Venmo

• Free App
• Payments and Fees
• Payment Process
• Make Purchases
• Devices

Free App

The Venmo app is free to download on any smartphone or device, and it is free to use. In addition, Venmo is managed by PayPal, providing significant advantages for users. PayPal offers their users a high level of security, similar to the security used by major financial institutions.

Payments and Fees

Venmo offers their users the ability to easily send money to their family and friends up to $299.99 when they first sign up, or up to a weekly rolling limit of $4,999.99 once their identity has been confirmed. Users may use their confirmed and linked US bank accounts to send money to anyone free of charge.

A Venmo user can add any type of credit or debit card to their account for free. Once a card is added, you can set it as your primary payment method in settings, allowing you to control which cards you are using through your Venmo account. In addition, a user can set up a linked bank account, making it easy to move money between a bank account and Venmo account. 

There are no fees for any activity via a debt card, but it is important to note that all money sent via a credit card will incur a 3 percent fee. In addition, there is an automatic transfer fee for transferring money from your Venmo account to your bank account. There are no other Venmo charges or fees to be aware of.

Receiving money and transferring funds to a US bank account is free.

Payment Process

Users may send money to anyone, regardless if they are a current member of Venmo or not. To gain access to sent funds, users must register with the service.

Payments on Venmo are simple, requiring only a few steps to ensure money is being sent to or received by the correct person. In some cases, Venmo will ask you for the last four digits of someone's phone number before completing a payment, thus ensuring a secure transaction.

Payments and transactions are shown on a feed similar to Facebook, showing things people are paying for between their Venmo friends (actual dollar values are not displayed). If you do not want your payments to be seen by other users, there is an option to make a transaction private.

Make Purchases

Not only can you send and receive money from friends and family through Venmo, but you can use it to make online purchases, as well as some retail purchases through the app.

Because Venmo is owned by PayPal, in some online shopping circumstances you can select PayPal as your payment method which will bring up a separate prompt asking if you'd like to complete the transaction through Venmo. This means that online shopping can be even easier, and provides more flexibility in payment methods.

Additionally, Venmo makes it easy to split the cost of any in-app purchases between multiple people. Through its "buy now, split later" service, Venmo remembers the total cost of the purchase and will allow you to split in the next time you open the app. 

Devices

Venmo is available on both iOS and android devices, making it available for anyone.

• Issues with Service Misuse

Issues with Service Misuse

In fact, there are several reports which surfaced in the latter part of 2015, detailing how savvy scammers are using Venmo to defraud users, most often when the service is misused by sending money to one who is unknown to the payor. Venmo states that it is designed for payments between individuals who know and trust one another, and therefore discourages users from sending money to people they do not know, especially on large purchases like event tickets or websites like Craigslist.

It is important to realize that while the app is secure, there are some problems which one may encounter. Should a user erroneously send funds to someone, they are dependent upon the other party to return the funds. Venmo does not provide much assistance in returning funds in the event of payor error.