Venmo Teen Account Review

Who is Venmo’s teen account best for?

This account is for teens aged 13 to 17, making it best for parents who already have Venmo and want to get their teen a free debit card. Signing up for Venmo’s teen account requires an adult with a Venmo account and the app.

Parents and guardians can set up the account on behalf of their child and add money. Venmo’s teen account is free, making it a great fit for parents on a budget. But if you’re looking for an account that teaches teens how to manage their money, the best kids’ debit cards have financial literacy tools and features like savings bonuses and rewards.

What we like about the Venmo Teen account

Venmo’s teen account is free to open and maintain. There are no monthly fees and no opening deposit requirement.

And a pure-Venmo feature, you can easily transfer funds to your teen’s Venmo account from your own personal account. There are no fees for regular transfers with your linked bank account, either.

Clear spending limits for teens

Similar to other teen debit cards, Venmo has spending and withdrawal limits for teens. You can also give your teen more access to Venmo, which offers higher spending limits and the ability to make purchases via QR codes and do P2P payments. But if you don’t want your teen to use the actual Venmo app, you can simply set up the teen account and give them the debit card to use.

The spending limits with the Venmo Teen account are:

Where it falls short

While the Venmo Teen account is free, it lacks many of the great features we commonly see with other kids’ debit cards, such as customizable spending limits, financial literacy education and saving bonuses.

And Venmo isn’t the only free kids’ banking app — the free teen banking app Step offers teens the ability to start building a credit history, earn a 3% annual savings reward and cashback rewards.

Prepaid debit cards for kids like Greenlight and Acorns Early (formerly GoHenry) start at around $5 per month, but they come with extra features like savings rewards, financial literacy games, store-level spending limits and overdraft protection.

Funds may not be insured

Venmo isn’t a bank, and it’s owned by PayPal. The FDIC does not insure most P2P payment apps — and this includes Venmo. If you transfer funds from your bank account to your or your teen’s account, those funds are not protected under FDIC insurance, which protects deposit accounts up to $250,000.

The Venmo debit card is issued by The Bancorp Bank, which is FDIC insured, but it’s just the card issuer and is not responsible for the associated accounts, products or services from Venmo.

You and your teen’s funds are insured if you add funds through direct deposits or when you use Venmo’s cash-a-check feature. This means that it’s very likely funds won’t be insured — unless you use one of these two features.

Venmo Teen account fees and access

On a regular basis, the only fees you’ll have to watch out for are out-of-network ATM fees and instant P2P transfers. And if you’ve connected your credit card to Venmo to send payments or funds to your teen, you’ll incur an extra 3% fee.

Compare Venmo Teen account to other kids’ debit cards

Check out more kids’ accounts by monthly fees and features.

5 of 8 results

Updated regularly

Finder Score	Fee	Age requirements	Features	Rebate
Promoted Finder score 9.2 Excellent Greenlight Finder Award	Finder score 9.2 Excellent	$5.99 per month	Any age	Spend, save & invest Chores & allowance tools Spending controls & limits Instantly send money to your child Up to 6% savings rewards		Teach your child to spend, save and invest all in one app. Get 5+ financial literacy tools, including chores and allowances. All with powerful parental controls to decide where your child can spend and how much. Includes up to 6% savings rewards.	Go to siteMore info Compare product selection Compare	loading
Promoted Finder score 9.4 Excellent Cash App Families	Finder score 9.4 Excellent	$0 per month	13 to 17 years old *	Start with as little as $1 Your teen can earn 3.75% interest on their savings Send and request money, deposit cash and access ATMs Free saving and investing** features with parental approval		Sponsor your teen's Cash App account with robust parental oversight and safety features, such as payment notifications and card locking. Help them invest, choose between colorful cards and decide which features they can access.	Go to siteMore info Compare product selection Compare	loading
Promoted Finder score 8.8 Great Step	Finder score 8.8 Great	$0 per month	Any age	Earn 3% on your savings $0 monthly fee Teens build credit safely Cashback rewards		Teens can build credit safely without overspending or paying interest. Earn 3% savings rewards with qualifying direct deposits, earn cashback rewards, learn about investing and more – all with $0 monthly fees. FDIC insured.	Go to siteMore info Compare product selection Compare	loading
Finder score 8.6 Great Acorns Early (formerly GoHenry)	Finder score 8.6 Great	$5 per month	6 to 18 years old	Automate allowance & instantly send money to your child Optional parent-paid savings interest Spending controls & limits $5/month after Finder exclusive free trial	Get 2 months free and $10 allowance when you sign up to Acorns Early with Finder's exclusive code: AFFUSFDR10. T&Cs apply.	Get interactive money and investing tools for your kids, including expert-developed games and quizzes. Offers strong parental controls that allow you to set where and how much your child can spend.		Go to siteMore info Compare product selection Compare	loading
Finder score 7.6 Great Modak	Finder score 7.6 Great	$0 per month	Any age	Kids complete challenges for cash-convertible rewards Parent Portal to manage chores, allowance, and savings Multiple funding options		Go to siteMore info Compare product selection Compare	loading

loading

Load More

Showing 5 of 8 results

What is the Finder Score?

The Finder Score applies to 45+ kids' debit card options. It takes into account the card's fees, features, age requirements, ATM access and more — this gives you a simple score out of 10.

To provide a Score, we compare like-for-like debit cards. So if you're comparing the best kids' cards with no monthly fees, you can see how card stacks up against each other by features, opening deposits and other benefits.

Read the full breakdown

How to open the Venmo Teen account

The Venmo Teen account officially launched in June 2023, and it’s still rolling out. It’s currently not available to all users but will become available to more in the coming weeks. There’s no application fee, but parents or guardians need to have their own Venmo account to apply for the Venmo Teen account. Get started in three steps:

• Open your Venmo app and select Me in the bottom right corner.
• Select your name on the top-left, then tap Create a teen account from the drop-down menu.
• Enter your teen’s information, such as date of birth, name and address. Then choose a color for your teen’s debit card.

Customer reviews and ratings

Since the Venmo Teen account launched in 2023, most customer reviews and ratings are in reference to Venmo’s P2P payment system and other features.

Currently, Venmo has received over 5,000 customer complaints on its Better Business Bureau (BBB) profile from the last three years, which is quite a lot. We typically see that many complaints with big banks. Most complaints talk about frozen transfers, being a victim of a scam and issues contacting customer support. However, Venmo does respond to nearly all complaints.

Overall, Venmo’s customer reviews are poor on both BBB and Trustpilot. Most reviews are negative, and common threads among reviews are about poor customer service, issues with disputing transfers and frozen transactions. The few positive reviews talk about how convenient the app is when it comes to splitting bills with friends, easily sending funds to friends and family and the app being user-friendly.