With much reluctance I downloaded the Venmo payment app 8 months ago, added my credit card and successfully used it to pay a few people (i.e. for an online musical performance, that sort of thing). A few months ago it stopped working and I’d get a message suggesting I try again later. I did, many times, and it doesn’t work. I added a second credit card on from a different bank. No go.
Yesterday i submitted a service request and the response, to paraphrase, was “Sorry, sometimes this happens. We aren’t allowed to tell you why. Try PayPal (the parent company) instead.”*
What are the possible reasons it stopped working. My credit and these credit cards are “fine.”
Two possibilities come to mind. One is they think something shady is going on, the other is there is some sort of circumstance about your account that won’t allow them to make money from you.
Since they won’t tell you anything if you’re still determined I would try with a different account; different email address and yet another credit card. Or you could try working you way up the support ladder and asking for supervisors until one will give you a clue.
I don’t use it alot. Primarily to pay an individual that I owe money to, like they picked up the tab and I want to reimburse them for the drinks I had. I probably use it a couple times per year. I’ve also used ApplePay and Paypal, for the same purposes, and just as rarely. I usually inquire how the recipient wants to be paid and go that route.
I worked a cub scout fundraising sale for 2 years that processed hundreds of Venmo transactions and I do not recall it ever failing to process.
It may be less reliable than credit card transactions that have had decades to get the bugs out of their system, but as far as I can tell, not terribly so.
I use Venmo quite a bit. I have never had a problem. It’s a pretty easy way to pay friends back for things and the app is a slight bit easier to use than Paypal, for instance.