I am going to signup for 2 accounts and max out the airline miles on my credit cards every month... just kidding.
I actually did this in college when the federal government allowed people to buy savings bonds with a credit card. Unless they have really good controls, I can see some enterprising college kid pumping 250k through this service and showing off an Amex black card.
Why the downvote? I am not the OP but I agree with the basic premise. Any start up dealing with money has to think about people who will abuse the system. I hope they have checks in place to avoid something like this.
I had my most recent "I live in the future" moment when I, between getting off of public transit and arriving at the food truck, received the menu from a friend, picked what I wanted, then paid the same friend for that food, all through my iPhone, and all the while knowing exactly where the other person was using GeoShare[1][2]
My understanding is that they do charge some fee to places like food trucks. The way it's structured, though, they encourage the users to keep some amount (c. $20) in their Venmo accounts, so that when you pay someone, it gets taken out of that first, then only falls back to your credit card or bank account when necessary. Depending on how frequently people cash out, they might even be able to make a small amount on interest by investing the amounts that people have on file, and just shifting the chits around.
Venmo's privacy settings need work. You can't hide the $ amount and publish only the payment description. You can either publish it to all friends or keep the whole payment private.
I actually did this in college when the federal government allowed people to buy savings bonds with a credit card. Unless they have really good controls, I can see some enterprising college kid pumping 250k through this service and showing off an Amex black card.