Social media site introduces free payment feature

Facebook has unveiled a new payments feature for Facebook Messenger that lets you connect your Visa or Mastercard debit card and tap a “$” button to send friends money on iOS, Android, and desktop with zero fees.

By making payments part of its often-used messaging service rather than a standalone app, Facebook is looking to edge out dedicated P2P payment competitors like Venmo/PayPal, Google Wallet, and Square Cash, which people open less frequently.

Once users get the feature, they’ll see a “$” button in the Messenger message composer next to the options to send a photo or sticker, when they tap it, Facebook will ask them to enter their debit card info.

Users won’t have to fiddle with finding and entering bank account and routing info, making it easier than some alternatives, but they can only use Visa and Mastercard debit cards.

Facebook decided against allowing credit cards because they would entail fees and it did not want users to get charged if they did not understand.

For extra security, users are prompted to set an in-app payments passcode or Apple TouchID fingerprint to confirm transfers, though they can opt out of this extra authentication in the settings.

If users already have a debit card on file with Facebook from gaming, ads or donations, they can use that, too.

Once the $ button is tapped, users enter the dollar amount and hit Pay, the money is instantly taken from their debit account and delivered to the recipient’s debit account.

Facebook never holds the money, though the receiver’s bank will usually take a few days to make the funds available as is standard, both users see a confirmation message detailing the transfer status and time.

In case anything looks fishy, Facebook will ask users some extra financial security questions before a transfer goes through.

Afterwards, users can see all their previous payments and funds received in the Payments History section of Messenger’s settings.

“It’s obviously not a feature you’re going to use 10 times a day, but when you do need to send money, this is probably going to be the best way to do it.”

Facebook Messenger payments will roll out first in the U.S. over the coming months.