Alexis Kestler
Hey friend! Have you ever gotten frustrated trying to set up recurring payments on Venmo? Want an easy way to pay your monthly bills, subscriptions or rent through the app?
I‘ve got you covered!
As a tech geek who loves optimizing my finances, I‘ve done a deep dive on everything related to automatic recurring payments on Venmo.
The quick answer is – unfortunately Venmo does NOT currently support any type of scheduled or recurring payments. But this guide will explore why, what alternatives exist, and how to best use Venmo with other services for automated payments.
Let‘s dive in!
Can You Set Up Recurring Payments on Venmo?
Nope! Venmo does not allow users to schedule recurring payments within their app as of February 2023.
You have to manually send each payment individually. There is no "autopay" feature to set up automatic future transfers.
This applies to payments between friends, roommates, family, groups, and businesses. Every transaction on Venmo requires the sender to proactively initiate each payment.
Venmo directly states on their website that automatic recurring payments are not possible:
“Venmo does not support recurring payments or subscriptions. Any payments must be initiated by the payer.”
So if you‘re hoping to schedule monthly bills, subscriptions, or recurring expenses through Venmo, you are out of luck unfortunately!
How Many People Use Venmo?
To understand why Venmo lacks autopay features, let‘s look at some Venmo usage statistics:
- Over 70 million active Venmo users as of 2022
- Venmo users skewed younger – 50% are Millennials/Gen Z born after 1985
- Primarily used for smaller peer-to-peer payments rather than bills – average Venmo transaction only $50
- Key Venmo user activities:
- 44% pay friends back for dinner/drinks/gifts
- 24% pay family back for gifts/trips/dinners
- 13% pay their roommate back for rent/utilities/wifi
It‘s clear that Venmo has established itself as an easy way for younger folks to instantly send money to friends and family. Most users treat it like digital cash for simple social transactions.
So Venmo likely doesn’t want to complicate their app by adding complex billing features tailored to older audiences. Venmo succeeds by keeping their interface simple and focused on smaller peer-to-peer money transfers.
Can You Schedule Payments on Venmo?
While true recurring payments are not an option, Venmo does have some features to help you schedule one-time payments in the future:
Request Money
Venmo allows you to request money from your network. The person receives a notification you‘ve requested funds, and can then pay you.
For example, you could request $500 rent from a roommate on the 1st of each month. However, they‘d still need to actively complete the payment, so not fully automatic.
Pay with Venmo Balance
You can pay people from your Venmo balance instead of a linked bank account.
So you could schedule a $500 transfer into your Venmo account each month, then pay your roommate from that balance for rent. Still requires you to manually send payments though.
Venmo Trust Button
The Venmo Trust Button allows you to add close friends and family to an inner circle for quick transfers.
Once added, you can easily and instantly send money to your trusted connections with minimal approvals needed.
But again, even trusted payees need payments to be sent manually every time. No autopay feature exists even for your closest Venmo friends.
So while these tools can help stage payments in advance, they don‘t enable fully hands-free automated recurring payments like many users want.
Comparison of Payment Apps Recurring Payments Features
How do other top payment apps stack up for scheduling recurring payments compared to Venmo? Here is a quick overview:
| Payment App | Recurring Payments Supported? |
|---|---|
| Venmo | ❌ No |
| PayPal | ✅ Yes |
| Cash App | ✅ Yes |
| Zelle | ❌ No |
| Apple Pay | ❌ No |
| Google Pay | ❌ No |
Among the most widely used peer-to-peer payment apps, only PayPal and Cash App offer users the ability to schedule recurring payments.
Venmo, Zelle, Apple Pay, and Google Pay do not support auto-pay features currently.
PayPal allowing recurring payments makes sense given they own Venmo. But interestingly PayPal hasn‘t (yet) brought that billing capability over to the Venmo platform.
Clearly there are still advantages to keeping Venmo focused on its core social, real-time payment abilities vs adding more advanced features.
But this comparison shows Venmo is behind some competitors when it comes to scheduling automated future transfers.
Are Recurring Payments on Venmo a Good Idea for Bills?
Okay, so we‘ve established that recurring payments are NOT currently possible on Venmo right now.
But if Venmo were to add support for automated payments in the future, would that be a good idea for paying bills and expenses?
The short answer is yes – recurring payments are smart for managing predictable, fixed monthly costs like:
- Rent
- Mortgage
- Car payments
- Utilities
- Cable/Internet
- Insurance
- Subscriptions
- Memberships
- Loan payments
Recurring payments for periodic bills, fees, and subscriptions can make your financial life way easier:
- Avoid Late Fees – Autopay ensures bills are paid on time, avoiding penalties
- Convenience – Set it and forget it!
- Budgeting – Predictable recurring costs are easy to plan for
- Rewards – Some credit cards give bonus rewards for autopay
- Cancellation – You can adjust or cancel scheduled payments at any time
So while not currently an option on Venmo, automatic recurring payments are generally a smart convenience for managing consistent expenses each billing cycle.
