Payments & Requests - FAQ

Can you cancel my payment?

Unfortunately no - the moment you send a payment in Venmo, we send a request to your bank/card company to debit the funds and make them available to your friend. Sorry about that!

If you want to get the funds back, simply have your friend send you a payment for the same amount, and you can transfer those funds back to your bank account.

Please note: if your payment feed indicates you sent your payment to a new user, you can follow the instructions here to cancel that payment. You’ll also be able to cancel any iMessage payments that you’ve sent and have not been redeemed using the same instructions.

For more details about cancelling a payment, please see this article.  

My payment says it went to a “New User” - what does that mean?

Your payment went to an email address or phone number that isn’t associated with an active Venmo account. This means that you’ll need to have your friend add that information to their account, or take back the funds under “Incomplete” in the Venmo app (or under “Pending” from the web). You can find instructions on how to take back the payment here.

What do I do if I paid the wrong person?

Send them a charge request for the same amount with a note asking them to pay you back for the money you sent by mistake.

If you don’t hear back from them or need help sending a charge request, feel free to check out this article for instructions on how to contact us. We’d be happy to help!

Can I change where my payment is coming from?

At this time, it’s not possible to change the funding source once you’ve sent the payment. Please see the article on how to update your primary funding source, so that the correct payment method is debited for next time!

To see where your payment was funded from, you can check your Settings > Banks & Cards. The funding source listed as "In use - payments to friends" is the payment method that will be debited when your Venmo balance is not enough to cover the full amount of the transaction. You can also head here to see your Transaction History, including the details for the payment. 

What’s the most money can I send using Venmo?

When you sign up for Venmo, your limit is $299.99. Once we have confirmed your identity, your weekly rolling limit is $2,999.99. Your limit will be set at $299.99 if you haven’t. To learn more about limits, or how to verify your identity, please see this article. 

Please note: these limits may change from time to time in our discretion.

My friend paid me on the wrong email address, can I add it to my Venmo account?

If your friend sent you a payment to an email address that’s different from the one you signed up with, you can add and verify that email address to receive the payment here. This email address will be added in addition to the email address that you signed up with, meaning you’ll be able to receive payments sent directly to both email addresses. To login to your Venmo account, you’ll continue to use the email address that you signed up with and originally associated with your account. Please note that this can only be accomplished from a computer.

Once you’ve verified the email address, the payment (and any future payments sent there) should come through to your Venmo balance successfully!

What do I do if I receive a payment from a stranger? 

If you receive a payment from someone that you don't know, you can simply send the payment back to the other user with a note explaining that they paid the wrong person. As long as you didn't initiate a bank transfer, the payment will be coming from your Venmo balance, and none of your funding sources will be charged.

In the future, you can block another user by going to their Venmo profile, touching the three dots in the top righthand corner, and selecting "Block" to prevent this situation from occurring again.

 Where can I find details about my transaction history?

To view your complete transaction history, please see this article for details.

Can I use Venmo to buy or sell merchandise, goods, or services?

You may only use Venmo to pay for goods or services using a Venmo card at merchants that accept the card or through mobile websites or apps that are approved to offer Venmo as a payment option. If available, the option to pay using Venmo will appear as a Venmo-branded payment button at checkout or, in some cases, may appear after you first select PayPal as your payment method.

Venmo may not otherwise be used to receive business, commercial or merchant transactions, meaning you CANNOT use Venmo to accept payment from (or send payment to) another user for a good or service.

DO NOT USE VENMO TO TRANSACT WITH PEOPLE YOU DON’T PERSONALLY KNOW, ESPECIALLY IF THE TRANSACTION INVOLVES THE PURCHASE OR SALE OF A GOOD OR SERVICE (for example, concert tickets, electronic equipment, sneakers, a watch, or other merchandise). These transactions are potentially high risk, are not allowed under Venmo’s User Agreement and Venmo does not offer a protection program for such transactions. This means:

• If you send a Venmo payment to someone for a good or service, you could lose your money without ever getting what you paid for.
• If you accept a Venmo payment from someone for a good or service and we later review the payment, we may reverse the payment, meaning you could lose both the payment and the item sold. This review process may not occur until after you attempt to transfer the funds out of Venmo.

If you would like to know more, please see this article here. If you want to know more about making purchases from authorized merchants with Venmo, please see this article for the details.