How to Accept Venmo Payments

To accept and manage payments and gain visibility for your business with a Venmo business profile, you must be located in the United States and have a Venmo account (including a personal profile). Keep in mind that you can only create one business profile in Venmo, so if you’re a jack of all trades, choose wisely.

Here’s how to set up a Venmo business profile if you don’t already have a Venmo account:

1. Download the Venmo app or go to Venmo’s website and click Get Venmo.
2. Click the Business option.
3. Click Get started.
4. Enter your mobile phone number and click the blue Send code button to receive a confirmation code.
5. Once you receive the confirmation code on your phone, enter it on the Venmo screen.
6. After verifying your phone number, enter your legal name, email address, and the password you’d like to use with Venmo.
7. Click Agree after reading through Venmo’s legal terms and conditions.

If you already have a Venmo account, simply click the bottom right icon in your Venmo app (the one shaped like a person with a dollar sign) or the Create a business profile button in the left navigation bar on the website.

Once your phone verification is successful, you’ll get a series of prompts asking for details about your business. Here are some questions you might see:

• When filing your taxes, which number do you use — a social security number (SSN) or an employer identification number (EIN)? (While an EIN isn’t necessary to create a business profile on Venmo, selecting the EIN option will require you to choose whether your business is a partnership or corporation from the Business registration type dropdown menu.)
• What would you like your Business display name and Business username (i.e., everything after the @ symbol in Venmo) to be? For further customization, you can also add a business photo or logo, a brief description of your company’s products or services, and your business type — such as Arts and Entertainment, Retail, or Health and Wellness — to your business profile in this section.
  • This is also where you can create a Venmo business profile for an association or club. First, select Association or Club from the Type dropdown menu and then the specific association or club classification from the Category dropdown — like Automobile Associations or Civic, Social, and Fraternal Organizations.
• What is the mailing address for your business? (Note: This information will remain private, so you can include your primary mailing address for this prompt.)
• What is your public business information, including customer-facing business address, phone number, URL, and social media handles? (Unlike your business’s mailing address from the previous screen, this information will be public to encourage connection and engagement with your current and prospective customers.)

After previewing your business profile, if you want to make changes, click Edit profile. If you’re satisfied with how it looks and will appear to customers, click Publish to publish it. If you’d like to turn on a tipping feature, go to your business profile settings in the app, click Tipping, and turn on the toggle.

If you’d like to access your personal or business profile, log in using your personal Venmo account information, not your business profile username.

While there are seller transaction fees — which we will cover in depth in a later chapter — they’re relatively low and meant to assist with issues like tax reporting and purchase disputes.

Venmo business profile: Website vs app

While you can view account statements for your newly created business profile on the web, you’ll need to use the app to complete identity verification, access your business profile, and explore other unique features. In addition, the app allows you to quickly toggle between your business and personal profiles.

Once you’ve set up a Venmo business profile, you’re ready to start receiving money from and engaging with customers on the Venmo app and website. Your business profile comes with a unique QR code, so order your QR kit for faster, more convenient touch-free payments. (Your first QR kit is free and includes five stickers, a wallet card, a lanyard, and a tabletop display and stand.)

As exciting and convenient as mobile payment services like Venmo are, safety is still an important factor, especially considering how many organizations face data and security breaches daily.

Next, we’ll discuss why Venmo is safe for customers and businesses alike.

When it comes to safeguarding data, Venmo is reliable. It uses data encryption technology, multifactor authentication (MFA), and extra security precautions like a PIN code and thumbprint-scanning authorization to protect your account.

But as a business owner, it’s essential to understand the ins and outs of Venmo’s safety and security practices before you open and display a Venmo business profile, mainly because data breaches are always possible in digital transactions.

Is Venmo safe for customers and businesses?

Yes and yes.

First and foremost, know that you won’t be contacted by anyone at Venmo requesting a password or verification code for your account. Don’t respond or engage if you do receive communication asking for this information or experience any other type of suspicious account behavior. Instead, contact Venmo immediately at support@venmo.com to file a report.

Venmo’s default profile and payment settings are public. To ensure your payment settings are more secure and confidential, change your privacy settings before you start using the app or website. Open the Venmo app and follow these steps:

1. Click the person/dollar sign icon on the bottom navigation bar.
2. Click the cog wheel icon in the top right corner to access your Settings tab.
3. Select Privacy from the list of options to access Venmo’s three levels of privacy:
   1. Choose Public (the default option) if you’d like your transactions to be visible to everyone on the app and website.
   2. Choose Friends if you’d like your transactions to be visible only to you, the sender/recipient, and mutual friends.
   3. Choose Private if you’d like your transactions to be visible only to you and the sender/recipient.

