Can You Split Fares On Lyft? How?

Are you ordering a Lyft ride for yourself and your friend?

In that case, you might want to split the fare with your pal to save money.

While not all ride-share apps let you split fares, the second biggest ridesharing company does let you split fares on Lyft rides – but only if you use Venmo.

Can You Split Fares on Lyft?

Yes, you can share the cost of your Lyft ride with a friend, significant other, or coworker (or anyone, really!) However, this option is only available after paying for a ride with Venmo.

If you use a credit card or another payment method, you can’t split the fare with another passenger unless you do it manually.

Why Can’t You Split Fares on Lyft?

In the past, Lyft had a Split Pay feature, which allowed people sharing a ride to split the cost of the shared ride with up to five contacts, straight from the Lyft app.

However, several years ago, Lyft removed that in-app feature.

The exact reason for the removal is unclear, as Lyft did not explain the cause.

However, Lyft did start accepting Venmo as a payment option.

If you use Venmo, you can split the fare with other Venmo users in the Venmo app.

How to Split the Cost of a Lyft

Even though the Split Pay feature is no longer available in the Lyft app, you can still split the cost of a ride with another Lyft rider.

What You’ll Need

If you want to split the cost of your ride with other riders, make sure to prepare yourself before you order your ride.

Here is what you will need.

Lyft Ride Receipt

To start, you will need to get a Lyft ride receipt.

While having the receipt is not necessary for sharing your fare, it will help you show your coworkers, friends, or anyone else you are riding with what the actual fare was.

It will also help you figure out what everyone owes.

By default, Lyft will send a ride receipt to your email address after completing each ride.

However, if you did not get it, you can also request ride receipts in the Lyft app by going to the “Ride History” section.

Venmo, Cash App, or Another Payment App

Since the split fare option is gone, you will need a payment app like Venmo or Cash App to split a fare with friends or family.

The best app to use is Venmo, as it is an accepted payment method on Lyft.

Add Venmo to your Lyft account and choose it as your payment method before taking a shared ride.

Otherwise, splitting the fare will be more difficult.

Venmo is only available in the United States.

To add Venmo to your Lyft account, open your app, open the menu, and tap on Payment.

Then, add Venmo as a new payment method.

Make sure Venmo is the selected payment option before ordering a ride.

How to Split Fares on Lyft Rides

Once you’ve completed a ride, here’s what you need to do:

• Open your Venmo app.
• If you just paid, your most recent transaction should show up at the top of your app with a “Split $X.XX” button.
• Look at your recent transaction feed and find your most recent Lyft ride if it’s been a while.
• If you are unsure which Lyft ride you need to split, look at your ride receipt. Compare the cost of the Lyft ride in the receipt to the one in your Venmo app.
• Once you’ve chosen to split a payment, select a contact or contacts from your list to split it with.
• Venmo will automatically split the cost equally between all users. However, you can also edit the amount.
• Add some emojis and a short message before sending your request to your friends.
• Your friends will get Venmo requests to pay you their shares of the cost.
• You can see your sent requests in the Venmo app and track incoming payments.

What if you don’t have Venmo?

Your next best bet would be to use another payment app to request your friends pay you back.

Using Google Pay

The most accessible app to use is Google Pay.

Using Google Pay, you can create a group and split a bill between group members.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Open your Google Pay app.
• Tap the search bar, select “People,” and then tap on “Split with friends.”
• Search through your contacts and add the people who took the shared ride with you.
• Click on “Continue.”
• Create a name for your group. You can label it “Lyft Riders” or something like that.
• Enter the amount you were charged for the Lyft ride. You can confirm this amount by checking your Lyft ride receipt.
• Click on “Done.”
• If you’d like to split the bill evenly, click on “Done” again. If you’d like to edit the amount each person owes, tap on the amount next to their name, enter a new amount, and click on “Done.”
• Each person will receive a request to send you money.

Using Cash App

Any peer-to-peer payment app will work if you don’t have Google Pay.

For example, you can use Cash App and send each of your friends a request for money directly.

You can also request funds in PayPal.

Here’s what you will need to do:

• Get your Lyft ride receipt and check the cost of the ride.
• Take out a calculator, or use a calculator app on your smartphone to calculate each rider’s share of the cost. For example, if the cost of the ride was $20, and there were four riders, each rider would owe $5.
• In your payment app, send a request to each friend individually (or send it to several at once, if the app allows you to do so). For example, tap the Request button in Cash App and select a contact and amount to request.

Future Option: Lyft Releasing a Venmo Integration

Lyft now allows users to pay for rides using Venmo.

After Lyft removed the Split Pay feature, users had to manually request money from friends after rides and calculate the amount each friend owed.

With the Venmo integration, users can pay for rides with their Venmo accounts and then send a quick request to friends to share the ride.

Their friends can then send them money directly from their Venmo apps.

The process is straightforward.

Soon, users will also be able to use Venmo to pay for bike and scooter rides on Lyft.

Alternative: Can You Split the Cost of an Uber Ride?

Uber still allows users to split the cost of an Uber ride from within the app.

You can do this only after requesting a ride, and you may not be able to use Apple Pay as your payment method.

After requesting a ride, swipe up from the bottom of the app and tap on your selected payment method.

Then, click on “Split Fare” and enter the names or phone numbers of the contacts you want to split the cost with.

Your friends will receive requests to share the ride.

Keep in mind that if a friend doesn’t accept to share the cost, or their payment method doesn’t work, you will have to pay their fare.

Also, each rider will have to pay a small fee of $0.25.

Final Thoughts

Both Uber and Lyft allow you to share the cost of a ride with friends, though the exact mechanism is different in each.

Venmo allows for the most straightforward method of sharing the price of a ride, though you can do it with any other payment method.

You can even ask your friends to give you cash, but they might not have enough change on hand.