My Venmo payments to my kids show up on line in the transactions for my bank account within 24 hours of when the payment was made and it always is for the full amount of the payment. My DD never cashes out any of the payment I make to her. It is how she manages her entertainment budget.
When you make a payment Venmo does provide an estimated for when the monies are available to the recipient. I have never really noted that, but do watch for when the money is removed from my account.
The Venmo site indicates that they “review account and transaction activity” when you initiate a payment. There are a number of actions that may occur if they suspect illegal activity.
@twoinanddone – with Wells Fargo I had to specifically opt out of overdraft protection. Had to sign a form; remind them it “fell off” the account and he got charged. Their default for the account I set up was to have overdraft protection.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding the situation but how is any of this venmo’s fault rather than the responsibility of the user to know that they don’t have any money in their account? I don’t understand what reason there is to “beware” of a service that is only doing what you tell it to do.
@rebeccar the issue is that the bank put through a venmo charge when the bank was instructed to decline transactions if there wasn’t enough money in the account to cover it. More a bank issue, I agree.
Oh I see, so the bank wasn’t supposed to authorize money coming out of that account, but venmo was kind of a loophole to that. Okay. Still doesn’t seem like a reason to blame or delete venmo. I’d probably just think “d’oh” and make sure my accounts always had some money in it. Venmo has been nothing but a wonderful addition to my life.
And apparently Zelle creates the same problem–like Venmo, they can venmo/zelle money they don’t have, then it shows up as an overdraft in the bank account. With accompanying fee, at our bank $36 per transaction…
Overdraft protection made some sense in the days when you couldn’t check how much money was in your account from wherever you were in literally one minute. There should be no need for it now.
If you opt out of overdraft fees, my bank (a credit union) doesn’t charge a bounced check fee. My daughter did it several times, usually when she paid for something at a restaurant and they rang the amount, and later increased it to add a tip. The transaction was already approved so the bank let it go through. If the bank rejects it, the person you wrote a check to may charge a fee, but they have to have given you a notice that they will. Usually there is a sign in a store or a notice on a contract (credit card bill, lease, ebay page).
When dealing with Venmo, I found out today that when a debit card is used against insufficient funds, the [Venmo] transaction is automatically declined by the bank (as it is supposed to be). HOWEVER, after 3 attempts, Venmo will convert their payment request to an ACH debit (pulls the money out of the account, using the debit card transaction as the holder’s authorization). The banks have no way to block this transaction and Venmo is allowed to come in and pull funds that are not there and consequently lead to the overdraft. No way to solve this according to the bank (multiple hours of phone time until they realized what happened), other than taking the card and account away. OR complain to Venmo.
I know this is an old thread but this is something EVERYONE needs to know. If your Venmo card is tied to your debit card and a transfer caused an overdraft at your bank AND you opted out of OD coverage, the bank CANNOT charge a fee. The opt out rule is a federal regulation - Regulation E 12 CFR 1005. This provision of the regulation applies to one time (POS) debit card and ATM transactions. Give the kid a break people, VERY few consumers know what order transactions will post and when! Banks like WF will post large items first and then small, which in turn means a $35 fee for more small dollar transactions. Example - you have $100 in your account, you have a $75 ACH and 10 small debit card transaction where 1 or 2 might put you OD by lets say $15.00. The card transactions were approved before the $75 hits. A hold is placed on the account for all pending DB card transactions so when the $75 hits, the bank looks at the available and even though the DB card transactions haven’t “hard” posted yet, the acct is considered OD by $15 so that is one $35 fee. Now the DB trans post and the $75 + $35 overdrew the acct so now they charge $350 OD fees for the 10 card transactions and it snowballs!! But, if you opted out the 10 fees are illegal. The bank is liable for EVERYTHING going forward (I.e., ODs, fees, returned items, etc) that was caused by the $350 charges. NO statute of limitation on these claims but call them ASAP because when you read this, this is the date you became “aware”! They will fight and try to say you waited too long. Very common violation with all banks. If they fight, write a letter to them in the form of a complaint AND file the same with the banks regulator. For WF it is the CFPB. You will get your money back. That said, if the Venmo card was not tied to debit card, all bets are off. Given the poster mentioned opting out, I presume it is all debit card. Good luck!! Be prepared, look at Reg E and get a copy of their Electronic Funds Transfer disclosure. That will explain everything I’ve described so point it out to them as it is also a binding contract in addition to FEDERAL LAW they MUST comply with!