Pros
- No monthly fee or contract
- No contract
- Accept in-person payments via QR code or Tap to Pay
- Accept Venmo payments on your website or POS
- Accept crypto payments
Cons
- Not a dedicated merchant account
- Only available in the US
- No credit card reader offered
- High eCommerce transaction fees
What Is Venmo For Business?
Venmo allows businesses to accept payments using the PayPal-owned peer-to-peer payments app.
While businesses can’t use Venmo to avoid credit card processing fees altogether, Venmo business fees are simple, and the brand is familiar to customers. You also won’t have to worry about the hidden fees, long-term contracts, and cancellation penalties that often come with a merchant account.
What Are Venmo Business Profiles?
Venmo Business Profiles allow you to make sales through your Venmo account. They also offer some sales and customer analytics information for your business transactions. Additionally, the service has a social function, providing you with some free advertising for your business to friends of your customers, who will see those transactions in their feeds.
How To Make A Venmo Business Profile
Creating a Venmo Business Profile for in-person transactions is about as simple as it gets. Just open the Venmo app on your smartphone or tablet and follow these steps:
- Select the Venmo app’s main menu (☰)
- Choose the Business Profile option
- Follow the steps provided and enter the appropriate information about your business
That’s it! The entire process can be completed in just a few minutes, after which you can begin accepting payments from your customers.
Can You Have Venmo Personal & Business Accounts?
A Venmo Business Profile allows you to separate business and personal transactions within your Venmo account. Venmo strongly discourages using personal transactions for business reasons. Therefore, if you’re going to be using Venmo frequently for that purpose, you don’t want to risk having your account frozen or running into problems with the IRS. You can toggle between the two accounts after you’ve created them.
To create a Venmo Business Profile, you’ll need to be a US resident and have a Venmo personal account. You’ll also need to be incorporated as a sole proprietor to add a Business Profile to your personal Venmo account. Note that partnerships, LLCs, corporations, etc., can still use Venmo, but they’ll need to establish a separate Venmo business account.
Venmo Business Account Payment & Bank Transfer Limits
There are some limitations for Venmo business accounts when it comes to how much money you can send, receive, or transfer to your bank account.
Purchases have the following limits:
- $25,000 per week ($2,499.99 without identity verification)
- $2,999.99 per single transaction
Transfers to your personal bank account have the following limits:
- Up to $49,999.99 per week ($999.99 without identity verification)
- Up to $50,000 for instant transfers to bank account ($10,000 to debit card)
Venmo Products & Services
Venmo has an increasing number of features for merchants to accept payments, but you will not get as comprehensive of a feature set as you would get with a full-service merchant account. (Rather than giving users their own dedicated merchant account, Venmo uses an aggregated merchant account model, as is common with payment service providers.)
Some notable features businesses will get with Venmo include in-person payments via Tap to Pay, distanced payments with QR code or payment link, a recurring billing feature, and the ability to accept eCommerce payments by integrating a Venmo checkout into your website or app. Businesses can even accept crypto payments using Venmo.
Venmo also offers business users the option of instant transfers to your debit card or bank account (for a fee).
Venmo Business Account Features Overview
Venmo For Business Features |
Availability |
Dedicated Merchant Account |
|
PCI Compliance |
|
High-Risk Accounts |
|
International Accounts |
|
Contactless Payments |
|
ACH Processing |
|
Digital Wallet Acceptance |
|
EBT Acceptance |
|
Virtual Terminal |
|
Mobile POS Reader & App |
|
Hosted Online Store |
|
Payment Links |
|
Payment Gateway Integrations |
|
Shopping Cart Integrations |
|
POS Integrations |
|
BNPL Integrations |
|
API Documentation |
|
Currency Conversion |
|
Recurring Billing |
|
Invoicing |
|
Cash Discount Program |
|
Cryptocurrency Processing |
|
Venmo Business Payment Methods
Overall, Venmo’s business payment features are not quite as in-depth as those offered by Square, PayPal, and other mobile POS systems. For example, Venmo does not offer a mobile credit card reader or virtual terminal like Square or PayPal does. However, you can accept Venmo on various third-party POS systems, including PayPal Zettle, Toast, and Clover.
Accepting In-Person Payments With Venmo
There are a few ways to initiate an in-person payment. You can:
- Request a payment from the customer through the app
- Have the customer look up your account
- Have the customer scan a QR code associated with your account
- Have the customer pay with Tap to Pay
Of the four options, Tap to Pay—which lets you accept contactless credit cards, Apple Pay, and other digital wallets using NFC technology—is probably the quickest. However, Venmo QR code payments have lower fees. These payments are generally drawn directly from the customer’s linked bank account rather than a credit card, so Venmo doesn’t have to pay interchange fees on those transactions.
To facilitate easy QR code payments, Venmo offers a free QR code kit that includes:
- A set of five stickers with your QR code on them
- A wallet card with QR code plus a lanyard
- A 2″ x 4″ x 6″ QR-code tabletop display with stand
Your customers can scan these with their mobile devices to initiate a payment. You can also send your QR code by text or email, or display it on your POS (if you use a POS that supports Venmo, like Toast).
Accepting Venmo Payments Online
If you use the PayPal, Shopify, or Braintree gateway, you can integrate a Venmo button into the online checkout of your website or mobile app.
Fees & Rates
Unlike personal accounts, Venmo business accounts have transaction fees, which vary depending on the type of transaction. However, there is no monthly fee, and fees for payments initiated from your customer’s Venmo app are quite competitive.