You can set any of these options as your default setting, or, if you’d rather change the settings on a transaction-by-transaction basis, you can do that as well — adjusting how your transactions are viewed each time you send or receive money. (You can also hide your transactions — past and current — if you’re particularly private about your Venmo activity.)

Additionally, as we mentioned in a previous chapter, you can open a Venmo credit card — and earn up to 3 percent cash back — if you’re especially concerned about your personal debit card or bank account getting hacked through the app.

How does Venmo protect its users?

To protect, monitor, and store your account information and activity on servers, Venmo uses encryption, which you can tell is active based on the lock symbol next to the web address. Again, immediately report any suspicious account behavior or unauthorized activity by contacting support@venmo.com.

Venmo also helps protect your account and prevent access to it with these measures:

• Venmo will automatically sign you out of the app if you lose your phone or think an unauthorized user has access to your account.
  • Go to Venmo.com, scroll down, click Settings in the left navigation bar, and then Security. Once you see the list of devices, locations, and dates associated with your phone and Venmo account, click Forget on the session you’d like to remove (usually the top, most recent session).
• You can add extra layers of security, such as a PIN code, which Venmo will request from you each time you open the app. To enable this feature, follow these steps:
  • Click the person/dollar sign icon on the bottom navigation bar.
  • Click the Settings button in the top right corner (i.e., the gear icon).
  • Scroll down and select Face ID & PIN under the Security tab.
  • Toggle the Enable Face ID & PIN option and enter a four-digit code. (Make sure you have face ID or fingerprint capabilities enabled in your general phone settings to use these features in Venmo.)
• Venmo also prohibits any business, commercial, or merchant transactions on the app or website unless they are explicitly authorized — like through a business profile. Additionally, Venmo doesn’t currently support or authorize user-created donation campaigns or nonprofits, so don’t send money to one — or attempt to set one up — because it’s restricted.
• Venmo only requests information or documents — if, for example, you’re working with its support team on an issue — through an in-app chat or document upload form. Any legitimate document requests you receive from Venmo will be from a venmo.com email address, and they will be accompanied by a link to the document upload form. You will never be asked to submit documents via text message.

Should healthcare providers use Venmo?

Short answer: no.

Venmo isn’t HIPAA-friendly, as it doesn’t offer a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) — which is a written arrangement assuring the safeguarding of protected health information, or PHI. So while Venmo is a very safe and secure platform for many organizations, it doesn’t meet the requirements for medical institutions and healthcare organizations.

Next, we’ll explore Venmo’s transaction fees and various plan options.

As exciting and convenient as Venmo is, you need to consider its transaction fees to determine whether it’s a good solution for your business.

Venmo personal vs business accounts

Though Venmo offers both personal and business plans, the fees for each are different. That’s why it’s important to understand the differences between Venmo personal vs business accounts.

Venmo personal accounts

All basic transactions (like sending or receiving money from your bank account, debit card, or Venmo balance) cost nothing with personal accounts. 

The same goes for transferring money from your bank account, receiving a refund from a merchant, speaking to Venmo’s customer service department, or having a transaction declined due to insufficient funds. 

It’s even free to open and hold a personal account with Venmo — there are absolutely no startup or monthly fees.

What will cost you money, however, are the following:

• Sending money to people using your credit card (3 percent of the transaction)
• Depositing payroll or government checks (1 percent with a minimum $5 fee)
• Depositing non-payroll or non-government checks (5 percent with a minimum $5 fee)
• Receiving payments in your business profile, which we’ll dive into more a little later (1.9 percent plus 10 cents or 2.29 percent plus 9 cents)
• Instantly transfering money to your linked debit card or bank account, as opposed to waiting the standard business day or two (1.75 percent)
• Buying or selling cryptocurrency (though fees vary based on purchase or sale amount, ranging from 49 cents to 2.49 percent.)
• Using the Venmo credit card to withdraw money from an out-of-network ATM ($2.50) or withdrawing money when a signature is required ($3 per signature)

Venmo business accounts

With business accounts, on the other hand, the owner of the profile is charged a nonrefundable seller transaction fee for every payment they receive that’s $1 or more. The fee is 1.9 percent of the payment plus 10 cents (e.g., you would receive $98 if the original payment was $100).

