How sending cash using Facebook’s Messenger is playing Catchup with @Snapchat

Want to send money to your friend but not trusting Snapchat’s Mobile money service Snapcash as explained in my blog article entitled “Snapchat rolls out Snapcash - Teenagers and Millennials Mobile Money Catalyst for Digicel Jamaica's Mobile Money Platform going Global”?

If you have the Facebook Messenger app, you may be in luck. 

Facebook is rolling out a new service that allows you to send cash using the Messenger app as reported in the article “Facebook friends can send money through Messenger app”, published March 17, 2015 1:47 PM PDT by Ian Sherr, CNET News.

Users merely have to link their MasterCard or Visa Prepaid Debit to the service and the feature will appear as a dollar sign within Messenger. So says the Press Release launched this Tuesday March 17^th 2015 in the article entitled “Send Money to Friends in Messenger”, published March 17, 2015, FB newsroom.

Facebook launches Cash Transfers in Messenger – How to send cash using Facebook’s Messenger app

The instructions given to send and receive money are quite simple. Facebook makes it drop-dead simple for users to send money to their friends who number among the 500 million or so Apple iPhone and Google Android smartphones that use this IM (Instant Messaging App.. 

Users activate the feature by tapping a dollar sign while chatting with a friend in Facebook's Messenger app. To send money the procedure is as follows:

1.         Start a message with a friend

2.         Tap the $ icon

3.         Enter the amount you want to send

4.         Tap Pay in the top right

5.         Add your debit card to send money

To receive money, is a little easier, requiring nothing more than merely opening a conversation from a friend that sent you the money:

1.      Open the conversation from your friend

2.      Tap Add Card in the message

3.      Add your debit card to accept money for the first time

That money actually goes to your Mastercard or VISA Prepaid Debit Card. The recipient then has the option to spend it however you wish.

Facebook Mobile Cash – Many options as to how you can spend your money

 Many teenagers may opt to connect their Mastercard or VISA Prepaid Debit Card to their Google Pay, Apple Pay or even Samsung Pay accounts as described in Geezam blog article entitled “Samsung Pay supports NFC, MST with KNOX Security for Merchants and Banks”.

Some may opt to transfer it to their Paypal accounts, which can now be used to purchase items on Apple's Websites and may possibly be accepted in Apple Pay as predicted in my blog article entitled “Apple supports PayPal for US and UK Item Purchases - How Jamaicans can purchase Apple iPhones online as Fappening haunting Apple”.

Finally, many may opt to convert their money to Bitcoins, being as that's slowly becoming the popular form of payment online that attracts fewer banking fees and leaves little trace online as noted in my blog article entitled “Microsoft accepts Bitcoins for Purchases - Napster of Cryptocurrency set to explode in Jamaica in 2015 Year of the Sheep”.

Facebook already processes more than 1 million transactions on its site each day. This new feature in Facebook Messenger will build on the security features they've bend developing for secure payments on their website since 2007.

Facebook  made even port this feature into their much mentioned but little seen Buy Button that’s rumored to replace Facebook Gifts as explained in my blog article entitled “Facebook kills Gifts and presses Buy Button - How Facebook One-Click Purchases will start an Apple-esque Smurfberries-style Scandal”.

But give Facebook’s privacy track record, can they be trusted to handle money, being as they’re so bad with Privacy? This really may be more of a case of “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”, so it’s really a matter of wait-and-see over the next few months as Facebook rolls out this impressive new service!