All about Venmo in New Zealand

Venmo by PayPal is a mobile payment app for sending and receiving money with friends and family. Like other similar apps, it’s designed to be easy, convenient and fast.

So, you can use Venmo whenever you need to split a restaurant bill four ways, pay back some cash you borrowed from a friend or get your share of the bills from your flatmate – all without the fuss, fees and delays of using a bank.

Of course, Venmo isn’t the only money transfer app out there, and it’s not available everywhere. Here, we’ll take a look at whether you can use Venmo if you live, study, work or travel in New Zealand, along with alternative apps on the market.

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What is Venmo?

Venmo is a service by PayPal – think of it as the mobile-friendly relative of the PayPal service you may be familiar with. It’s a peer-to-peer app for requesting, sending and receiving digital payments. ¹

As well as letting you pay friends and family quickly and securely, Venmo also has a fun messaging interface. This doesn’t affect the money transfer service, but it does mean you can send a thank you emoji to your sister when she whizzes over some birthday money.

To use Venmo, you’ll need to create an account using your email address, credit or debit card and a bank account (for withdrawing funds).

Then, it’s as simple as entering the recipient’s phone number, email or username to send them some money – or to request a payment. Crucially, you can only send to other Venmo users.

So is Venmo available in New Zealand?

Sadly, Venmo is only available in the US. You must actually be in the US, with a US mobile number and US bank account for withdrawals, if you want to use the app.³

This unfortunately means that you can’t use Venmo in New Zealand at the moment, although that may change in the future.

Venmo Fees

Many Venmo transfers are free, along with cashouts to your bank account but charges do apply in certain circumstances. For example, you’ll be charged 3% per transaction if you fund the payment with a linked credit card.²

Another handy feature of Venmo for some users is a linked Mastercard debit card. This isn’t available for everyone, but for those who are eligible it means they can spend their Venmo balance on purchases as long as the vendor accepts Mastercard.²

Alternatives to Venmo in New Zealand?

Venmo in NZ isn’t currently an option for making quick and easy money transfers, but don’t worry. There is a whole heap of alternative apps that offer similar services, but are actually available in New Zealand.

Here’s a quick rundown of the main options available for local and international transfers:

Wise

Get a Wise multi-currency account and you can send money to over 50 countries worldwide. You can do it all on the Wise app, just like with Venmo. Plus, you can hold, convert and spend over 40 currencies in your account.

Using Wise to send money internationally guarantees you the real, mid-market exchange rate, without any costly mark-up applied. Fees are low and transparent, and you can even get a linked debit Mastercard.

Like Venmo, Wise is much easier, more convenient and cheaper than using a bank.

TorFX

TorFX works just like Venmo, letting you send and receive money quickly and easily using just the app. You can send in over 60 global currencies, and although exchange rates are competitive – they aren’t unbeatable. You can track your transfer in real-time on the app.

One thing to watch out for though is that TorFX has minimum transfer restrictions. The specialise in recurrent transfers from between 500 to 10,000 GBP, though they go as low as 100 GBP if you use their online platform. So it may not be the best app for sending small sums between friends and families.⁴

PayPal

You may not be able to use PayPal’s Venmo in NZ, but you can still use ordinary PayPal services. It’s a quick, reliable and secure way to send and receive money for all kinds of things, whether it’s chipping in for a meal or getting paid for freelance work.

But keep a close eye on the fees – PayPal doesn’t use the mid-market exchange rate and there are a number of charges to watch out for. This can make your transfer cost more than you’d expect.⁵

Wrapping up

Venmo may not be available in New Zealand yet, but this doesn’t mean you have to put up with the slow speeds and high costs of using your bank. It’s great to know there are great alternatives available, like Wise. You can send and receive internationally with just a few taps on your phone – it’s how all money transfers should be done.

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