Venmo - SOLVED!

[presley]

You can't teach an old dog new tricks. I got used to using Paypal to sending money back and forth and then everyone switched to Venmo. I finally got Venmo set up on my phone, but I don't do any banking on my phone and I never will. So, I attached my AMEX to the Venmo and I pay a fee whenever I send money via Venmo, which I don't care about because it's rare when I do that.

I've had a couple people send me $ in Venmo and I thought it would use that money first when I go to pay someone else. It doesn't do that. I can't figure out how to use/access my cash in Venmo without attaching my bank to it. My daughter is a reverse engineer and says never do any banking on a phone. I do whatever she says since she's a security expert. Does anyone here use Venmo? Is there any way to use money that people send to me? When I click on send money, only my AMEX shows up as a choice of payment.

EDIT: Solved - needed to do identity verification due to the patriot act, which I completely forgot about.

 

[Snazzylass]

I used Venmo for years, and yes, I used my bank account. I mostly used it to pay son for our shared phone bill for the last ten years. I have a friend who used it to share traveling expenses. I got the impression from her that she was able to obtain a debit card from them to use the funds dropped into her account - sounds complicated!

I recently switched to an app called CASH and now use that to keep my phone bill account paid with Son1.

I'd recommend having a heart-2-heart with your daughter. I did read awhile back about why 2-step authentication should not be set up with your phone number ... but that seemed like crime against people who they knew had the funds and not random at all.

All major banks have mobile apps which are quite secure. Only Equifax didn't pay attention to a warning about 2 years ago. No bank would risk their reputation.

 

[presley]

I finally figured it out. I needed to do some personal verification due to the Patriot Act. I now have access to my Venmo balance to send the funds to other people.

@Snazzylass my daughter's issue isn't with bank security, it's with phone security. She's a reverse engineer in the security field. To her, it's very easy to break into anything online and lost/misplaced phones are a nightmare. Since I've had my identity stolen online before, I am extremely cautious.