What is Venmo? Everything you need to know

17.10.2024 - 19:29 / thepointsguy.com

Raise your hand if you're always the one whipping out your Chase Sapphire Reserve® and insisting on paying for all of your friends' meals at dinner. It's not that you're rich — you just enjoy earning 3 bonus points per dollar spent on dining and know your friends will pay you back later.

This is where Venmo, a money transfer app, enters the chat.

The service allows you and other Venmo users to send each other money quickly and easily and is one of the most widely used mobile payment apps on the market.

If you're unfamiliar with Venmo — or you've heard of it and want to learn more before signing up — you're in the right place. Read on to discover how Venmo works, what fees it charges (depending on the transaction), how long transfer times take and more so you can navigate the system with ease.

As mentioned above, Venmo is a money transfer service, otherwise known as a peer-to-peer (P2P) payment system. Originally operated by Braintree, PayPal purchased the company in 2013 and currently remains under PayPal's ownership.

The main features that differentiate Venmo from other services are its mobile-first design (it does not have a web feature) and a social media-esque news feed that publicly shows transactions you make (though you can opt to make transactions private). This means people you are connected to can see transactions and comment or react to them.

Venmo works by linking your bank account, debit or credit cards to a Venmo account. After your information is saved to your account, you can send money to contacts and some businesses. You don't need to maintain a balance in your account, either. You can simply send money in a transaction, and it will debit your linked cards accordingly.

It's worth noting that you can send money from your bank account, balance (if you have one), or debit card for free. For credit cards, there is a standard 3% fee per transaction.

Once you've received the money, you'll need to send a request to transfer the funds directly to your bank account and from there, you can make withdrawals or transfer those funds to other accounts as needed. To help reduce the chances of users getting scammed, Venmo uses encryption for all your transactions to keep your money safe. Remember to double-check that when you send funds, you're sending them to the correct account/phone number.

Venmo has a limit of two accounts per person with certain conditions. The two Venmo accounts must be opened with a unique set of contact details — so, a different email address and phone number for each account.

To have another Venmo account, you must either have a joint bank account or debit card with another Venmo user or own a business, in which case you open a Venmo Business account. However, you can only