How often do people actually use payment apps to split bills? The data

Pew Research Center's study, published September 8, 2022, surveyed 6,034 US adults between July 5 and 17, 2022, combining 4,996 respondents from its American Trends Panel with 1,038 from Ipsos KnowledgePanel, then weighted the results to represent the US adult population. The full report is titled 'Payment apps like Venmo and Cash App bring convenience, and security concerns, to some users' and is published at pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/09/08/payment-apps-like-venmo-and-cash-app-bring-convenience-and-security-concerns-to-some-users.

The study asked about four specific apps: PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, and Cash App. It found 76% of US adults have used at least one, with individual usage of 57% for PayPal, 38% for Venmo, 36% for Zelle, and 26% for Cash App. Those figures describe whether someone has ever used the app, not how often, and they predate any single app's more recent feature changes.

Among people who use payment apps, Pew found that 21% name splitting expenses with others as a major reason for using them. That is a meaningful slice of users, but it is smaller than reasons like sending money to family or friends generally, which is why a payment app being popular does not automatically mean most of its users are using it to divide a group bill.

The age breakdown is the more useful number for anyone building or choosing a splitting tool. 44% of users aged 18 to 29 cite splitting expenses as a major reason, compared with under 10% of users aged 50 and older. A group spanning both ranges, such as a family trip or a mixed-age club, is not a uniform audience: the younger half may default to an app-based split without discussion, while the older half may need the request explained and a simpler path to pay.

The same Pew survey asked about negative experiences. 13% of payment app users reported that they had sent money that turned out to be part of a scam, and 11% reported that someone had accessed their account without permission. Pew also found the scam rate was roughly double for Black and Hispanic users compared with White users, 22% versus 10%, a gap worth noting for any product or campaign aimed broadly at group organizers.

None of this means payment apps are unsafe to use for a group bill. It means the convenience that makes them useful for splitting a bill (a quick link, a familiar name, an instant transfer) is the same mechanism scammers rely on. A request that looks like it came from a friend is worth a second check before money moves, especially in a large group chat where not everyone knows everyone else.

If your group's main friction is calculating who owes what, a calculator or shared ledger addresses that directly. If the friction is instead that one person already paid the bill and needs to collect named, exact amounts from specific people, a request-and-status tracker is a closer fit, and it is a different job than what most of Pew's 21% 'splitting' figure is measuring, since that figure covers app use broadly rather than any particular workflow.

TabChaser is built for the second case: the host enters each person's exact share, sends a private request link, and tracks who is still open, who reported paid, and who is confirmed. Guests pay through the host's own existing payment method rather than a new account or wallet, and TabChaser does not hold or move the group's money. The Host plan is $29 per month.