Venmo Business Pricing Overview
Item | Value | Pricing Range | $0 |
Account Setup Fee | $0 |
Contract Length | Month-to-month |
Processing Model | Flat-rate |
Card-present Transaction Fee | 1.9% + $0.10 for QR code payments; 2.29% + $0.09 for Tap to Pay |
eCommerce Transaction Fee | 3.49% + $0.49 to accept Venmo payments on your website |
Equipment Cost | $0 |
Extra Costs
Note that Tap to Pay transactions you accept with your iPhone or Android are processed at a higher rate than transactions made from your customer’s Venmo app. The fee to accept Venmo payments on your website is even higher.
So why wouldn’t you just use your personal account for business transactions so you don’t have to pay processing fees? For one, it violates your terms of usage and could result in having your account suspended. For another, the IRS has started cracking down on peer-to-peer app transfers used for tax evasion.
Sales & Advertising Transparency
Venmo is quite clear and transparent on its website, so it’s not difficult to find the information you need, pricing or otherwise. And Venmo doesn’t need use aggressive sales tactics because the brand is so well known. Virtually all merchants know what Venmo is, and they either want to accept it, or they don’t!
Contract Length & Early Termination Fee
Venmo has no long-term contract and no early termination fee. Contracts are month-to-month and you can stop using the service at any time.
Customer Service & Technical Support
Venmo does surprisingly well on the customer service front. You can call in for phone support from 9 AM to 5 PM Central Time, Monday through Friday. Venmo also allows you to access live chat or email support within the app. These online support options are available 24 hours/day, Monday through Friday, and from 8 AM to 10 PM Central Time on Saturdays and Sundays. This is pretty awesome, considering that Square’s competing product, Cash App, doesn’t offer live chat or phone support.
Venmo Customer Support Channels
Venmo For Business Customer Service |
Availability |
Phone Support |
|
Email Support |
|
Support Tickets |
|
Live Chat |
|
Dedicated Support Representative |
|
Knowledge Base or Help Center |
|
Videos & Tutorials |
|
Company Blog |
|
Social Media |
|
While you can handle some security-related tasks yourself, you can also reach out to support to report suspicious transactions on your account or to get help with a lost phone. Venmo’s online help center has plenty of information to explain what you need to do in these circumstances, and it’s easy to find that information. It also has tons of helpful information about all of the other aspects of using Venmo. In fact, Venmo’s help center is more functional than PayPal’s knowledgebase.
User Reviews
Venmo is not accredited by the BBB and is currently unrated. The company has received 5,124 complaints over the last three years, with 1,694 of those complaints coming in within the previous twelve months. While this may seem like a very high complaint level, it’s actually relatively low considering that the company has a user base of over 83 million people. Representatives from Venmo respond to every complaint, offering remarkably extensive explanations for what went wrong.
Negative Reviews & Complaints
We should note that the vast majority of complaints about Venmo from merchants involve held or frozen transactions, something the company is well within its rights to do if fraud is suspected or a violation of its User Agreement has occurred. Many of these complaints involve customers who didn’t validate their accounts before attempting to send large amounts of money, often exceeding transaction limits that are clearly spelled out on Venmo’s website.
While Venmo has disclaimers in its terms of use that specify that transactions are reviewed and may be subject to holds or even outright reversals, very few customers will read the fine print before using the service.
Positive Reviews & Testimonials
Venmo has a great rating in the app stores — 4.1 out of 5 stars over more than 800,000 reviews in Google Play and 4.9 out of 5 stars on more than 14.5 million reviews in Apple’s App Store. Customers who have had bad experiences tend to be very loud, and those complaints are generally easy to find on the internet. However, most users seem to be really happy with Venmo.
Final Verdict: Should You Use Venmo At Your Business?
Here are some pros and cons of using Venmo for your sales:
Cons
- You’re responsible for sales tax
- Limited reporting and customer management tools
- Higher fees for Tap to Pay and online payments
- Transaction limits may be an issue for high-volume businesses
For most merchants, deciding whether to take payments through Venmo will depend on the nature of your business. Venmo Business Profiles work great for sole proprietors, including freelancers and other independent contractors. Larger businesses can also use Venmo effectively, but you should be aware of the transaction size and volume limits before relying too heavily on this payment method.
In any event, Venmo For Business is a solid option for some business use and can be a great way to add alternative payment methods to your online checkout or your brick-and-mortar business. However, it should only be used as a secondary payment method for in-person sales, as you’ll still want to be able to accept traditional credit and debit cards as well.
If you need more comprehensive merchant account services than what Venmo can offer, check out our top credit card processing companies for small businesses.
Credit Card Processor Review Methodology
We evaluate and test each payment processor that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing special emphasis on certain key characteristics in order to generate our granular ratings for merchant accounts and credit card processors.
Weighted Rating Breakdown
Fees & Rates 35%
Contract 20%
Products & Services 15%
Sales & Advertising Transparency 15%
Customer Service 10%
User Reviews 5%
For payment processing reviews, we use a 24-point rubric to evaluate the provider. First, we look at pricing structure – interchange plus, subscription-based, tiered, or hybrid – giving the most points to providers that provide fair, transparent pricing and docking those that rely on tiered models. Then we examine rates, the presence and transparency of early termination fees, and any additional fees.
We also look at contract length and fairness and test out sales staff and customer service channels ourselves to ensure that the company uses reputable, above-the-board sales techniques. Finally, we take the company’s online reputation into account, reading customer reviews and comments.
Read more about how we rate payment processors.
To learn more about how we score our reviews, see our