PayPal-owned payment app Venmo is a popular service for sending money between friends, as well as paying small business owners for services or even buying things on Amazon. But unlike a credit card statement that only you can see, your Venmo transaction history is visible to pretty much anyone by default.
We’re here to help you find the controls on Venmo’s privacy so you’ll know how to make Venmo payments private, how to block specific users or remove friends who pester you for money, ensure that others who have access to your phone can’t use Venmo, and other helpful tricks. .
How to hide Venmo payments
1. On the Venmo app, tap I tab, then File Gear icon settings at the top right.
2. Under Preferences, click Privacy.
3. Your change default privacy settings to generalAnd friendsor private.
Choosing one of the last two options ensures that everything future Payments can only be seen by the sender and recipient, or by your friends on Venmo as well.
this no It applies retroactively to previous purchases. If you want to change all previous payments globally to private or to friends only, you will find this option in Privacy > Previous Transactions Right under the default privacy settings.
If you want to hide specific Instead, go back to I tab, then select File transactions section under your profile picture.
A must have for any public payments Earth symbol; Tap on this payment, then tap on generic symbol under Details of the transaction. You can change its visibility there.
How to stop Venmo users from seeing you
Let’s say someone spams you with Venmo payment requests, or sends you money you don’t want. The best way to make sure this doesn’t happen anymore is to block them, which should only take a moment.
1. Either find the person’s name in the home feed or use search barthen select their name to be taken to their profile page.
2. First, if you are friends with them, click friends button to remove as a friend.
3. Then click cutting symbol at the top right.
4. Press roadblock.
5. Go to Settings > Privacy > Blocked Users to make sure their names appear there.
As a side note, you may also want to make sure that strangers can’t see your Venmo friends list either. In this case, click Friends List In the privacy settings and change it so that it is only visible to other friends, or only to you.
One final point: While you can decline payment requests, you cannot decline unwanted funds once they are sent to your account. After you block someone sending you that money, your only recourse to cancel your Venmo payment is to contact Venmo Support (Opens in a new tab); They specifically say “we can help you reverse this payment” on their help page.
Protect your Venmo account with a PIN, fingerprint, or Face ID
If someone grabs your unlocked phone while you’re in the shower, they can access your Venmo and send themselves a lot of money before you finish washing your hands. Fortunately, Venmo allows you to authenticate your identity before making a transaction.
Under Settings > Preferences, you will find either PIN code and biometric unlock on Android or Face ID and PIN on iOS. Click on it, then turn it on. You will be prompted to create a new PIN, which can be different from your phone’s PIN.
Then, if you have a fingerprint associated with your Android phone or Face ID associated with your iPhone, you can enable that as a login option as well.
One important point: Venmo will pull your phone’s fingerprints or facial scan on file, so a spouse or child can easily access Venmo if you give them access. With a dedicated PIN only, you’re just making sure You Your Venmo is accessible.
We have Venmo on our list of the best Android apps for financial management tools, and these Venmo privacy tools are part of the reason: You can easily pay your friends while keeping those payments relatively invisible. It’s just that most people who signed up for Venmo years ago probably never noticed that these options were available!
Now that you can use Venmo for Amazon payments as well as P2P transactions and charitable donations — and even cryptocurrency payments, if that’s your thing — it’s a good idea to make those privacy changes now.