All business profiles fall under the same fee structure, regardless of size or industry.

While minor and aligned with industry standards, these Venmo charges can add up, especially if you’re a small business. However, they are meant to benefit your business, not hurt it, by allowing Venmo to provide its service and convenience for business owners and customers alike — specifically when it comes to protecting your business in formal tax documentation and dispute services.

Now that you know about all the potential fees for various Venmo transactions, let’s dive into the types of payments Venmo accepts.

Venmo allows you to add credit, debit, prepaid, and network-branded cards — like American Express, Discover, Mastercard, and Visa — to your account, as long as each is registered under your name.

However, keep in mind that some credit card companies charge cash advance fees (e.g., an additional percentage rate or dollar amount) if you use them to make payments to friends and family on Venmo. Contact your card provider for more information on any fees it charges in addition to Venmo’s transaction fees.

If you share a bank account or debit card with another Venmo user, you can add your shared account/card information to separate Venmo accounts, allowing you to use the same payment method on Venmo. However, you can only link a shared payment method to a maximum of two Venmo accounts.

Credit cards are an exception. You can’t use them simultaneously on more than one Venmo account. Additionally, you still can’t use a PayPal card or account to send or receive funds on Venmo.

To see your payment methods, follow these steps:

1. Open the Venmo app.
2. Tap the person/dollar sign icon on the bottom right corner.
3. Tap the settings gear in the top right corner.
4. Click Payment Methods to see a list of the bank accounts and cards associated with your Venmo account and to apply for the Venmo credit card. If you haven’t already added a bank account or card to your Venmo account, click Add a bank or card, select Bank or Card, and enter your information.

You can’t adjust your payment method or the amount for a transaction once you’ve sent it — that’s why you must make sure to enter any transaction information correctly before submitting it. You can, however, change it the next time you pay a friend by following the above steps and selecting which account or card you prefer to use as your default payment method.

Venmo lets users have up to four active or deleted cards in their account over a six-month rolling period. Of course, you can also always pay others with your Venmo balance.

If you added a bank account but received an error message about Venmo losing the connection with your bank, you’ll need to delete the bank account information from your Venmo account and add it again. (Remember, all forms of Venmo communication will come from a secure, legitimate venmo.com email address.) Since verifying the bank account typically takes one to two business days, consider adding a debit card to your Venmo account if you need to make any urgent transactions.

By offering affordable fees and a variety of accepted payment methods, Venmo touts convenience for both business owners and customers.

Read on for a recap of some of Venmo’s most popular features.

Before checking out some of Venmo’s competitors, here’s a quick recap of why Venmo is easily one of the most popular mobile payment apps.

1. It’s secure

In terms of protecting, monitoring, and storing data for customers and business owners alike, Venmo is safe, secure, and reliable — thanks to data encryption technology, multifactor authentication (MFA), plus PIN code and thumbprint-scanning authentication.

But since data breaches are always possible in digital transactions, Venmo encourages all users to adjust their privacy settings on both the app and website.

You can set your transactions to be

• Visible to everyone
• Visible to you, the sender/recipient, and mutual friends
• Visible to just you and the sender/recipient
• Completely hidden

For additional security, Venmo will also

• Automatically sign you out of the app if you lose your phone or believe an unauthorized person has accessed your account
• Prohibit any business, commercial, or merchant transactions unless explicitly authorized, including user-created donation campaigns or nonprofits
• Request information or documents — if, for example, you’re working with its customer support team on an issue — only through an in-app chat or document upload form (Venmo will never ask you to submit documents via text message.)

Keep in mind that though Venmo is a secure platform — and is excellent at safeguarding personal data and account information for all its users — it doesn’t meet the requirements for medical institutions and healthcare organizations because it isn’t HIPAA-friendly.

2. It’s quick

If you use your linked bank account, standard bank transfers — which are easy to initiate and completely free — typically take between one and three business days to complete.

However, transfers are also periodically reviewed using internal fraud and risk procedures to check for suspicious activity and ensure your account complies with Venmo’s user agreement. These reviews can lead to delayed or canceled transfers, frozen funds, account suspension or termination, and/or further review with requested information and documentation, depending on what they uncover.

