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8.3

Overall Score

LAST UPDATED: March 26th, 2024

Venmo is a popular mobile payment app among millennials, with the average user transferring money to friends and family members several times per week. Venmo is owned and operated by PayPal and has been operational since 2009. The company is growing rapidly and offers its users convenience as well as bank-level security of their financial information.

Receiving funds from another user is free, and money sent via Venmo can easily be transferred into a US Bank account with a few taps. Members may use funds from any linked and confirmed US bank account to send money as well as their debit or credit card.

In addition to easily sending and receiving money, Venmo is an available payment option in select merchant apps and for select merchants through a mobile browser, a practice being made popular by other mobile wallet apps like Apple Pay or Google Pay. To use this feature, a user must opt-in to make purchases.

Keep reading for pros and cons, as well as Venmo reviews to see what people are saying about their experience with Venmo.

 

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The Good

  • 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.

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The Bad

  • 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.

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The Bottom Line

Venmo is a great mobile wallet option, making money transfer and mobile payments easy, as well as making purchases either online or in person at certain retailers.

Account set up is quick and easy, and users can be assured that their personal and sensitive information will be protected, as long as they are being careful and mindful of who they are sending money to and receiving money from. In the case of your phone being misplaced or lost, you can easily enter your account through Venmo.com and remove information connected to your phone. Additionally, Venmo stores all data on encrypted servers.

The majority of Venmo customer reviews are positive, highlighting the easy usability of the app and simplicity in communicating with friends and family about transactions. Some complaints include the automatic transfer fee being too high and very difficult customer service.

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Star Rating

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4.6

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417 Reviews

Review Breakdown

5 grade

79%

4 grade

15%

3 grade

3%

2 grade

1%

1 grade

2%

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Joy Smith Independence, MO

HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE!!! I tried to create a new account. However, whoever had my phone number before me had a Venmo account. I have been dealing with a rep/agent by the name of Hershey. Was told to provide documentation of my number. Per the request, I emailed MANY documents but Hershey states unable to read. The documents I emailed to Hershey, provided my phone statements that shows my cell phone carrier's name, my name, the phone number and when the phone number became mine (May 2020), my complete address and even my email address. I asked for a supervisor to call me, but was informed that their phone system was down. Right. How convenient. As such, since Hershey won't do the right thing by rectifying this matter accordingly, I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau against Venmo and Hershey who displayed NOTHING but unfair business practices. Hershey responds to my request by the wrong name. That's being professional? Clearly not. It is extremely disappointing that you need BBB to resolve a matter that Hershey could have done, yet refuses to.

3 years ago

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Greg Curran Abington, PA

Do NOT WASTE YOUR TIME - If I could give them ) or negative stars I would - At first it worked now it has my money in limbo and Plaid or whatever 3rd party Venmo works with will not support MULTIPLE banks including PNC BANK. Venmo has virtually NO Customer service and the illusion that they have someone or some kind of dept handling it (Its not open Sunday) WTF (YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR). PNC Bank Points to Venmo and says they have your money and they cant help. Venmo now wants me to pay to get my money out. WHAT A SCAM - No wonder they were hacked recently and MILLIONS of our personal info was put out on net - But they wont tell you that or you'll never hear that happened. AVOID THIS P.O.S. app and company all together including PLAID or whatever or whoever these SCAMMERS use, Take it from a Google prefered contributor and Influencer. AVOID THEM try ZELLe or CASH APP and there are others as well out there that are FREE and actually have a customer service department that is open and will actually help you!

4 years ago

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anonymous Hudsonville, MI

Doesn’t even deserve a one star. First off it’s the most retarded idea I’ve ever heard of. PayPal is all you need. Ya don’t need to make it into a social media thing. Second, I refuse to make an account, but in order to accept a payment it made me an account. Now I have a balance that I didn’t want. I try to cancel it and now I have to add my bank to get my money off of Venmo when it was supposed to go to PayPal in the first place. But it also won’t let me connect my bank. I also try to log in and tells me over and over again my log in is not correct, and trust me, it’s correct. Literally the worst company. Use PayPal. All I got to say. Never have any issues with it and now Venmo has screwed everything up.

4 years ago

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janean jeffries Los Angeles, CA

Customer Service for Venmo is HORRIBLE!! When you call the agents just take your information down to send to an account specialist that will email you at some point. Why have customer service agents if they are not able to actually service the customer? After calling, emailing and texting several times I finally had an account specialist email me to let me know that my account was now closed. In the email they let me know that if I responded to the email It would go unanswered because they consider the matter closed. They didn't help me in any way, they just closed my account. DO NOT USE VENMO!!!

6 years ago

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Michael McMullen Thousand Oaks, CA

I had 4 transactions that were sent to the wrong person. All 4 was the same recipient. Venmo policy? They only correct one payment error in any 60 day period. No phone contact with Venmo. Venmo will not share the contact information on the person who received my money, nor will Venmo intervene. The result is I'm being cheated out of my cash. Stay away from Venmo is my advice. Mike M.

3 years ago

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Kenneth Okerlund

Very nice that it is a free service, but I stopped using this because no one marks their transactions to be kept as private (meaning that everyone can see your transaction). And since I am a college student most people put something really stupid as the "reason for payment" which I just find annoying. Venmo is a great app, just not used in the way I personally would want to use it.

6 years ago

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SV New York, NY

This company does not realize they are dealing with people's money. They are full of miscommunication. do not use this unless you want to deal with either three hours of customer service conversations or just letting your money go down the drain. Use paypal instead, it's trusted.

6 years ago

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Molly Smith Herriman, UT

Venmo doesn't work with republic wireless cell phones. I would honestly love to have a venmo account, and have tried multiple times to make one, but it just refuses to work. I think it's because of the republic wireless phones because my mother also has one and it doesn't work with her phone either. We're the only people I've ever seen have this problem. It's very frustrating.

2 years ago

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Brette Draper, UT

I used to love this app but now that it charges me for using a credit card, I’m a little disappointed and ready to switch to a new app

5 years ago

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Mat A Rancho Cordova, CA

I had to delete my Venmo because my bank card was compromised when using this app. I won’t use this company anymore.

3 years ago