Cash App Is The Money Platform Of The Future — & Get Ready To Use It Constantly

Self-driving cars, 3D-printed homes, air-purifying headphones. Yup. It’s officially the future. Still, some technological advances are just plain practical without going all Blade Runner on us. Practical as in “I want to pay my friend back for happy hour — in bitcoin” or “I need a last-minute gift yesterday.” Thanks to Cash App’s easy-to-use interface and suite of financial offerings — from peer-to-peer money and bitcoin transfers to instantaneous digital gift cards — worries like those are a thing of the past. With a few clicks, you can handle just about any money need. Here’s how it works.

First, what is Cash App?

For the uninitiated, Cash App is a financial platform designed to make sending and receiving money as easy as possible. It’s similar to Venmo and Zelle, but goes beyond being just a peer-to-peer money transfer service by allowing users to pay merchants and even complete stock and cryptocurrency transactions through the app. By linking your bank account or establishing your identify a few other ways (i.e., direct deposit or tax returns), you also get a Cash Card that can be used at any ATM as well as linked to Apple or Google Pay. There are even specified retailers that will take physical cash to deposit to your account.

More About How Cash App Works

• Send Money: As mentioned above, Cash App lets you easily send money to a friend or family member who’s also on Cash App without fees — and it can be in the form of cash, bitcoin, or stocks. Similar to other peer-to-peer money apps, you can send the payment via the person’s phone number, email, or username — but here you can also simply scan their QR code.
• Buy/Sell Bitcoin & Stocks: This is where Cash App really sets itself apart from platforms like Venmo and Zelle. With Cash App, you can buy and sell bitcoin and invest in stocks with a simple tap. There’s no commission fees (or other hidden fees) and you can even gift someone bitcoin or stock as easily you would a gift card — oh, and Cash App also has instant digital gift cards now too.
• Bank: Cash App offers a way to bank without monthly fees or overdraft fees, and you can get it set up from your phone instead of having to make an appointment at a bank and wait. It’s important to note, however, that Cash App is not a bank itself (it’s just a financial platform), which means your cash balance is FDIC-insured through its banking partnerships, not by Cash App itself. And it’s also important to read the fine print to see what might not be FDIC-insured.
• Shop: You can use your Cash Card to make purchases and even access special instant discounts — called Boosts — from select retailers.

There’s something so seamless and intuitive about Cash App’s interface that makes simple financial transactions and interactions feel, well, kind of fun — and the lack of fees is icing on the cake. Although the slickness of the experience does warrant careful reading of the fine print so you know exactly what you’re signing up for.