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Cashless and contactless interactions saw a dramatic upswing in the last few years. Digital transactions are so commonplace now that you rarely, if ever, need to dig through your pockets for bills and physical credit cards. We handle our smartphones all day, so it only makes sense to use them to make payments. And there's no shortage of mobile payment apps for Android and iOS that let you do that. But which ones are best? We've reviewed mobile payment apps for nearly a decade, so consider our recommendations, starting with Apple Pay and Google Wallet, our Editors' Choice winners.
Our Top Tested Picks
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- Best iPhone Apps
- Best Android Apps
- Quick and easy NFC payment system
- Anonymous single-use token system keeps credit card data secure
- Manages gift cards, movie tickets, boarding passes, and more
- Credit card option
- Only works with Apple devices
- Paying in stores using facial recognition is trickier than paying with Android
- Lacks split payments
Apple is a major player in the mobile market, so it's no surprise that the company's payment services are convenient, secure, and flexible. Apple Pay users get an Apple Cash virtual cash card to send and receive money, and an Apple Card for credit purchases.
If you're a hard-core Apple user, check out Apple Pay, which is deeply integrated into the company's ecosystem. It lets you swiftly pay for groceries and other items, but limits you to sending cash to friends who are also Apple Pay users.
- Lets you quickly make contactless payments
- Substitutes actual card numbers with virtual ones for added security
- Houses gift cards, loyalty program cards, and other digital tickets
- Useful web interface
- Only available on Android phones
- No default buyer protection
- Lacks peer-to-peer payments
Google Wallet is a highly versatile, NFC-powered payment app you can use on the web and in brick-and-mortar stores. It also keeps all your digital essentials (gift cards, loyalty programs, commuter passes, and event tickets) in one place.
The excellent Google Wallet is preinstalled on many Google-powered phones, so it's the best and most convenient option for Android fans. It doesn't let you send money to buddies, so you'll need another app for that.
- Simple, clear interface and setup
- Lets you buy bitcoin and stocks
- Can automatically deposit money into your bank account
- Tax-filing tools
- Relatively low payment limits
- Cash App debit card necessary for online purchases
Cash App has many useful, money-related features. It lets you quickly pay friends, make online purchases with the Cash App debit card, invest in stocks, and file taxes. The service lets you accept Cash App payments if you use Square to sell products.
Mobile users who want to do more with their money. Investing, bitcoin purchases, and tax filing are all worthwhile and valuable features in a mobile payment app. Better still, Cash App is PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) Level 1 compliant, which means that the service has the highest level of security for businesses that store or process credit card data.
- Combines online purchases and p2p activity
- Available for Android and iOS
- Works internationally
- Excellent security
- Lacks in-app NFC functionality
- Few in-store payment options
PayPal makes it easy to send money to other people or companies. The company's pushing toward more in-store payments, though it isn't quite at the level of competing apps.
PayPal is the go-to payment service for people who do a lot of online shopping. It is convenient, multi-platform, and almost universally accepted. It falls behind rivals regarding point-of-sale payments, but that isn't a problem if you stick to online transactions.
- Lets you quickly make contactless payments
- Works in many countries
- Manages gift cards, boarding passes, frequent flyer miles, and more
- Money account management option
- Excellent Samsung watch compatibility
- Relatively low money transfer limits
- Samsung Money by SoFi has questionable data-sharing policies
- Limits peer-to-peer payments to other Samsung Pay users
- Only available on Android
Samsung Pay delivers robust mobile payment services that work well with the company's many devices and products. It is impressive that you can make payments with virtually any point-of-sale system that accepts credit cards. You also accrue Samsung Rewards points when using the service, so you earn while you spend.
This service is ideal for Samsung users ready to engage in retail therapy. Unfortunately, Samsung Pay is only available on Samsung, limiting the contacts you can remunerate. However, it has great Samsung Watch compatibility.
- Lets you effortlessly send or receive money in multiple ways
- Can be used on some sites and apps that accept PayPal
- Optional debit and credit cards that earn cash-back awards
- Default privacy settings share your payment history
- Can't pay people via web browser
- Lacks international payment options
- Target for scammers
Despite being owned by parent company PayPal, Venmo stands apart thanks to its popularity as a peer-to-peer mobile payment app. You can split payments, move funds to your bank account, or request money with ease. Venmo makes sharing and paying a social interaction, by making many of your financial interactions optionally visible to others on the app.
Venmo is the ideal mobile payment app for people who love to go out with friends. You may get a kick out of its social-oriented systems, which encourage you to enter descriptions and emojis alongside your payments. Everyone will know what a party animal you are (though, thankfully, the payment amount isn't publicly disclosed).
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How to Send Money With Mobile Payment Apps
Probably the most buzzworthy mobile payment option is peer-to-peer payments. There are many choices for paying your friends directly, such as Apple Pay, Cash App, PayPal, Samsung Pay, and Venmo. However, only a few are true cross-platform services.
When you receive money, most apps store the dough in a holding place, a sort of limited bank account. They charge a fee to dump money from your app account into your bank account (see next section).
Do Mobile Payment Apps Charge Fees?
Most person-to-person payments are free with these apps, unless you use a credit card rather than a bank account or debit card. A fee of about 3% comes from the credit card provider when you use that as your payment source. Some cards offer cash-back points (and you may even get bonus points for mobile payments), so you'll want to do the math to see which payment method benefits you most.