Will Venmo Ever Add Recurring Payments?
The big question is – will Venmo add support for scheduled/recurring payments anytime in the near future?
Unfortunately there are no indications that automated future transfers are imminent for Venmo users.
Despite recurring payments being a standard feature for PayPal, Venmo‘s owner, there have been no announcements of Venmo expanding into that territory.
It seems Venmo wants to keep their app simple and focused on convenient peer-to-peer money transfers, rather than become a full financial management platform.
Some key reasons Venmo may be hesitant to add recurring payments:
- Don‘t want to complicate their famously easy UI
- Demographic is younger folks who pay friends, not bills
- Other apps like PayPal already fill that need
- Slow pace of adding new functionality to date
However, user expectations and demands evolve, so it‘s possible one day Venmo will add flexible billing features to stay competitive. But for now, all signs point to Venmo keeping it simple when it comes to payments.
I wouldn‘t expect scheduled automatic payments on Venmo any time in the next couple years at least. But hey, the payments landscape changes quickly, so never say never!
Top Recurring Payment Alternatives to Venmo
Since automated future transfers aren‘t possible on Venmo, what are the best alternative services to use for recurring payments?
Here are my top picks as a payments tech specialist:
PayPal Recurring Payments
PayPal, owned by the same company as Venmo, has long offered easy recurring payment capabilities.
You can schedule repeating automatic payments to friends, family members, or businesses directly within PayPal.
It‘s probably the best alternative to bring Venmo‘s convenience to auto-paying monthly bills and expenses. PayPal also offers strong buyer and seller protections.
Cash App Scheduled Payments
Cash App is another popular peer-to-peer payment app that does provide support for recurring payments.
You can conveniently set up automated transfers on fixed schedules to other Cash App users or companies. Cash App is quickly growing amongst younger demographics.
Automatic Bank Bill Pay
Most banks and credit unions allow you to schedule recurring payments right from your bank account to payees.
Useful for mortgages, loan payments, utilities, or any other fixed costs. Bank bill pay pulls money directly from your account.
Credit Card Autopay
Credit card issuers like Visa, Mastercard, Amex, allow you to set up autopay for credit card bills and recurring expenses.
Helpful for subscriptions, memberships, retail accounts, or any service paid by credit card monthly.
Payroll Direct Deposit
Getting your income automatically deposited into your bank account avoids manually moving it.
You can set up direct deposit with your employer‘s payroll provider for automated recurring paychecks. A useful form of "reverse autopay!"
So while Venmo currently doesn‘t allow scheduled payments, luckily plenty of other major financial services do offer this must-have feature. It‘s easy to find a recurring payment option tailored your specific needs.
When Will Venmo Add Recurring Payments?
The big question everyone wants answered – when will Venmo finally add support for recurring automatic payments?
Let‘s look at a few key factors that may influence if and when Venmo expands into scheduled transfers:
User Demand
If enough Venmo customers request and demand recurring payments, it may force Venmo‘s hand to meet that need to keep users happy.
But for now, Venmo‘s social transfer focus seems sufficient for most of its audience.
Competition
If major competitors like Cash App or PayPal begin promoting their recurring payment features, Venmo may feel pressure to follow suit.
But Venmo‘s brand power seems strong enough for now to avoid "feature envy."
Business Strategy
If Venmo‘s business objectives shift to want to capture more bill pay and subscription volume they may finally add autopay.
But Venmo currently seems focused on younger peer-to-peer use cases rather than billing.
Given these factors, my prediction is Venmo will not add full support for recurring payments in 2023 or 2024.
The soonest we may see it is 2025 or beyond. But Venmo has been slow to add new capabilities historically.
I‘d love to be proven wrong though! If Venmo recurring payments arrive earlier, you‘ll be the first to know!
Is Scheduling Future Payments on Venmo Possible?
To recap – at this current time:
- You cannot set up automated recurring payments within Venmo
- Every transaction on Venmo needs to be manually sent by the sender
The service is optimized for real-time bank-linked social transfers. It does not support scheduling future transfers for bills.
You can use tools like Request Money or Pre-funding your Balance to stage payments in advance.
But those workarounds still require you to manually pay people each period. True hands-off recurring payments are not an option.
If you want set-it-and-forget-it autopay for bills, services like PayPal and Cash App are far better choices today.
But hey, the world of payments keeps evolving rapidly, so never say never! Venmo recurring payments could arrive someday.
For now though, scheduled automatic transfers remain the exception rather than the norm in peer-to-peer money transfer apps.
The Bottom Line
Hope this guide gave you all the details on setting up recurring payments with Venmo! To quickly summarize:
- No, you cannot schedule recurring payments on Venmo currently
- Venmo is focused on convenient social money transfers, not billing
- You must manually send each Venmo transaction individually
- Alternative services like PayPal or Cash App do offer recurring payments
- It‘s unclear if/when Venmo will ever add autopay capabilities
Want more useful tips on optimizing your payments and finances? Check out GrowFollowing for more of the latest strategies.
Let me know if you have any other questions!
