When bills pile up, young people in the US turn to strangers on Venmo

Some 40 million people use Venmo, and payments jumped by 73% to $21 billion in the first quarter of 2019 from a year prior. (Dreamstime/TNS)

Indira Marquez Robles felt helpless. 

Just before her comparative politics class, the 19-year-old Oglethorpe University student learned that her stepfather had been arrested on suspicion of DUI and taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in Georgia. A tuition payment loomed. Legal fees would pile up. With the breadwinner behind bars, her whole family would feel the purse strings tighten.