10 Venmo Life Hacks Every User Should Know
Venmo is one of the most popular peer-to-peer payment platforms, used for everything from splitting bills to making purchases from merchants of all sizes. The app has a number of built-in features that simplify expense management, fundraising, and ensure your privacy and money security, but they aren’t always obvious. Here are 10 tips and tricks to help you get the most out of Venmo.
Make your friends list private to protect your account from scammers.
By default, Venmo makes your friends list public, meaning it’s visible to any Venmo user. Scammers can exploit this by impersonating people you know—using their name, profile picture, and similar usernames—and tricking you into sending money to fake accounts. To hide this list, go to Me > Settings > Privacy > Friends List and tap “Private.” You can also hide your profile from other users using the toggle on the same screen.
Update your privacy settings to hide both future and past transactions.
Hopefully, your Venmo transactions are already set to private, so no one can see who you paid, how much, or for what purpose. If not, this is the first thing you should update. Go to Me > Settings > Privacy and change the default setting to “Private” —payments will be visible only to you and the sender or recipient. Note that this doesn’t hide transactions made before this point. To do this, go to Me > Settings > Privacy > Past Transactions and select “Change All to Private.”
Make your account searchable in PayPal to enable payments across platforms.
If you need to send or receive a payment from or to someone who isn’t registered with Venmo, you can still do so—as long as they have PayPal. Venmo and PayPal users can now find and pay each other’s bills across platforms simply by searching for their email or phone number. If you need to use this connection, enable PayPal visibility in Me > Settings > Privacy > Find Me and toggle the switch next to “In PayPal.”
Enable biometric lock at the app level to prevent other people from sending payments.
If you ever hand your phone to someone else to make a call or look something up, you probably don’t want them to have open access to your financial apps. At a minimum, your Venmo transactions should remain private; you also don’t want to risk someone transferring funds from your account to themselves. For added security, enable app-level biometric authentication. Go to Me > Settings > Login & Security and enable the appropriate biometric lock. Alternatively, you can add a passcode.
Set up recurring payments to avoid bothering family and friends.
If you share recurring expenses with family and friends—like rent, utilities, or streaming subscriptions—you can schedule automatic Venmo payments when those bills are due. This way, you don’t have to remember to manually request payments every week or month, and you don’t have to remind people to pay. When creating a payment request, click “Schedule,” select the frequency and duration, and then click “Save.”
Use Venmo Groups to manage shared spending so one person doesn’t have to be responsible for everything.
Alternatively, Venmo Groups allow multiple people—up to 30—to record, track, and share expenses, whether they’re recurring payments split between several roommates or multiple transactions related to a one-time event or vacation. Anyone can add an expense to the group, and Venmo will split the total amount equally among each member (though this can be manually edited if someone owes more or less). Go to “Me” > “Create Group” > “Get Started ,” then enter a group name and emoji. You can then invite others to join.
Split payments with trusted sellers to instantly submit group purchase requests.
If you want to split a one-time expense with others, such as concert tickets or takeout, you can use Venmo’s “Split” feature, which is built right into every transaction. Instead of calculating, creating, and sending separate payment requests, Venmo lets you split the total amount between one or more users and define individual amounts for each request. Note that this option is available when using Venmo at checkout with certain merchants (such as Ticketmaster and Uber). Go to Me > Transactions , select the purchase, and tap “Split.” Follow the prompts to select users, set split amounts, and enter notes. Then tap “View Requests” > “Send Requests.”
Set up custom QR codes to collect payments from large groups.
Every Venmo user has a personalized QR code that directs others directly to your profile to send or request money. This eliminates the need to search for specific accounts. If you have a Venmo business account, you can set up price-based QR codes that automatically fill in the transaction amount, making it easy for customers to pay the correct amount. This is especially useful if you’re collecting entry fees, donations, or selling a specific item at a large event. To generate a price-based QR code, go to Withdraw > QR Code > Venmo me > $ and enter the dollar amount. Then tap Set Amount .
Set up automatic deposits to protect your primary checking account.
While you might be comfortable sharing your basic banking information in some cases—for example, with your employer for payday—you probably don’t want to give out your account numbers to just anyone. Instead, you can use your Venmo account to receive direct deposits, so if your information is compromised, bad actors won’t be able to access your external funds. (I used this to receive payouts that required direct deposit, for example.) You’ll receive a routing number and account number, and the funds will be available in your Venmo balance, which you can later transfer to your regular account if you choose. Go to Me > Settings > Direct Deposit > Set Up Direct Deposit .
Link Venmo to a backup checking account to protect against fund theft.
Another way to protect your primary bank account is to open a secondary checking account linked to Venmo. Keep it minimally funded and transfer only what you need to complete transactions from your primary account (these accounts should be with the same bank so that funds can arrive immediately in case of an unexpected purchase). This creates a buffer between your Venmo account and your bank, so if someone gains access to your device or Venmo account, they won’t be able to make large payments. It also adds an extra step to the payment process, which will help you slow down the process and identify fraudulent requests before you become a victim.