If you sent a payment to your friend’s phone number or email address and they didn’t receive it, the payment may be listed as “Incomplete.” Read on for more info.
When a payment is sent to an email address or phone number that isn’t associated with an active Venmo account, the payment may show as “Incomplete” on the app or display as “Pending” in your feed. (This will also happen if the email address or phone number hasn’t been verified by the recipient.) This means your payment method will be charged, but the money won’t reach the intended recipient until they add the phone number or email address to their Venmo account and verify it.
You can view the “Incomplete” section by going to the “You” tab. Select the single person icon 
, and then tap the “Incomplete” button 
.
You can help your friend accept the payment, or you can take back the payment.
If your friend wants to accept the money, please have them follow the instructions to sign up or add the additional email address to their Venmo account.
If you want to take the funds back yourself by cancelling the payment, follow these instructions:
- Go to the “You” tab by selecting the single person icon
- Tap the “Incomplete” button
- Make sure you’re looking at the "Payments" tab
- Under the payment in question, choose “Take Back”
You can also access your pending payments on the web.
Taking back the payment means that the funds will be reversed back to your original funding source. If you used a bank account or card, the funds will be returned there. If you used your Venmo balance to fund the payment, the amount should be reflected in your balance.
For payments reversed back to a bank account, the funds should be deposited back in your bank account in 3 to 5 business days. If you used a card for the payment, you should see that posted on your statement in 5 to 7 business days. These timelines depend on external factors and cannot be expedited.
I was supposed to receive a payment via Splitwise but it is not in my Venmo account
If your friend sent you a payment via Splitwise, but it didn’t arrive in your Venmo account, it’s possible that the email address they used caused the issue. If the email on your Venmo account doesn’t match the email address used for the Splitwise payment, our system won’t be able to get the payment to your Venmo account. There is an easy fix – you can go into your settings on Venmo and update your email address so it matches what was used for the payment. If the email address already matches, please make sure to verify your email address.
If the information that was used for the payment cannot be added to your Venmo account, please ask your friend to contact the Splitwise support team for further assistance.