Do you Have to Be 18 to Use Venmo? Venmo Teen Account Age Requirement

Do you wonder how old you have to be to create and use a Venmo account? Learn more about Venmo accounts for minors along with Venmo visitors for minors who haven’t reached the age limit.

To use a standard Venmo account, you must be 18 or older. Teens aged 13–17 can use a Venmo Teen Account under parental supervision. Venmo verifies age during registration to ensure compliance with legal and platform requirements.

Like any other digital transaction application, Venmo has some requirements you’d have to satisfy to own an account. One of them is that you’ll need to be at least 18 years old. 

Some parents worry that this limit prevents their minors from learning to make simple transactions. However, in this article, we’ll discuss why there’s an age limit and what to do about it.

So, let’s delve in.

RELATED READ: Can You Have Venmo Under 18?

Do You Have to Be 18 to Create a Venmo Account?

Yes, to use a Venmo account, you’ll need to be at least 18 years old. 

While the digital transaction app is bent on making financial services available for a wide range of people, it doesn’t make provisions for minors. 

Read: How Do I Know If Someone Received My Venmo Payment?

Can a 16-year-old have Venmo?

A 16-year-old cannot open a standard Venmo account. But, they can use a Venmo Teen Account for ages 13–17, which provides limited payments and debit-card access under parental supervision, ensuring safe and controlled use of the Venmo platform.

What Are Venmo’s Requirements?

You may have read these Venmo requirements before opening a Venmo account or agreed to them in the user and policy agreement.

Here’s a list of Venmo’s essential requirements for setting up an account:

1. You must be physically residing in the United States. Venmo is a country-bound application that works nowhere else.
2. You must have an active U.S. cell phone that can send/receive text messages from shortcodes (this phone number must not be registered with another Venmo account).
3. You must be at least 18 years old.

Now, let’s look at the reasons for this age limit.

Steps to Set Up a Venmo Teen Account

1. Download and Open Venmo App
2. Select “Sign Up” and Choose Create Teen Account when prompted.
3. Enter Personal Information such as your name, date of birth, email, and phone number.
4. Verify Age
5. Parent/Guardian Invitation
6. The parent must verify their identity and accept terms of supervision.
7. Create a PIN or use device biometrics for security.
8. The teen account can use a linked bank or debit card, under the parent’s supervision.
9. Review details and confirm; the teen account is now active.

Venmo Alternatives for Persons Under 18

Here are some recommendations for applications similar to Venmo, which allow teens to freely transact digitally;

• Greenlight Card. With this, your teen gets flexible parental controls and alerts for each transaction in real time. In addition, the app allows you to choose the exact stores to spend in. And through custodial accounts, you can teach them about investments. 

• Current. Like Venmo, it allows instant money transfers and spending alerts. With Current, you can bring money together with your teens and create goals.

• Acorns. It allows investment accounts and retirement packages and teaches ways to make extra money. It’s known for investing spare change automatically through Round-Ups. You can register a minor with just 3-5 dollars a month.

And now, let’s look at some safety tips to help parents with Venmo accounts. 

Safety Tips for Parents

You’ll have to encourage your teens to make transactions private (sender and receiver only) to lower the risk of scams. Educate them to be conscious of the things that are appropriate to say and share on such apps. 

Venmo is a social application, and teens are known to engage more on social media. So they may tend to engage their minds with Venmo. In addition, when Facebook is enabled, your Facebook friends will automatically be added. 

The same can be done for your contacts via email addresses too. So, even though you don’t want to share your information with Venmo, online friends or phone contacts may choose to share your information with their accounts.

Final Words

In this article, we’ve learned that Venmo doesn’t allow minors to use the app to make any financial transactions.

This is because when you’re less than 18, handling financial responsibility should be done under good supervision. 

We’ve also seen some measures to take, like the parent-child account link and other available alternatives for your minors. You might also consider following the safety tips to make the most of your Venmo account.