Facebook Introducing Payments Via Messenger

This article originally appeared on 60 Second Social.

Need to send someone money instantly? Maybe someone is in desperate need of a loan of some cash, maybe you need to settle a bill. Either way, we know by now that Facebook doesn’t want you to have to leave their app or website for any reason. The more time you spend on Facebook, the more money they are making.

Facebook has now revealed a new payments feature for Facebook Messenger which will allow users to connect a Visa or Mastercard and then tap on the $ symbol in the app to send friends money through the app on Android or iOS with no fees attached for the transfer. It will first roll out in the U.S. over the coming months before expanding to a wider audience and here is how it will work.

Facebook has built the payment service themselves from scratch which means they won’t be relying on companies such as Paypal to carry out transactions for their users. The transactions and payment information are encrypted and is essentially competition for services such as PayPal and Google Wallet.

The significant information from Facebook’s service is that there are no fees attached which means that they are undercutting PayPal’s 2.9% plus $0.30 fee per transaction from debit cards.

Facebook has a sketchy history when it comes to dealing with privacy, so the next big question to be asked is what the security is like for the new service, is Facebook a company I would really trust with handling money for me?

Well as mentioned above, the payment information and data is encrypted. Well there is also an in-app payments passcode, or Apple’s TouchID fingerprint technology which will be used to confirm transfers. Facebook said they have only opened the service to Visa and Mastercards as other services would incur fees which they did not want users to pay for on the Facebook service.

If a transfer looks suspect, Facebook will ask some additional security questions before processing it, both users will see a message in the app which will detail transfer status and time. Facebook will never hold money however sometimes it may take a few days to appear in your online statements.

I can certainly see the convenience factor in having such a feature built into the messenger app. Facebook Messenger has become a big player in the messaging arena and while it is only a U.S. service for payments at the moment, we are hoping it will be a service that will arrive on the global stage at some point in the future.

About The Author

Mark is the founder of 60 Second Social media where he provides social media news and digital marketing analysis, he is also a proud father of his bearded dragon, Lola. You can follow him on Twitter here. You can also follow 60 Second Social on Twitter here.