Personal Finance Money transfer

How long does Venmo take?

Fernando Figueiredo

30.04.21 (updated more than 1 year ago)

Read time 3 minutes

Venmo is a well known service for online money transfers. Run by PayPal, people use it for all kinds of things, from rent and utilities payments to splitting restaurant bills - it lets you pay your contacts (or some businesses), as long as they have a Venmo account¹.

By connecting directly to your bank account or to a credit or debit card, you have no fees unless the money you send is from your credit card, in which case the fee is 3%².

But how long does Venmo take? Can you speed the process up? And what are your alternatives? In this article, you’ll have a read on all that - and you’ll see how Wise can help you with its fast and cheap international money transfers.

Save time and money with Wise

How long does Venmo take?

There are several stages to the process with Venmo, so it’s important to know which step we’re talking about. When you send money via Venmo, it initially goes to the recipient’s Venmo account – not to their actual bank account. That should happen quickly.

If the recipient wants, they can leave the money received in their Venmo account, and use it for any future Venmo payments. But if they want to have the money in a bank account, they’ll need to make a bank transfer out of Venmo. And that generally takes 1-3 business days.³

Or, for a fee, there’s an Instant Transfer option that’s quicker.³

How long does Venmo take to transfer to a bank?

Though this usually takes 1-3 business days, we can check it with more detail. Venmo makes it clear that the precise amount of time the transfer takes depends on exactly when the transfer is initiated.

Weekday transfers before 7pm Eastern Time may arrive the next business day or up to 3 business days later.
Weekday transfers after 7pm Eastern Time will only be initiated the following business day, so the soonest is 2 days later.
Weekend transfers have to wait until Monday, so the soonest they’ll arrive is Tuesday.
Bank holidays take an extra business day.³

How come they may take several days? The short answer is, they use ACH payments, which are a very reliable and stable method, but often need some days to complete their transactions.³

What about Venmo Instant Transfers?

If you need your money sooner than within 1-3 business days, a Venmo Instant Transfer can help you out.

Despite the name, an Instant Transfer can generally take up to 30 minutes. It’s not done via ACH, so is less dependent on the day and time when you make the transfer.⁴

The fee for an Instant Transfer is 1%, but there are limits on that – the minimum fee is $0.25 and the max is $10.⁴

What if the transfer doesn’t get there?

In rare cases, something might go wrong with a Venmo bank transfer. You may need to reach out to Venmo to resolve the problem, but it’s possible that the reason is one of the following:

You’ve accidentally provided the wrong bank details. If there’s a problem with the bank details provided, you should get an email from Venmo about why your details are “Invalid.”⁵
A bank transfer may also be invalid if your bank account has restrictions on receiving ACH transactions, in which case you’ll need to talk to your bank.⁵
Another possibility is that Venmo is reviewing your transfer, which it does from time to time. This could cause delays or even cancelations. If that happens, Venmo might ask you to provide some additional information.⁶

Save your time and money - meet Wise.

Venmo is hugely popular, but it isn’t the only show in town. Also, it still doesn't alllow you to send money abroad⁷.

If you want to send cheap and quick online transfers, Wise can help you out. You can send and receive money directly between your Wise profile and a bank account. And the best of all - you can also do this internationally, without hidden costs on exchange rates nor any Swift fees.

See how the times and prices would look like for the following examples:

	Transfer $500 from Wise to a USD bank account	Transfer $500 from Wise to a GBP bank account
Time	Usually up to 1 working day	In seconds
Fees	$1.05	$2.09

Wise: save your money and time 🚀

Sources (last checked on 19 April 2021):

Venmo Incomplete Payment to a Phone Number or Email Address
Venmo start
Venmo Help Center Bank Transfer Timeline
Venmo Help Center Instant Transfers FAQ
Venmo Help Center Invalid Bank Account
Venmo Help Center Reviews of Transfers Into and Out of Venmo
Venmo Help Center General Business & Partnership Inquiries

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This publication is provided for general information purposes and does not constitute legal, tax or other professional advice from Wise Payments Limited or its subsidiaries and its affiliates, and it is not intended as a substitute for obtaining advice from a financial advisor or any other professional.

We make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether expressed or implied, that the content in the publication is accurate, complete or up to date.