Venmo is quite popular in the US – the single country where it’s available
Paying with Venmo: guide & questions answered. Source: unsplash.com
One of the leading payment companies in the world, PayPal, has a subsidiary with a little less familiar name – Venmo. Although the service started operating in 2009, it hasn’t expanded globally. Despite the absence of international recognition, Venmo is quite popular in the US – the single country where it’s available. In 2019, the payment app disclosed 52 million yearly users which greatly outnumbered its closest rival, Square, with similar Cash App. According to Statista, in the fourth quarter of 2019, Venmo’s net payment volume amounted to 29 billion U.S. dollars, representing a 56%nt year-on-year growth. The total payment volume in 2019 increased to $102 billion, driving a revenue run rate of more than $450 million.
Venmo features
This mobile wallet initially provided only P2P transaction opportunities to US citizens. However, throughout the last decade, the range of services has grown significantly. Venmo purchases allow users to use their Venmo account as a direct way to pay in mobile apps. Millions of websites also accept Venmo as a payment option through PayPal at the checkout stage. Nevertheless, the main purpose of Venmo remains personal use. The company advises against using the app for business transactions as they can be subject to fraud, and Venmo offers no buyer or seller protection.
Venmo works by linking with your bank account and (optionally) a credit or debit card. There is also a Venmo Account which holds money that you’ve received from friends that you have neither spent, sent, nor transferred to your bank account.
The app is highly ranked among the cost-splitting services. You don’t necessarily have to split a bill right away at the moment of buying. The app remembers the total cost and allows you to split it the next time you open the app.
Purchase history is the tracking feature for all your expenses. You can also share your transaction details with your friends via Venmo feed. Each item in the newsfeed includes the spender and the receiver of money, the time of the transaction, and a specification of “What’s it for?” (The specific dollar amount can only be seen by the spender and receiver.) Weirdly, Venmo newsfeed has become a kind of social network where people can get a glimpse of someone’s money business which is traditionally as intimate as one’s love affairs. Friends can like or comment on posts in the newsfeed too, although this practice is relatively rare. Venmo feed is a useful feature for business owners since their brand names get free word-of-mouth advertising.
There’s also a Venmo debit card that offers no-cost withdrawals from MoneyPass ATMs, just in case you’d like to cash out your Venmo balance. Branded as Mastercard, it comes with a special reward program, by the way.
Venmo ‘there was an issue with your payment’
Sometimes, customers complain that payments on Venmo get declined. Source: shutterstock.com
Sometimes, customers complain that payments on Venmo get declined. The main problem with that is the inability of the mobile wallet provider to explain the reason behind the request denial. In this case, the company recommends reaching out to the card company or card-issuing bank.
The payment decline can be triggered by corporate security policies. For instance, your identity has not been verified yet. When you open a Venmo account, and before your identity has been verified, it applies a $299.99 weekly rolling limit for all transactions combined.
Some other suggested reasons behind the cancellation include situations when you knowingly or unknowingly received a payment that was made from a stolen card, compromised bank account, or compromised Venmo account, or if you conducted a prohibited transaction, such as using Venmo to transact with another user who is not an authorized merchant and who you do not personally know for good or services (for example, concert tickets, electronic equipment, sneakers, a watch, or other merchandise).
How to cancel payment on Venmo
Making quick P2P payments to anyone in your contact book is great until you hit the wrong button. When you make an incorrect or accidental transaction, there is a number of possible actions depending on the situation.
- Once you make a payment to a registered user, the funds are immediately sent to the recipient. Currently, it’s not possible to cancel such a payment. All you can do is asking them to send you a payment for the same amount back.
- Any time you pay to an email address or a phone number that isn’t associated with any active Venmo account, it is labeled as a payment to a New User. If that transaction was wrong, you can cancel the payment in the pending payments section on the web or in the Venmo app.
In the latter case:
- Tap the “?” icon at the top of the app
- Tap “Incomplete”
- Make sure you’re looking at the “Payments” tab
- Under the payment in question, choose “Take Back”
- A payment sent in iMessage will expire and be automatically canceled if the recipient doesn’t accept the payment within three days. If you need to cancel it sooner, go to Incomplete in the Venmo app menu and you should have the option to cancel any pending payments there. If you are on iOS 10 or a desktop, you can open the iMessage payment bubble in the conversation and tap Incomplete Payments (this will take you to the Venmo app to cancel the payment).
- If you have spotted a transaction from your Venmo account that you did not authorize, please email us at [email protected]. You may also contact Venmo’s unauthorized transaction support team at 1-855-812-4430.
Does Venmo take credit cards?
Does Venmo take credit cards? Source: shutterstock.com
This question often pops up among those wishing to join the service. The answer is – yes, but with an additional fee.
While most of the transactions in this digital wallet are free, payments funded by credit cards are subject to the standard 3% fee. In addition, some credit card providers charge cash advance fees (possibly including an additional dollar amount or percent rate, in addition to other possible cash advance service fees, including a higher APR) if you use your credit card to make payments to friends on Venmo.
However, making purchases from authorized merchants with Venmo is always free, even if you use a credit card.
You can find more information about Venmo fees here.
Possible scams Venmo users may face
Often, people who are trying to sell something fall victims of Venmo scams. In theory, a buyer sees an ad, contacts the seller to buy it, and then, sends the money to the seller using Venmo. However, if the buyer is a scam artist, the seller gets notified that the money transaction was reversed. In most cases, there is no warning, and the seller is left with no item and no money.
Before sending money to the seller, scammers may steal someone’s Venmo account details and then funnel the money over to their own account. When that person realizes their account has been hacked, they contact Venmo, and Venmo refunds the money to the original account holder. In other cases, the scammers fund their Venmo account with stolen credit cards or fraudulent bank accounts. Even when the fraud department becomes aware of the issue, the seller can’t get any money back, and of course, they’ve already given away the item they were trying to sell.
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