button and send/receive money.
There’s another awesome thing about this. There’s absolutely no mention of price, and whispers are going around that this will be completely free. You can send money to your friends as a gift using PayPal for free; and you can use Chase Quickpay (or an equivalent) to do the same – however chances are much higher that both you and the person you’re sending money to have Facebook than share the same bank. This also opens up the opportunity for consultants who utilize their Facebook account as a marketing or business tool to take payments directly on Facebook. Or at-least there’s no terms that state otherwise … yet.
As far as security goes – Facebook seems to have that covered. In addition to the standard security features, Facebook explains that there is a team of anti-fraud specialists keeping an eye out for suspicious activity. Furthermore once you add a debit card to your Facebook account you can create a PIN to provide additional security the next time you send money; or use TouchID on iOS devices.
The new payments feature is rolling out across the US right now on iOS, Android and Web platforms – so keep an eye out for that new dollar sign icon and let me know what you think of the whole concept in the comments below.