There are a number of reasons for which you can end up having a frozen Venmo account. Don’t worry, if you want to learn How to unfreeze Venmo Account, you are at the right place.
Venmo is a famous P2P payment platform, just like Cash App and PayPal. You can use it to send and receive money instantly. Sometimes you might mess up things and your account can be frozen by Venmo.
In this article, I will discuss a number of reasons for which your Venmo account could be frozen and the methods that you can use to unfreeze your Venmo account.
Why My Venmo Account is Frozen?
It’s a bright sunny day, and you are thinking that this may be the best day of your life, You want to buy your favorite pair of shoes, you try to make a payment through Venmo, and suddenly you receive an email “Your Venmo account is temporarily frozen”. What the fish?
Life sucks, Things like this happen, we don’t want them to happen to us, but life sucks and things happen. You might ask god, “Why my Venmo account is frozen”? you probably won’t get any answer, and then you decide to take a sensible step and ask Google, “Why my Venmo account is frozen”, and you will get the following reasons:
- You have insufficient balance
- Your payment has been declined by your bank
- Your account is frozen due to a suspicious activity
- You have violated Venmo’s Terms
Alright, Now that you know the causes of a frozen Venmo account, you might want to jump to the section where you can simply get the answer to your question, “How to Unfreeze my Venmo account?”. Hold my hand and I will take you there
How To Unfreeze My Venmo Account?
As there are four main causes for a blocked Venmo account so we will discuss how to unblock a Venmo account for each cause.
1- Frozen Venmo Account Due to Insufficient Balance
Did you know that you have tried to transfer the funds to someone that you yourself didn’t have? If that’s the case, you made a dumb mistake. Let’s be honest, why would you do that?
If you don’t have enough funds in your Venmo balance or your Bank account to cover the transaction, your Venmo account will be frozen. Venmo will put a temporary hold on your account. Totally your fault.
Solution:
Don’t panic, it is very easy to unfreeze a Venmo account due to failed payment. All you have to do is transfer funds to your Venmo account and your account will start working again. The moment your funds hit the account, your Venmo account will be unfrozen.
Method To Transfer Funds To A Frozen Venmo Account
Here is how you can add money to a frozen Venmo Account in order to unfreeze it, follow these steps by heart
Step 1: Go to Venmo.com/addfunds
Step 2: You will see a popup window, where you will be required to add the bank details that you will use to transfer the funds. Note that you will need to have your bank account verified with Venmo to do so.
Step 3: Now, enter the amount that you want to transfer to your frozen Venmo account, and make sure it is the same or more than what you owe.
Step 4: Once the transfer is complete, and the amount is added to your balance, your account will be automatically unfrozen. It may take 3-5 business days in most cases.
Note: If you use this method to cover a failed transaction, Venmo will show you the estimated date for the arrival of funds to your account, and you can track the progress by tapping the “Account Recovery Payment” in your transaction history.
Related: How To Use Cash App Barcode To Load Money?
2- Frozen Venmo Account Due To Payment Declined By Your Bank
Venmo might put a temporary freeze on your account if your payment has been declined by your bank. Now, Venmo clearly states that it doesn’t have “visibility into specific problems” for a declined payment by your bank. So don’t expect anything useful from them in this case and by “them”, I mean the Venmo support team.
Following are the two reasons that may cause a decline of payment by your bank
- Exceeding the number of ACH transfers permitted on your account
- Not enough funds at the time of transaction
Solution:
First of all, stop being a pain in the neck of Venmo support officers, Instead call your bank to ask for the reason for a declined payment. If it is the “exceeding allowed number of ACH transfers” you will have to wait till your numbers reset.
If the reason for the decline is not having enough funds you can simply add money to your bank account that is linked to your Venmo account or transfer the funds using the first method to your Venmo balance. This will solve your “How to unfreeze my Venmo account” problem.
Note: There are other ways of adding money to your Venmo account too. You can use a debit card to transfer money to your frozen Venmo account. You are not allowed to use a credit card to pay back the negative balance on Venmo.
3- Frozen Venmo Account Due To Suspicious Activity
I hope you haven’t done anything suspicious on your Venmo account, as this makes things really complicated. By suspicious I mean, sending or receiving money from unknown accounts, from suspicious websites, or getting money for a drug deal. (Just kidding, I know you are a good person)
Anyway, If Venmo suspects anything wrong with your account, it will freeze your account instantly. So if you have received a payment from another Venmo account that was flagged, chances are your Venmo account will be frozen.
Venmo has clearly explained the “Restricted Activities” in its user agreement, so if you by any chance have read the User Agreement you must know the activities that are restricted by Venmo. If not you can go ahead and read it now.
One of the activities that are restricted by Venmo is using applications outside of the United States. So if you use Venom outside the U.S your Venmo account will be frozen.
Note: Your Venmo account will also be frozen if you are using a VPN. The VPNs usually change your virtual location, so if you have a VPN turned on on your mobile device and you use Venmo, Your account will be blocked.
Also Read: Can You Send Money from Venmo to Cash App?
Solution:
As I said, it is more troublesome than having a Venmo account frozen due to insufficient funds, as you will have to contact Venmo support and answer tons of questions and swear to God that you were not involved in something suspicious and you haven’t done money laundering and you never left America, blah blah blah.
Then they will go for a small investigation and then your Venmo account will be unfrozen. Not in every case though.
Here is how to Contact Venmo to recover a frozen account:
Step 1: Visit venmo.com/recover
Step 2: Log in to your account using your credentials
Step 3: Reply to the email Venmo sent when your account was frozen. You may need to include a photo of a valid form of ID so that they can verify that it’s you.
4- Frozen Venmo Account Due To Violation Of Terms
You are in deep trouble man If you have violated the terms of service. Your account could be blocked permanently. Venmo is very serious about its rules, to keep the users safe and secure they won’t allow anyone to break the terms and conditions.
If you have violated any of the terms, you might not get your account recovered at all. This is the statement of Venmo:
In an effort to provide the highest level of security, we may freeze a user’s account, reverse certain payments and/or request certain documentation if flags are raised due to account activity that seems to be against our User Agreement or widely accepted credit card policies.
Read Also: Venmo Weekly Spending Limit- Latest Complete Guide
How To Contact Support To Unfreeze Venmo Account?
There are multiple ways to contact support officers to unfreeze Venmo account. You can respond to the team by replying to the email that you received when your account was frozen. You can also contact customer support on the official Venmo Helpline at 855-812-4430.
Another way of contacting the support team to unfreeze your Venmo account is through the Live Chat option. Here is how you can do it:
- Launch Venmo app
- Tap on the menu icon on the top left corner of the home screen
- Select “Get Help”
- Choose “Contact Us”
- Tap “Chat With Us”
Venmo officer will contact you as soon as someone is available. You can explain your problem and they will definitely help you resolve the issue.
How Long Does It Take To Unfreeze A Venmo Account?
Normally it takes 2-5 business days for a frozen Venmo account to recover. Sometimes the process may take a little longer depending on the reason. Most of the time you will regain your account’s access. However, if the violation is severe you might never get access to your account again.
In such cases, If you have money in your frozen Venmo account, you would be able to withdraw it to your associated bank account, and the account will be completely closed.
Verdict
Venmo is a great way to manage payments, you can easily send and receive money from your friends and family. There could be a number of reasons for a frozen Venmo account. Follow the instructions in this article and I am sure you will be able to unfreeze your Venmo account.
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