P2P payment solutions have become popular in recent years due to their convenience. You can make direct payments to persons, businesses, merchants, etc., without having to share the private details of your bank account.
Paypal, Samsung Pay, Zelle, Cash App, Venmo, etc., are popular P2P payment solutions that target businesses, end consumers, and different industries.
The trend of using P2P payment solutions has increased to an extent where 84% of the consumers use P2P services, with at least half of them using it once a week at least. Venmo ranks among the top solution providers, with a customer base of over 70 million people, per data from 2021.
One of the common problems faced by many users is payment declination. The problems can also be enormous when there are many users.
However, the platform is always working to resolve the issues. And there can be many reasons for it.
In this article, we are going to talk about the most common reasons why Venmo declines your payments. We will also include the solutions for your convenience. So let’s get into it.
What Is Venmo?
As mentioned earlier, Venmo is a P2P payment solution with over 70 million users. However, we can explain it as a digital wallet that makes it easier to transfer money without disclosing your account details. All you need is your email address and password to start using your digital wallet.
Venmo allows you to send money to anyone and request payment from your friends, businesses, and any person.
Whether you want to split your lunch bill, share cab fare, or send rent to your roommate, Venmo is the right solution for it.
You can also make purchases from authorized merchants by capitalizing on Venmo Mastercard debit cards, authorized partner apps & websites, or in-store QR codes.
How To Use Venmo?
Venmo works like most digital wallets, where you need to link your Venmo account to a bank account. You can send or receive funds by tapping on “Pay or Request” and enter the username of the person you want to send or receive money from.
Also, add your phone number ad email. You can also use the QR-code scanning feature if the payer/payee is nearby.
You also need to specify the payment reason (memo) to proceed with the transaction. The payment from your Venmo account is deducted from your Venmo balance, debit/credit card, or bank account.
What Are Venmo Fees?
If we talk about Venmo fees, simple transactions from the Venmo wallet are free of charge. Besides, there are no monthly charges for using Venmo.
However, when you choose a credit card to pay for Venmo transactions, a fee of 3% is charged to the sender.
If you are using additional services of Venmo, an additional fee is charged. In the case of Instant Transfer, you have to pay an Instant Transfer Fee of 1.75% of the payment amount. The Instant Transfer is completed within 30 minutes of the transaction.
If you link your credit card to your Venmo account, you will pay an interest rate of 11.99% to 20.99%, depending on your credit rating.
If you utilize the Cash Advance facility, you have to bear a cost of $10 or 5% of the amount, whichever is greater.
Debit card charges of Venmo when withdrawing money from an ATM is $2.50 per transaction when a withdrawal is initiated at an out-of-network ATM. In the case of MoneyPass Network, no Atm fee is charged to the users.
Reasons Why Venmo Is Declining Your Payments( With Solutions)
Here are the common reasons why Venmo is declining your payment and how to resolve the issue in each case:
1. Card Issuer Decline
Besides using your Venmo balance to make transactions, the app also allows you to pay through your bank account when making a transaction.
The amount, in that case, is deducted directly from the sender’s bank account. However, you might see the popup saying Your bank or card issuer declined the payment directly.
This happens when your bank might block the transaction due to unusual activity or behavior in your account. Not having enough balance in your bank account or debit card might also trigger the card issuer’s decline message.
How to resolve the issue?
- You first have to contact your card issuer or bank to ask about the possible reasons for the decline and the resolution of the problem. It will take some time for the issue to get completely resolved.
- If you need to make a transaction urgently, you might opt to add a second payment method or link to another bank account to complete the transaction.
- If you have enough balance in your account, but your bank is not completing Venmo transactions, you might want to try another P2P payment method like PayPal, Cash App, etc.
2. Venmo’s Automated Security Flags
Sometimes, your payment might be declined by the Venmo app with a message saying, “The payment has triggered one of Venmo’s automated security flags.” The automated security flag raises when Venmo suspects a fraudulent transaction, identity theft, or hacking.
In such cases, Venmo will temporarily block the account of the customer.
You will receive an email from Venmo telling you why your account is frozen. You will have to wait until the teams of Venmo resolve the issue by confirming with your bank or card-issuing institution.
Venmo won’t process the transaction until confirmed with the customer, card issuer, and bank.
3. Not Enough Balance To Make Transaction
One of the obvious reasons you cannot make transactions via Venmo is the low balance of your Venmo wallet.
If you signed up for Venmo, it would not necessarily need you to link your bank account or debit card. You can make payments with funds you received from friends or colleagues from their Venmo accounts.
Therefore, a low balance of the Venmo account will fail the transaction.
The solution to this problem is simple. If you are out of funds, you can simply link your bank account or prepaid card to complete the transaction.
Yet another solution is to use your bank account and card without involving a Venmo account. In this way, you won’t have to transfer the balance to your Venmo account and pay the amount directly from your account.
If you had already linked your bank account or card with Venmo, but the payment was still declined, the reason is that you do not have enough funds to complete the transaction.
You must replenish your bank account and card to complete the payment.
4. Unverified Account
As a responsible company, they verify users’ information to ensure their platform’s safety. When creating your Venmo account, you must complete the verification process.
Venmo might not proceed with your payments if you have not verified your account. Therefore, the reasons are obvious if your payments declined and you had not verified your account. What do you need to do?
Complete your account verification process to transfer money or make payments to other users.
5. Payment Limits Reached
Venmo limits the number of transactions you can make in a week or month. You can transfer or send a certain amount of money from your account within a week or a month.
You can not send more than $299.99 per week if you have an unverified account. When you have verified your account, the amount limit increases to $60,000 per week.
Venmo also has daily limits on crypto purchases, ATM withdrawals, etc. Therefore, one of the possible reasons why you couldn’t make payment is the payment limit exhausted for your account.
What is the remedy for this problem?
Well, you will have to wait for a day if payment can’t complete due to the daily limit and for a week in case of weekly limit exhaustion.
If you have to make urgent payments, using other P2P payment solutions or direct payment via bank or card is a better option.
6. Too Many Login Attempts Locked Your Account
As mentioned earlier, Venmo makes sure that its platform is safe and secure for all users. Therefore, certain limitations and restrictions are put in place to protect accounts and avoid fraudulent transactions.
When you log in to your account, you have to enter a security PIN, and there is also an option of two-factor authorization.
If you have made a lot of failed attempts by entering the wrong pin or username, Venmo’s system will freeze your account temporarily. It is because the system perceives the login attempts as fraudulent ones.
If such a thing happens, you have to wait until the system restores your account in a few hours. If it doesn’t get back to normal, you must contact the Customer Support Team Venmo to unlock your account.
A safe way is always to remember your username and password to avoid such lockouts.
7. Technical Issues
Don’t panic to see the notification of ‘Venmo payment declined’ as it can be due to internet problems or technical errors at Venmo’s end.
While all the reasons we mentioned are related to individual errors or payment limitations, sometime the payment might decline due to technical issues.
If you are sure that your account has enough balance, your username & password are correct, and there is no other problem, check your internet connection.
Suppose the internet is working fine. Close and reopen the Venmo app to retry the transaction. If nothing seems to work, you can try contacting Customer Support to confirm if there is an issue at their end. For urgent payments, you can use your bank account or card.
Conclusion
We have discussed all the possible reasons why your Venmo account couldn’t process the transaction and what are the legitimate solutions to the problem. We hope this article will help you get through the problem while using your Venmo account.
