Add Venmo as a payment method

[pazza83]

Venmo

Resources:

• Venmo Website
• Venmo Wiki
• Venmo help section
• Venmo T&Cs
• Bisq community thread about previous issues

Why

Venmo is a popular payment service owned by PayPal. It is allows users to transfer funds to other users.

Vemno was previously added to Bisq on around February 2018 and was discontinued in July 2018. It was suggested this could have been due to problems with the Bisq Trade ID. This is hopefully being addressed here bisq-network/bisq#2869

Therefore a number of Bisq users have suggested it be reconsidered for inclusion.

There were a healthy number of trades in its short time on Bisq so I think it would be a popular option for USD trades.

Region

Venmo is only available in the United States and only compatible with U.S. based bank accounts and phone numbers. You must also be able to send and receive SMS/text messages from short codes.

Required details are:

• Name
• Email
• Phone number
• Linked bank account
• Social Security Number
• ID Verification

Venmo - Identity Verification

Currencies

USD

Chargeback risk

The cancel payment section looks promising: https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/235171088-Cancel-Payment

Venmo Support cannot reverse a payment at the sender’s request.

But looking at the terms and conditions chargeback risk is higher than most payment methods. Due to a few of the familar Paypal buyer protection features:

See: Venmo User Agreement

Specifically sections on:

• Adding Money to and Transferring Money out of Your Venmo Account > Bank transfer reviews
• Refunds, Reversals and Chargebacks
• Restricted Activities
• Holds and Limitations

Size of user base

65 million active accounts

Data requirements

I am not entirely sure. It seems you can make payment to your contacts. They are added by phone number or email address.

They can also be added by Facebook or their Personal "Venmo Me" QR code

Verification

TLSNotary through web app.

Duration

1-3 business days.*

*Transfer speeds vary and could take up to 3 business days to complete. Transfers are reviewed which may result in delays or funds being frozen or removed from your Venmo account.

https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/221083888-Bank-Transfer-Timeline

Fees

$0 To sign up
$0 To send money*
$0 Monthly fees
1% Instant Transfers (with a minimum fee of $0.25 and a maximum fee of $10) I think this is to withdraw frunds to your own account.

*Venmo does not charge for sending money from a linked bank account, debit card, or your Venmo account. There is a 3% fee for sending money using a linked credit card.

More fee info

Fraud risk

Lots of documentation regarding scams, frozen accounts, chargebacks etc:

• Payment in review
• Temporarily Frozen Account
• Frozen Account
• Common scams on Venmo

Payment amounts

Unverified accounts: $299.99 per week
Verified accounts: $4,999.99 per week

Payment Limits

Payment description

N/A if changed as per bisq-network/bisq#2869

Summary

Reading the documentation I think there are too many risks regarding chargeback for Venmo to be added to Bisq. I have never used it though so wanted to document all the above to allow for discussion.

My initial recommendation is not to add it.

[ripcurlx]

We had Venmo integrated already in the past and had to remove it because of chargebacks.

[m52go]

Yes, as I noted on the other thread, Venmo proactively blocks transactions it doesn't like. I think not bringing it back is the right call.

[pazza83]

Yes, these are my thoughts.

Does @RefundAgent have any comments as they suggested chargebacks where no longer possible?

[pazza83]

Closing as chargeback risk is too great.