There are few applications that I use as much and that I find as practical in my daily life as Bizum. Beyond settling debts or getting people to pay me those outstanding euros, the app is also used for procedures such as pay fines and to pay online purchasesbut on a personal basis where I use the most Bizum is for exchanging more or less small amounts of money.
I don’t think I’ve ever made a mistake by sending a Bizum and although on one occasion someone sent me a suspicious Bizum for 100 euros, I haven’t caught any possible scams either. Because although the app is simple and easy to use, it has nooks and crannies where there are people who try to scam you. There are five Bizum rules that I strictly follow to avoid scams.
Read carefully: Send or request money?
It seems silly, but it is not: Bizum is so familiar that it is easy to proceed on autopilot in the application, skim and as a consequence, get screwed with one of the most common scams, the reverse Bizum technique. The key is that the application allows you to both send and receive money and this last function goes hand in hand with being able to request it. Come on, the friendly reminder of ‘Friend, pay me what you owe me’.
I have a good habit of paying off my debts as soon as possible out of deference to whoever advances the money, but if someone close to me sent it to me because I owed them something, I would obviously proceed at that very moment. The problem is that maybe the person who sends it to you is someone who has bought something from you on Wallapop, Vinted or similar and instead of sending you the money, what he does is send you that request. You don’t read, you accept the operation, in the end you are the one who sends the money. So something I always do with the Bizum is read it from top to bottom paying special attention to whether it is a submission or a request.
This is a request for money
I always look at my bank account
One of the great advantages of Bizum is that Money exchanges take place instantly. That is, if you send money, it immediately disappears from your account and you can see it immediately and also if it arrives, you will see it with its corresponding notice.
So every time I use bizum, I look at my bank account. This helps me with two things: the first is to verify that the sending has taken place (it would not be the first time that I may forget to confirm the operation with the code that I receive in the form of an SMS) and the second, that I receive real money. Normally everything is correct, but it can happen that you suddenly receive a WhatsApp from someone telling you that they have sent you a bizum by mistake and that you should return the money… and maybe it is not true. If you do it without checking, you are left without money.
Did you receive the bizum?
Although I trust the technology in question, it doesn’t hurt to send a little message to clear up doubts when you send a bizum to know if the other person has received the bizum. It’s always easier to keep track at the moment.
We have already seen in the previous point that they arrive instantly, so if I have already seen that it has disappeared from my account, Has it reached its destination? You may have sent it to another person with a similar name or even had some incident that prevented you from receiving the notification. Or that he hasn’t looked at it.
In the same way, I like that you replicate this practice with me and when someone sends me a bizum, they tell me so I can keep an eye on it. Imagine that he sends it to the wrong Eva, he doesn’t tell me anything and the days go by… I keep waiting for him to pay me and the other person forgets. And let’s not fool ourselves, sometimes if they are small amounts, we may not even worry about getting the debt paid.
Creativity, for other sites other than the Bizum issue
Bizum offers a space of 35 characters to describe the reason why you carry out the operation and although it can be very funny to put an original concept, I almost prefer to reserve that creativity for Twitter and here make the reason very clear and I have my reasons: Imagine a dinner or a gift where there are several people who have to pay. If you put ‘Eva Rodriguez gift payment from Luis’ it is very easy for the person who receives to identify where that money comes from (yes, the phone number appears, but it is much less intuitive) than if you simply put ‘Gift payment’ or ‘ Aupa Athletic’.
On the one hand it is easy to identify the payment and on the other hand, this way youyou expect the other person to make a mess and maybe he thinks that you are the one who is waiting to pay the debt and even that there is mischief.
For unknown numbers: first to the phonebook
Making a mistake sending a Bizum is something that hasn’t happened to me yet, but it can happen sooner or later. To send a Bizum, the first thing is to choose the destination, which can be someone in your phone book or a number. If it is someone you know, it is normal for it to be in the contacts, but if not I prefer to put it there first, miss a call so that I have mine back and then open Bizum for the contact list to update.
Because if you have to dictate and write numbers or cut and paste, perhaps there is an error that causes money to be sent to someone else.
Cover | Xataka Android (Iván Linares) and Alert icons created by mj – Flaticon
In Xataka Mobile | From what amount do you have to declare Bizum transfers to the Treasury (and how much is the fine if you don’t do so)
