Personal Finance

American Express Partners with PayPal, Venmo for New “Split It” Feature

There’s no doubt that the advent of peer to peer (P2P) payment apps has made it easier for friends and family to split dinner bills, reimburse each other for gas money, and much more. Nevertheless, as simple as services such as PayPal, Venmo, Square Cash, and others make the process, increasingly integrations have made them even more convenient. The latest example of this comes from American Express who recently rolled out a new feature for PayPal and Venmo users.

As of this week, American Express customers can request money from friends and family right from the Amex app. To do this, cardholders will first need to link a PayPal or Venmo account. Then they’ll be able to tap the “Split It” option that displays on any given transaction, select their linked account, enter which contacts to send requests to, and review the request to finalize. Additionally, while Amex will automatically split shares into equal parts, users can adjust the transaction total by added 15%, 18%, 20%, 25%, or customizing the total.

Users will be able to track their requests from the Amex app as well. If requests are fulfilled, funds will be deposited into the user’s linked Venmo or PayPal account. This means that cardholders will still need to pay the full amount on their statement. On the bright side, they’ll also still get to keep the full rewards that their purchase entitled them too.

This latest feature is seemingly the result of an “expanded strategic partnership” between PayPal and American Express that the two companies announced nearly one year ago. In a press release at the time, PayPal president and CEO Dan Schulman said, “This partnership is the product of our companies’ strong commitment to create innovative payment experiences that utilize both organizations’ core assets, including the ability for customers to pay with American Express Membership Rewards points and the integration of peer-to-peer payments into the Amex app.” Meanwhile Amex chairman and CEO Stephen Squeri expressed similar sentiments, stating, “This strategic partnership with PayPal will open up the use of Membership Rewards points at more small and medium-sized businesses than ever and make peer-to-peer payments more seamless for Card Members.”

Although the “Split It” feature may be a relatively small feature, it could also certainly come in handy. As much as post-meal Venmo sessions have become tradition, some things do slip through the cracks. Therefore having the ability to follow-up when reviewing your transactions makes a lot of sense. On top of all that, it’s good to see PayPal and Amex continuing to deepen their relationship. Perhaps the two companies will come up with some more surprises for users in 2020 and beyond.

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