Some services charge another fee when transferring the received money to your bank account. Cash App charges a 0.5% to 1.75% fee for instant deposits (with a minimum fee of $0.25), and Venmo charges a 1.5% fee (with a $0.25 minimum fee) per expedited deposit. Google Wallet doesn't charge to dump money into your bank account. International transfers pay even higher fees. For details on that, see the International Support section below.
Are There Money Limits to Mobile Payment Apps?
The services vary in how much they let you pay, but they generally increase your maximum allowed payment with increased usage. Venmo starts you out with a $300-per-week cap, for example, but this limit can climb to a whopping $60,000 per week after you verify your identity. Apple Pay lets you send a maximum of $10,000 per message and a total of $10,000 within 7 days when using Apple Cash for peer-to-peer payments.
How to Make In-Store Mobile Payments
A few apps included here let you pay at stores via near-field communication (NFC). Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and Samsung Pay are strong contenders in this area. Samsung Pay is distinguished in that it works wherever a magnetic stripe card does, though those have largely been replaced by the more secure NFC point-of-sale devices.
PayPal can be used to pay in a few stores, though it lacks direct NFC wireless payments. Cash App is a bit of a hybrid in this category: You can use the app to pay for items in brick-and-mortar stores and request a debit card that taps your Cash App balance.
How to Make International Mobile Payments
Only a few highlighted apps and services support payments to people abroad. The separate category of international remittance apps includes Xoom, a PayPal service that lets users send payments to people in 131 countries without the recipient needing the app or even a smartphone. The recipient can simply pick up the cash in their local currency at a nearby bank with a code and an ID.
As mentioned above, you incur greater fees for this cross-border convenience. When you send money to Guatemala, for example, Xoom charges $2.99 if you use a bank account and $3.99 for a credit card, along with whatever exchange-rate fee it may impose. This varies greatly by country: For payments to Finland, you pay nothing when using a bank account, but when using a credit card, you pay about 3% of the transaction amount.
PayPal also lets you send money directly to other PayPal recipients in more than 200 countries worldwide without the need for banks or cash pick-up. For in-store payments, Samsung Pay works in 17 countries beyond the US; Google Wallet works in the UK; and Apple Pay works in 26 countries' stores. However, person-to-person payments only work with American accounts.
How to Make Mobile Payments on the Web and With a Watch
Many of the services let you pay via a web browser rather than solely through an app. PayPal is famous for this, but Google Wallet and Venmo have web interfaces, too.
Samsung Pay can only make web payments if you link a Visa Checkout account, but it works on the company's phones and (very well) on its smartwatches. Apple Pay works on the Apple Watch, as you might expect. There are a few Google Wear OS watches that support Google Wallet.
Are Mobile Payment Apps Secure?
The apps and services that support in-store payments all use anonymized tokens, or encrypted versions of your credit card number. The actual number isn't transferred, so it's actually safer than handing over your plastic. Because they transmit credit card information, all services must comply with the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)—the same standard used with analog payment cards. That includes things like implementing newer transport security than SSL and early TLS.
Further, most banks have a zero-liability policy for credit card fraud, meaning if you've been cheated, you don't have to pay anything (with certain reasonable limitations). By law, the maximum you could be responsible for is $50. Most of the services also use fraud detection technology to protect you.
But person-to-person payments not involving credit cards are a whole different story: There's no protection for Venmo money transfers. Once you pay someone in the app, you should consider it the equivalent of handing over cash, and equally easy or hard to get back. That's one reason you should never use p2p services to pay businesses or buy things on the internet with them: You could end up losing your money and not getting the product you thought you bought.
Another thing to be on the lookout for with these services is getting payments or requests for money from those you don't know. Well-known scams involve someone sending you money through the app and asking you for repayment. A common scam is that the payment source comes from a stolen credit card. If you accept that money, you could find yourself in deep legal doo-doo.
What Else Can You Do With Mobile Payment Apps?
The services included here often do more than just let you pay. Some offer various extra perks, such as those listed below.
Splitting payments. Say your pals went to a fancy restaurant for a birthday celebration. How do you all pay your fair share? Many payment apps and services let you split a payment—simply enter the full amount and all the contacts that need to chip in. Of course, they need to be signed up with your payment service.
Order ahead. LevelUp and others hook into local eateries and let you put in an order so that your lunch is ready for you to pick up when you arrive. This is similar to what's offered by some merchant-specific apps, like the Starbucks app.
Loyalty cards. Many of the apps and services here let you enter loyalty program information to let you keep accruing those reward points. LevelUp, PayPal, Samsung Pay, and Google Wallet are strong in this area.
Gift cards. Several apps offer a convenient way to combine all your cash or store gift cards. Usually you just have to snap a picture of the card and maybe enter a code to make the money available from the payment app.
Bitcoin and Investing. Only Cash App among the apps included here lets you purchase and sell bitcoin, but you're probably using Coinbase or another cryptocurrency wallet if you're a bitcoin fan. Cash App also makes it easy to buy fractional stocks: For example, if you want some Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A), but don't have the over $300,000 funds for a single share, pick up $100 worth in your Cash App.
Credit cards and ATM cards. The highest-profile example is the Apple Card, which offers 2% rewards (3% for Apple products) and other nifty options. PayPal and Venmo offer credit and debit cards, and Cash App's debit card occasionally offers very deep discounts. Samsung offers a card and a no-fee, interest-bearing money management account provided by SoFi.
For more on mobile payments, check out How to Avoid Mobile Payment App Scams.
Michael Muchmoore contributed to this article.
