Remember the days when you had to pay for something but didn’t necessarily have the cash or change on you to do it? For example: you’re meeting up with your friend to pay them back but have to come up with an excuse as to why you don’t have the money on you (It’s in the bank, I swear!) or you have to flirt with the Starbucks barista just to get your morning coffee, or you have to pretend to put three dollars in the streetcar box when you’re really only putting in three pennies (r.i.p, pennies)? Well those dog days are over; now you don’t have to carry cash on you anymore.

Bump Pay, the newest app solely for iOS, lets you transfer money via PayPal as easily as a fist pound — literally. The app only works in-person, and wires money from one phone to another by virtue of a ‘bump together’ action. And although this only works with another person with the same app, and only with iPhones, it does make carrying cash that much less of a hassle or worry. Well slightly so, anyways. Okay not really. 

To use the app, you must set up a PayPal account, sync it to your phone, type in the amount you want to pay, and then bump your iOS against a friend’s or foe’s. Don’t worry about doing accidental ‘bumps’ either — the phone asks you to confirm any payment before it’s finalized.

But is the app really that convenient? As of yet there is no online paying option for the app, meaning it really only works with real live human contact. In fact, it kind of seems like an ever bigger hassle than the old-fashioned paying method – you have to get out of bed, look decent, make sure your phone is charged, and then ‘bump’ each other effectively. When you think about it, though, the app is useful in one way: it brings us together and makes us, literally, fist pumps together. How socially engaging is that? Now, you’ll not only be gaining a few bucks from a friend, but you’ll be getting closer to him/her as well. You’ll form a playful bond. Payment’s never been so fun and engaging. 

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Christian Allaire writes on style and other things for Toronto Standard. Follow his tweets here: @chrisjallaire

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