Fast Cash

By: Ayana Bryant-Weekes

The other day I was indulging in my latest social media impulse, Snapchat, and I received a message from the Snapchat family. A video of two teenagers showing the ease of money wiring using “Snapcash” backed by a Broadway musical routine of singing, tap-dancers wearing dollar signs and holding giant debit cards glittered across my screen. Apparently, “with the swipe of three fingers you can make it rain,” on friends in your recent snaps.  Snapcash is virtually seamless, enabling users to quickly upload their debit cards and make payments to their peers by simply typing a dollar sign and payment amount in the chat box.

Long story short, this is yet another way for money to effortlessly fly out of my bank account. People at these mobile cash companies, Google Wallet, Square, and Apple Pay—just to name a few—have made the transfer of money that much more convenient. I learned about the concept of a mobile wallet in a marketing class I took in college. My professor foreshadowed the elimination of a physical wallet and at the time I shrugged it off thinking no one is going to actually use these mobile cash options as a replacement to physical money—that’s ridiculous. However, an article on MarketWatch.com explained that Snapchat’s 100 million tech-savvy 20-something active users who for the most part grew up with smartphones and the spirit of instant gratification, trust that the Internet will keep their personal and financial data “safe”.  Millennials (that’s us) are the most apt to incorporating these mobile processes into our daily lives since we’re already always glued to our phones.

            Don’t get me wrong, I understand (and appreciate) the ease of payments and money transfers with online bill pay, mobile bank transfers and the like but I’ve recognized that with the benefits of convenience follows a multitude of responsibility. Again, it’s becoming way too easy for money to get away from us, and consequently much more tempting to frivolously spend. $20 here, $15 there and we don’t even realize it until we’re left with $1.23 in our bank accounts because the money spent so easily (don’t front like it hasn’t happened to you).

            “Snapcash” is really cool, uniquely innovative and very relevant to the times we live in but the challenge now is that self-discipline and self-control become even more important to our money management practices. I mean, who isn’t tempted just a little bit to try it? I just want to see if actual Snapdollars will drizzle down my screen if someone sends me money.

- Ayana