For the most part, though, you can prevent all that hassle by avoiding

• Accepting payment from any stolen cards or compromised bank or Venmo accounts
• Conducting prohibited transactions, like using Venmo to engage and do business with unauthorized merchants or users you don’t personally know for goods or services

Additionally, when it comes to standard bank transfers, your weekly rolling limit is $19,999 ($5,000 per transfer) if you’ve verified your account. If you haven’t verified it, your weekly limit is $999.99.

Though you can’t expedite a standard bank transfer — or easily cancel one — once you’ve initiated it, you can consider an instant transfer for your next transaction, which is processed through different, faster networks instead of the drawn-out Automated Clearing House (ACH) banking system.

With Venmo’s instant transfer feature, you can transfer your Venmo money within 30 minutes. You’ll pay a 1.75 percent processing fee (to certain bank accounts or eligible Visa and Mastercard debit cards).

You can make instant transfers 24 hours a day — regardless of holiday or weekend schedules — but, like standard bank transfers, they are subject to transfer reviews and can be delayed, blocked, or outright canceled if an issue is found. You’ll see a green check mark confirming the transfer has begun and an in-app notification once it’s complete.

3. It’s affordable

Whether you have a personal or business account with Venmo — or one of each — the fees are clearly defined and nominal.

In fact, with a personal account, all basic transactions cost nothing. This includes opening and holding the account, sending and receiving money using your bank account, debit card, or Venmo balance, and transferring money from your bank account.

Though it does cost money for some personal transactions — like using your credit card to send money to people, instantly transferring money to your linked debit card or bank account, and buying or selling cryptocurrency — the fees are more than manageable.

If you have a business account with Venmo, the primary expense you’re responsible for is the seller transaction fee for every payment you receive that’s $1 or more. It’s 1.9 percent of the payment plus 10 cents. This fee isn’t refundable.

We’ve covered a lot of Venmo ground these past few chapters — from the basics and how to set up a business account to the platform’s transaction fees and accepted payment methods.

Now it’s time to weigh Venmo’s pros and cons by looking at some of its competitors.

Though Venmo is one of the most popular mobile payment platforms on the market — especially after COVID-19 further popularized contactless convenience — it does have its share of disadvantages, including various transaction fees and the fact that it’s not available to use internationally.

Fortunately, there are other mobile payment platform alternatives to consider — ones that may be more appropriate for you (and your business) in terms of cost, accessibility, and overall functionality.

Here are three common Venmo alternatives.

1. PayPal

Founded in 1998, digital wallet service PayPal — which owns Venmo — is tailored more to online commerce than peer-to-peer transactions. It’s available in more than 200 countries, includes a high transfer limit (up to $60,000), and offers stellar fraud protection services to customers and business owners alike.

Like Venmo, PayPal

• Is available on iOS, Android, and the web (though Venmo only lets users make payments through its mobile app)
• Offers the same convenient payment methods to pay friends or merchants — credit, debit, or bank transfers
• Charges nothing for bank transfers
• Is free to use

However, there are some key differences between PayPal and Venmo, especially with transaction fees and withdrawal time frames. For example, while their credit card fees are similar, their debit card fees aren’t. Transferring money to your debit card is free with Venmo, but it’ll cost you 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per transaction with PayPal.

Additionally, while it typically takes one to three business days to transfer money from your Venmo account to your debit card or bank account of choice, it takes three to five business days with PayPal.

2. Square

Another popular mobile payment solution is Square, which allows users to send and receive money without using bank account numbers, phone numbers, or email addresses. Instead, online transactions are as easy as sending a text message — thanks to a unique $Cashtag or screen name each user receives upon registration.

With Square, users can earn discounts and perks for in-house purchases at local cafes and restaurants, buy and sell bitcoin, and receive free bank transfers in one to three business days (or instantly for a small fee). But there are three significant differences between Venmo and Square: transfer limits, security, and customer support.

While both platforms require accounts to be verified — which is a more complicated process with Venmo — before sending large amounts of money, unverified Venmo users enjoy a person-to-person spending limit of $299.99. In contrast, unverified Square users can send only $250 per week. (For verification, Venmo requires a person’s full name, birthdate, social security number, and physical address to compare to government data.)

In terms of security, reviewers of both apps tend to find Square safer than Venmo. Though they’re both highly encrypted and enable users to set up and use personal pin codes for extra account protection, Square also requires a one-time login code that only the actual user can access.

