Venmo will officially be available for teens, although many are already using it
Venmo will officially allow teens to open an account with their parents’ permission, the company announced Monday, expanding the popular social payment app to a demographic likely to adopt it almost immediately.
NEW YORK — Teens will officially be allowed to open a Venmo account with their parents’ permission, the company announced Monday, expanding the popular social payments app to a demographic likely to adopt it almost immediately.
Using Venmo won’t necessarily be new to many teens — parents often create accounts for their kids through their own accounts, which is a violation of Venmo’s Terms of Service. There have been guides on the internet for some time showing parents how to create a child account without Venmo penalizing them.
Venmo has been a popular way to send money to individuals for years and now has over 90 million users. The teen product comes at a time when other social apps are under scrutiny from politicians and regulators. The state of Montana banned TikTok last week, and other states are considering a ban as well.
The Venmo Teen account will be available for ages 13-17 and also comes with a debit card. Parents will be able to monitor transactions, adjust privacy settings, and transfer money to their teen. Parents will also be able to lock and unlock the debit card and see who the teen is sending money to and receiving it from.
ATM withdrawals using the debit card will have a daily limit of $400 and users will need to withdraw cash at participating ATMs or incur a $2.50 fee. Otherwise, there are no fees associated with creating or maintaining the account.
Parents will be able to monitor up to five teen Venmo accounts.
Banks have been creating bank account products for children for decades, but with the rise of e-commerce and fintech companies, a basic checking account for a teenager is no longer enough.
Venmo acknowledged that opening up the service to teens was done in response to frequent user requests over the years, a nod to the fact that teens were likely already using the service. Consumer accounts offer teens more security and identity verification, and also give them debit card access.
Chase offers its Chase First Banking product which can be opened to children as young as six years old as well as a checking product for high schools. Both products come with a debit card and ways for parents to monitor spending on the account. High school verification also provides access to Zelle, the bank’s peer-to-peer payment service, as well as credit monitoring services.
