How to Tell if Someone Has a Venmo Account

When it comes to peer-to-peer transactions, Venmo is becoming a very popular payment processor. If you use the app frequently, it comes in handy to know if other people have it too – especially when you plan on transferring some funds to them.

In this article, we’ll explain how you can tell if someone has a Venmo account.

A Simple Search

A really easy way to see if one of your friends has Venmo is to use the Search option in the app. All you need to do is open the Menu (the icon with three bars), go to Search People, and enter the name of the person you’re searching for. If they appear in the search results, that means they have a Venmo account.

Make sure to take a good look at the picture and check their name just to confirm. If you found the person you’re looking for, you can add them as a friend on Venmo or proceed to make the intended payment.

The Obvious Merchants

Maybe you’d like to buy something from an online store and you want to use Venmo as means of payment. Finding out if the merchant has that option is even more straightforward than searching for friends on the app. Whether you’re visiting the store from your mobile browser or shopping from an app, if you’re dealing with a Venmo authorized merchant you’ll see a button with the option to pay through Venmo.

If there’s no such button, there might be a PayPal one. Tap on it, and the Venmo payment option should appear on the checkout. Note that, in order to see the Venmo button, you need to have Venmo currently installed on the device you’re browsing from. Also, make sure you didn’t set up PayPal One Touch, since that function is specifically made for quick-and-easy checkouts and will automatically proceed to payment via PayPal.

However you approach the search, the answer is quite obvious: if there’s a Venmo button, the merchant has Venmo.

Don’t Just Search

A good alternative to manual searching for friends with Venmo is to let the app find them and add them to your list. This can be done by allowing Venmo to access contacts on your phone. First time you download the app and sign up, Venmo will ask for that permission. Grant it, and it will access your phonebook, find friends who already have Venmo and add them to your friend list. As a bonus, you’ll also be automatically added to their lists.

If on your first install you’ve denied Venmo this option and would like to change your decision, here’s how to do that:

On Android devices: Go to Settings, then to Apps and Permissions. Find Venmo and tap Permissions to see the list of everything the app can access. From here, enable Contacts – and that’s it!

On iOS: Launch the Settings app, then scroll down until you find Venmo. Tap on it, toggle Contacts – and the job’s done!

If you decide to grant Venmo access to your contacts, it’s good to know what actual information the app will take. As covered in their privacy policy, Venmo will get access to names, phone numbers, and email addresses of your contacts.

Don’t Just Use the Phonebook

Another way to find and add friends to Venmo is to choose Connect Facebook from the app. This will help you search for contacts and invite them to Venmo. Those that already use Venmo will, just like with the phonebook method, be added automatically.

When it comes to sharing information, if you connect Venmo with Facebook it will have access to your email address, friend list, profile picture, public profile, and birthday. Of course, sharing this information and the way it’ll be used is also covered in Venmo’s privacy policy.

Don’t Just Give Permissions

In addition to everything stated above, you might happen to be right next to the person you’d like to make a payment to. In that case, of course, you can find out if they use Venmo simply by asking – fairly obvious. But what you might not be aware of is that you can also add them in Venmo using their QR Code.

To do this, both of you will have to tap the Scan button in the bottom of the screen. If there’s no button, use the Scan Code option under Menu (the three lines icon). Once the new screen is open, you should remain on the Scan tab while your friend should tap on My Code. Use your camera to capture their QR Code, but note that there’s no need to actually take a photo – the scanner will automatically recognize the code.

After that, you’ll be taken to their Venmo profile page. From there, you can add them as a friend and send or request payments – no searching or social networking involved!

Do More with Friends

With an app like Venmo that, besides transactions, acts as a social network, you’ll want to keep all your friends in one place. Now that we’ve shown you all methods to tell if someone has Venmo, along with ways to find and add friends, your friend list will become easier to maintain and manage.

Did you wonder whether a friend or an online shop has Venmo? How did you find out if they did? Tell us in the comments section below!