When it comes to customer support, Venmo offers more options, including live agents via phone, live chat, and email. For example, you can chat with a Square representative, but you have to request a call through other channels — such as through an in-app ticket or email — which can take some time.

3. Stripe

Last on our list of Venmo alternatives is Stripe, the mobile payment processor for online businesses. It’s easy to use, powerful, highly functional, and affordable (since it doesn’t charge any card storage, validation, monthly, or refund fees).

The most significant difference is the intended audience when it comes to Stripe vs Venmo. Stripe is built for business transactions, while Venmo is primarily peer to peer. With Stripe, users can handle everything from card storage and direct payouts to instant payment acceptance and payment card industry (PCI) compliance from one fully integrated suite.

However, Stripe doesn’t let you send money to or request money from a friend or family member the way Venmo does. Venmo, on the other hand, offers customer to merchant transaction features similar to Stripe (though they’re a bit limited). Additionally, Stripe is global, and helps companies beat fraud, send invoices, and manage their entire business online, regardless of size, industry, or location.

Like Square, however, Stripe doesn’t offer as many customer service options as Venmo. Reviewers dislike how difficult it is to get a live person on the phone, whether to address a basic question or dispute a transaction.

Now that you’ve learned about three viable Venmo alternatives, including their pros and cons, you’re more than equipped to choose a mobile payment app that meets your specific wants and desires. But before you do, let’s check out one more option  — online form builder Jotform and its new Venmo integration.

Online form builder Jotform is easy to use, powerful, fully customizable, and, best of all, completely code free.

With thousands of form, approval, PDF, and table templates to choose from — including survey, consent, application, registration, and payment forms — you can either build your project entirely from scratch or choose a ready-made template, regardless of your industry or your business’s size.

And with Jotform’s user-friendly, drag-and-drop functionality and design tools, you can personalize your form to your heart’s content — changing colors and layouts and adding widgets and text boxes in minutes.

Thanks to Jotform’s new Venmo integration, users can now accept Venmo payments through their online forms — enabling peer-to-peer payments instantly with no extra transaction fees to Jotform.

Jotform’s Venmo integration enables you to

• Receive money directly to your bank account or debit card (You can also receive Venmo payments using auto-generated QR codes that customers can scan to open the Venmo app and pay directly from their smartphones.)
• Personalize the design of your Venmo payment form — whether by uploading your business logo or changing fonts and colors to match your brand — without any coding experience
• Customize privacy settings with a single click, making your form public, private, or only available to members of your organization
• Trust that your data and your customers’ personal information are safe and secure, thanks to Jotform’s high-level security, including a 256-bit secure sockets layer (SSL) connection and form encryption (Although Venmo isn’t HIPAA-friendly, since it doesn’t offer a BAA, Jotform does offer features that help with HIPAA compliance, but you would need to use a HIPAA-friendly payment processor.)
• Add a Venmo payment form to your custom mobile app (which you can create with mobile app builder Jotform Apps), enabling you to easily, conveniently, and securely collect payments from your customers on any smartphone, tablet, or computer.

Here’s how to add Venmo to your payment forms:

1. Select which form you’d like to use from the Form Builder by hovering over it and clicking Edit Form. (The Form Builder is also where you can create your form if you don’t already have one — either from scratch or using one of Jotform’s premade templates.)
2. Once you’re happy with your form and are ready to publish it, click Add Form Element on the left side of the screen.
3. Click Payments.
4. To trigger the PayPal browser popup, scroll down until you see Venmo or enter it in the search bar. (In Jotform, Venmo payments are powered by Jotform’s PayPal Business integration. With this integration, your form will allow both PayPal and Venmo payments but only from merchants and consumers in the United States.)
5. Click the blue Connect via PayPal Business button to authenticate your account. (Note: you won’t be able to set this up unless you already have a Venmo business profile since it’s now strictly prohibited to use your personal Venmo account for anything other than personal transactions.)
6. Follow the rest of the onscreen instructions to complete the Venmo integration.
7. Review the rest of your form and payment details, including Mode, Currency, and Payment Type.
8. Click Publish to share, embed, email, or print your newly created Venmo payment form.

Not only is Jotform’s Venmo integration easy to set up, but it’s also easy to navigate, helping your customers complete your payment form quickly and effortlessly.

We’ve gone over the basics and more, so you’re officially a Venmo aficionado. Now that you know everything there is to know about Venmo, you’re well equipped to decide whether it’s right for you personally or professionally (or maybe even both).