Founded in 2009, Venmo quickly became one of the USA’s most popular mobile payment services. Venmo aims to provide an easy way for friends and family to split the expenses. On the other hand, you can use this digital mobile wallet for online subscriptions.
Now, if you use this service for subscriptions, you’ll require an option for recurring payments. The question is can you set up recurring payments on Venmo? Simply put, Venmo has no option to allow automatic payments, and we might not see it soon. However, there are other ways to make monthly payments on Venmo easy.
Why a Recurring Payment Option Is Important
One advantage of recurring payments is that you don’t manually pay monthly payments. The app you use automatically deducts the amount from your account or card on the due date. This makes monthly billing easy, and you don’t have to keep track of every payment. You only need to schedule payments, and the app or wallet will pay on that date.
Both businesses and customers can take advantage of recurring payments to avoid paying late payments. They can minimize the effort and improve customer relationships.
Can You Set Up Recurring Payments on Venmo?
While Venmo has made it easy to transfer money, it still lacks some features. You can easily send and receive money using the webpage or the application. In order to have money in your Venmo wallet for a transaction, you must connect your bank account or credit card.
Since using Venmo, you can make online payments to any platform like Netflix, which requires a monthly subscription. For monthly subscriptions, such platforms require a method form where they can automatically deduct the money on the due date.
If automatic payments are not possible, these platforms require you to set up recurring payments scheduling them for the due date. Your preferred method will automatically pay on your behalf; thus, you won’t have to bother paying them manually.
With all the exceptional features Venmo offers, you have no option to set recurring payments. You’ll have to pay it again manually if you make an online payment using your Venmo account or wallet.
Despite being a subsidiary of PayPal, the lack of recurring payments puts Venmo behind many other platforms. This is not a difficult feature to embed, but Venmo still doesn’t have such an option even after a decade.
Besides recurring payments, you cannot send money to other apps, including PayPal. Using Venmo, you can exclusively send money to banks and debit/credit cards but cannot make payments to virtual accounts like Payoneer, PayPal, Wise, or more.
The “Trust” Option on Venmo
The most troublesome part about Venmo is not the manual payments but waiting and receiving the authentication code. Sometimes, that code takes a lot of time, making users impatient.
Venmo made things easy by adding a trust option to add friends, family, or others to make payments without delay. This won’t activate the recurring payments, but you can send money without authorization.
Schedule Payments on Venmo
Schedule monthly payments or recurring payments feature is the same thing, and Venmo doesn’t allow any of them. There is no option for automatic recurring payments, even if you want to schedule them manually. You must open the app on the due date to make a payment. The worst part is that you can’t even schedule a time for the payment on the due date; it has to be done manually.
This could be a game-changing feature for Venmo, as many users have switched to other apps because of the automatic payment feature. Venmo recurring payments can bring back the users that are only left because of manually paying every time they have to pay for a subscription.
Payment Method on Venmo
Like any other virtual account, you can connect your bank account, credit card, or paypal account to Venmo for payments. Using Venmo, you can make online payments to any merchant, pay bills, make rent payments, or split expenses with your family and friends.
However, don’t expect Venmo for automated payments even after adding them to your trusted list. Venmo payment system won’t allow such a feature because of some practical issues. One of the issues was your bank or credit card declining the payment, causing it to become a red flag in the Venmo system.
What this does is it blocks and adds the particular bank or card to the blocklist. You’ll have to clarify it to Venmo support and remove it from there. So, to avoid such mishaps, Venmo didn’t introduce scheduling payments despite being active for over a decade.
How to Accept a Venmo Payment
Accepting payment is slightly different than sending it on Venmo, but it’s not difficult. You just need to attach a bank account, and like PayPal, you’ll receive money in your bank or your credit card.
If you send a payment, the platform deducts the money from your bank account and sends it. The opposite happens when you receive a payment; Venmo receives it and deposits it in your bank. The best part is zero delays; it all happens in seconds.
Here is how you can activate Venmo to receive payments.
- Open the Venmo app, sign in and tap on the three lines in the upper left corner.
- Among the options, choose “Payment Methods.” The bank account you add for payments can be the same for receiving. You can add two accounts, one for payments and one for receiving.
- Add your bank details and verify them before sending or receiving a payment. It’s not mandatory, but we highly recommend it.
- That’s it; once your bank account is added, all the received payments will automatically reflect in them.
Venmo Alternatives for Recurring Payments
If you have a business or use multiple tools requiring monthly payments, Venmo is not a suitable option. Here are some alternatives that allow recurring payments.
PayPal
Venmo is a subsidiary of PayPal, yet it has no recurring payments, while PayPal has such a feature. You can choose the “Recurring Payments” option from its settings, and on the due date, the payment will be automatically deducted from your bank account.
Google Pay
Google Pay is a simple, effective, and secure alternative to Venmo for automatic payments. However, you can only use your debit or credit card linked to your bank accounts for payments. Despite being safe, Google might cut random small money from your bank to check its status and return it after a while.
Apple Pay
Apple Pay is the best wallet for online payments with top-notch security. However, it is not available worldwide, making it suitable for US and UK residents. Apple Pay also requires a functional and supported credit or debit card; you can even use your iPhone to pay at local stores.
Zelle
This is an excellent option for sending money to other virtual accounts or apps. However, this app is only available in the USA as it requires an active US number to verify the account.
Final Words
Venmo is an excellent platform to send and receive payments, but you cannot set up recurring payments on it might make you think of other options like PayPal, Payoneer, or Apple Pay.
Paul Martinez is the founder of EcomSidekick.com. He is an expert in the areas of finance, real estate, eCommerce, traffic and conversion.
Join him on EcomSidekick.com to learn how to improve your financial life and excel in these areas. Before starting this media site, Paul built from scratch and managed two multi-million dollar companies. One in the real estate sector and one in the eCommerce sector.