How to set up a Venmo account for your AA group
What is Venmo?
Venmo is a mobile payment service. Venmo account holders can transfer funds to your treasurer (who would own the Venmo account) via a mobile phone app. You can think of Venmo as basically a virtual bank account on your phone where you can receive “payments” from others. It will hold the payments from others until you transfer them into your personal bank account.
How can group members transfer money to my Venmo account?
Once your group’s Venmo account is created you will need to give members of your group the Venmo username you created during this process. That is how they will transfer money to your Venmo account. For instance, if your username is ““grateful-friday-AA-mtg”, you will need to provide your group members with “@grateful-friday-AA-mtg” (you will add an “@” symbol to the beginning of the name). They will then be able to transfer funds directly to your Venmo account on their Venmo app.
NOTE: When members make their contributions to you via Venmo, they will see your first and last name – you must enter in order to create your Venmo account.
Venmo Account Creation:
- Open Venmo. It’s a light-blue app with a white “V” on it.
If you haven’t yet downloaded Venmo, do so now for iPhone (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/venmo/id351727428?mt=8) or for Android (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.venmo&hl=en).
To sign up for a Venmo account on desktop, go to Venmo’s website at https://venmo.com/.
- Tap a sign-up option. You can sign up for Venmo using your Facebook details by tapping Sign up with Facebook, or you can tap the Sign up with Email option to use an email address.
Choosing an email address will require you to manually enter account details like your name, your address, and so on.
If you’re using the Venmo desktop site, click one of the sign-up options on the right side of the page.
- Enter your account details (i.e. name, email, password). Please note that your sign-up may not look exactly like the image below.
Also, the process for signing up will vary depending on the sign-up method you chose:
Facebook – Tap Log in with the Facebook app and then tap Continue as [Name] if prompted. Otherwise, enter your Facebook email address (or phone number) and password, then tap Log In to save your login details. You’ll then need to enter your phone number and Venmo password, tap Send Code, and verify your phone number by typing the code Venmo sends to you into Venmo. Tap Verify to continue.
Email – Enter your name, email address, and password, then tap Next. Enter your phone number, then tap Send Code. Open the text message from Venmo, look at the code in it, and type the code into the Venmo app. Tap Verify to complete the process.
IMPORTANT NOTE: During this sign-up process, it may prompt you to create a username. I would recommend making this username based on your group name. For instance, if your group name is “Grateful Friday AA Meeting”, then you may consider making your username something like “grateful-friday-AA-mtg”.
- Wait for Venmo to load your account. Once the account creation and verification process is complete, you’ll be able to link a card or bank account and start sending and receiving money with Venmo.
- You may need to change your Username to fit the group that you are in (if you were not prompted to create a username during set-up).
To change your username, first, tap ☰. It’s in the top-left corner of the Venmo app.
- Select ‘Edit Profile’. This option is at the top of the menu on the mobile app.
- Skip this step if you are using the Android app.
- Take a look at your username. If the username is not the username you desire for your group, change it to fit your group name. For instance, if your group’s name is “Gratitude Group”, your username should likely be something like “gratitude-group”. Once you change the username, hit Save in the top right corner.
- Return to the settings menu, where you can link your bank account to the app. In order to do this, select Payment Methods within Settings.
You’ll see this option near the top of the menu.
- Select “Add bank or card…” on this page.
- On the following page, select to either add a bank account number or a credit/debit card number. Our suggestion would be to add a bank account number – if you add a card, there is additional fee when you go to transfer money to your bank account.
- Follow the prompts to add the bank account number and/or card and you are all set! You will be asked to select your bank in order to add a bank account number.
Transferring funds from Venmo to your actual bank account:
- Tap ☰. It’s in the top-left corner of the Venmo page.
On desktop, scroll down to the bottom of the home page.
- Click on “Transfer to Bank”
- Type in the amount you want to transfer, select where you want to transfer it to (bank account or card), then select ‘Transfer’ button at the bottom of the screen.
NOTE: Bank account takes 1-3 days to transfer. Card is instant, but a card has a small fee.
For more information on using Venmo including how to pay others via your Venmo account, please visit the following site: https://www.wikihow.com/Use-Venmo
