Facebook Expands Messenger Mobile Payments To All Of US

Owe some money to your friend that lives on the other side of the United States? Facebook Messenger will now let you pay them directly inside the app with just a few taps.

Facebook VP of Messaging, David Marcus, announced the U.S. expansion of Messenger’s person-to-person payment feature in a post on Tuesday. All a Facebook messenger user needs to do is add a debit card, tap the “$” icon within a message screen and type in the amount they want to send. The receiving friend then opens the payment to confirm it. But even after it’s confirmed, it may take up to three business days before the money is made available, depending on your bank.

The feature is free to all Facebook Messenger users in the U.S. But for now payment options are limited to debit cards, a move Facebook made to reduce the risk of fraud and avoid transaction fees, according to Mashable. In comparison, Venmo -- another person-to-person mobile payment app -- allows its users to send funds using credit cards. But there’s a 3 percent fee tacked onto each payment.

Facebook had tested the feature in May on a limited basis in New York, following its official announcement in March, according to VentureBeat. Though it’s more widely available in the U.S., it enters a growing market of person-to-person payment apps, such as Square Cash, Venmo and Google Wallet, which lets you send money to friends through Gmail.