Venmo processes your transactions quickly like other peer-to-peer payment apps. What makes it unique is how it encourages interaction between different users. As cool as it may sound, not everyone is okay with socializing at a platform where others can view transactions and payments. Before you panic, I will discuss can you see who views your Venmo profile and how to take control of privacy settings in the app!
Can You Keep a Check on Who Views Your Venmo Profile
You can not see who views your Venmo profile and how many times a user has visited your profile. Nonetheless, you can control the information that is visible to others by choosing one of the three privacy settings: Public, Friends Only, and Private.
One way to find out if someone viewed your profile is to check whether they liked or commented on a transaction. However, they can check out your Venmo profile without interacting as well.
The same goes the other way around too! Venmo users whose profile you visit can not see when and how many times you saw their profiles. Where most other features on Venmo are like Instagram and FaceBook, it makes sense why it would leave out on this settings as well.
What Can Others View on Your Venmo Account?
Venmo profiles are set to Public by default. This means that other users will be able to see details of your Venmo account when they look you up using the username.
The details that are visible include name, friend list, transaction history, and the profile picture.
When I say that the transaction history is private, it means that the recent payments will be visible but not the full transaction history. Regardless of your privacy settings, details of the transactions are only accessible to your and the recipient. I will discuss more details below so stay right here!
1. Transactions
Venmo transactions are visible to other users who visit your profile as long as your settings are fixed at Public. However, you can take control of your privacy by changing the settings to Friends or Private.
This will restrict who gets to see you purchases and transactions. The three privacy options, Public, Friends Only, and Private are available in the latest version of the Venmo app. You should update the app if you are using an older version. I will shortly discuss with you how these settings work.
- Public: All the transaction details will be shared on the public fee. These will be visible to anyone who sees your Venmo profile.
- Friends Only: Venmo allows you to add other users as friends. If you change the privacy settings to Friends Only, the transactions will then be visible to your selected list only. Keep in mind that in this case, the transactions can be seen by your friends as well as friends of the recipients.
- Private: This means that the transactions will only be shared on Your Stories tab for personal view only. No other user can see them except you (as a sender) and the recipient of that particular transfer.
2. Payment Information
The payment information is always visible to the sender and the recipient of that particular transaction. Precisely speaking, the send can see payment method, bank account details, debit card number, credit card number, etc whereas the recipient of the transfer will have access to payment amount, name of send, any payment note, payment timestamp.
What parties other than these two can see on your Venmo profile depends on the privacy settings. If you have chosen Public or Friends Only, the visitors can view information like the name of sender, name of recipient, payment timestamp, and payment note.
Other sensitive detail like the payment amount and payment method can only be sender by the recipient and the sender regardless of the privacy settings.
3. History
As long as you keep the privacy settings on default in your Venmo account, all visitors will be able to see your Venmo transactions and certain payment information.
This is because Venmo was initially designed as a social app to encourage interaction between different users. However, this is does not mean that you need to stick to such privacy settings. You can change who sees your Venmo account history by shifting settings to private or friends only. I will let you know how this is done in the sections below!
How To Stop Others From Viewing Your Venmo Transactions?
You can make your Venmo transactions private by playing with account settings a little. Moreover, it is possible to either just make a single transaction private on Venmo or change the settings to make private option default for all upcoming payments and transfers. You make individual payments or purchases private by following the steps as:
- Select the payment.
- Choose privacy settings.
- Check who can view the particular payment.
- Choose one option from the list of “public, friends, and private.”
- Finalize the choice and tap Confirm.
If you want to change the settings for all future transactions to private, you will have to alter the Default Privacy Setting in the app by following the steps below:
- Make sure your internet is working fine.
- Open the website browser.
- Search from Venmo and open your account in the browser.
- The URL to take your directly to Venmo site is https://Venmo.com/.
- Then click on the three-line icon.
- Search for Settings option and click to open.
- Tap on Privacy.
- Then select the Privacy Setting of your choice.
- Confirm the changes.
- Tap on Save to proceed.
This means although you can not see who views your Venmo profile, but you can exercise full control on what information is visible on your account.
How Do Social Features on Venmo Work?
What sets Venmo apart from the other money transfer apps is that it was designed as a social platform as well as peer-to-peer payment app. The most useful social aspect of Venmo is that it lets you add friends by sharing your Venmo username with them. You can also scan the QR code to locate particular profiles and add friends on Venmo.
Venmo hosts a “like” button similar to the feature on FaceBook and Instagram. You can use it to like a transaction that has gone through by pressing the heart symbol next to it.
Moreover, you can interact with other users on Venmo by responding to the transaction with a comment. Tap on the speech bubble symbol next to the particular transaction to write a reply.
The fun does not end here! Did you know that Venmo does not allow you to send or request a payment without filling a blank field below the transaction details. This is meant to write a reason for the payment but there’s nothing stopping you from getting creative and adding personalized notes to the transfer. You can even put in emojis to communicate within the same message.
Is It Compulsory To Add Friends on Venmo?
Venmo allows you to add friends just like FaceBook or Instagram. However, it is not compulsary to do so. Venmo transactions will work even if you have 0 friends added in your account. Nonetheless, there are some benefits!
- Adding a Venmo user as friend makes it easier to process payments to and from them regularly. It is a good idea if there is someone you have to exchange funds with regularly. This is because their name will automatically show up in your friend list when you initiate a new payment. Otherwise, you will have to search with their username and go through payment history to find their profile.
- Unless there is an issue of Venmo payment not going through, the app does not allow you to cancel a transfer. Therefore, to ensure you send it to the right person, it will ask you to enter the last 4 digits of their phone number as confirmation. It can become a hassle to do this every time you need to make a transfer to someone. You can avoid this by adding a particular Venmo user you interact with as Friends on the app.
- Inviting and adding friends to your Venmo profile is also a sure way of winning promotional offers in the app. Venmo gives $10 for free if a friend from your contact list joins Venmo on your referral. Isn’t that an interesting way to make some extra cash?
Before You Go!
Venmo is a social app so with additional features like comment and like button, your transactions can get creative. However, since finances are involved, it is understandable why someone will not be comfortable sharing their payment and transaction details with other, even friends. You can take control of the settings to ensure no one invades your private financial matters but you can not see who views your Venmo profile.
When you are done figuring out what privacy settings you want on Venmo, perhaps you would be interested in reading how to delete Venmo history or verify identity on Venmo to use the app more confidently in days to come!
Miriam Caldwell is a dedicated & expert freelance writer to educate people about personal finance management and budgeting. She shared her knowledge and published the articles at TheBalance.com, GOBankingRates, and BlissfullyDomestic.com. Many financial institutes pick Caldwell as the brilliant source for educational personal finance content.
