Venmo Is Testing Out A Physical Debit Card For Purchases, Report Says

Venmo is best known for making it easy to transfer cash quickly and digitally to roommates or friends. But soon, the payment service could be heading to your wallet. The company is testing out a potential physical debit card that could be used for in-store or local purchases, Recode reports.

The card, which would be tied to the balance in a user’s Venmo account, would also have one key advantage for Venmo users. Recode noted the card could allow users to spend their money instantly without having to wait for it to be transferred to a bank account.

Read: Amazon Echo Vs. Apple HomePod: Which Device Do Consumers Want?

Traditionally, Venmo has been used as an easy way to transfer money within the service’s ecosystem. The physical card could have other advantages for Venmo’s financials through traditional merchant transaction fees that would go to the company. Venmo’s core user-to-user money transfer service has been free.

While there’s no sign yet that the product could eventually reach consumers, Venmo and parent company Paypal wouldn’t be the first company to explore alternative payment options for its users. Earlier this year, Apple introduced a Venmo-like money transfer service and paired a digital debit card-like feature for its Apple Pay service. The company has also long been rumored to be developing its own physical debit card that could be used for local purchases. Similarly, Square started the rollout of its own debit card-like product in May.

For companies like Venmo, Square and Apple, their push to expand their financial service products is due to several reasons. The added revenue of transaction fees is a definite plus that helps to bolster a company’s bottom line. In 2016, Square reported it had processed $50 billion in transactions.

But more importantly, a lot of these services want to both differentiate themselves from competitors and give users reasons to stay within their service ecosystem. As the number of options for money transfers increase — even services like Gmail and Facebook Messenger offer transfer options — services like Venmo want to give users more reasons and features to stay with their services.

Read: PayPal CEO Thinks New iOS 11 Apple Pay Features Won't Threaten Venmo

Venmo and Paypal have previously been defensive about the companies' prospects in the face of this increased competition. In an interview with the Telegraph following Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference and the announcement of iOS 11’s payment features, Paypal CEO Dan Schulman said Apple Pay and its debit card-like service would be at a disadvantage versus Venmo and Paypal’s products.

“We’re technology agnostic,” Schulman told the Telegraph. “Many individuals are [a] multioperating system; they can have an Android phone, a Microsoft PC and an Apple tablet. You don’t want a different payment methodology on each of those things. ... You want a consistency across that."