After Venmo’s hourslong outage Wednesday, should you still trust it with your money?

Venmo says it is “back up and running” after a widespread outage Wednesday evening that left many users unable to send or receive money — and some scrambling to pay for dinner or medication, per The Associated Press.

Now a lot of people have gone to social media to ask a different question: Is it actually safe to keep money in Venmo or even connect a bank account to it?

On Wednesday, reports of problems with the PayPal-owned payment app began spiking around 4:30 p.m. MST, according to Downdetector, a site that tracks online outages. Tens of thousands of users reported issues.

By late Wednesday night, Venmo posted on X that the problem had been fixed and said the service was “back up and running,” apologizing for the inconvenience. The company has not publicly explained what caused the disruption.

The app has experienced reliability issues before — Venmo was unavailable for some users during an Amazon Web Services outage in October.

For many, the incident was a reminder that a free app now sits in the middle of a lot of real-world transactions — rent, utilities, babysitting, concert tickets. Here’s what to know about using Venmo.

How safe is Venmo as a service?

Security experts generally describe Venmo as a legitimate service with standard protections for a modern financial app, while also warning about real risks from scams and account takeovers.

According to Venmo’s website, the company:

• Uses encryption to protect stored account information and financial data.
• Monitors accounts for suspicious or unauthorized transactions.
• Offers tools like multifactor authentication and PIN codes to help lock down accounts.

Where users tend to get hurt is less about the encryption and more about human behavior. Venmo warns that it can become a target for scams — including fake overpayments, impostor accounts with similar usernames, and pressure to send money to someone who isn’t actually known in real life.

In other words: From a technical standpoint, Venmo is roughly as secure as many other mainstream payment apps. But like any money tool, it’s only as safe as how it’s used.

Is it safe to link a bank account to Venmo?

Linking a bank account is what makes Venmo work for most people. The app moves money through the banking system using standard transfer networks, and those connections are protected with encryption.

A few key points:

• Venmo is not a bank. Venmo makes clear the company itself does not take deposits and is not FDIC-insured.
• Your actual bank account stays at your bank. When you “link” an account, you’re authorizing Venmo to move funds to and from that account. That connection is encrypted, and you can revoke it in the app or at your bank.
• The main risk is if your Venmo account gets hacked. If someone steals your Venmo login and bypasses security checks, they may be able to initiate transfers. That’s why experts recommend strong, unique passwords, multifactor authentication and careful monitoring of account activity.

For everyday users, Security.org says that linking a bank account is reasonably safe when combined with good digital hygiene — especially compared with sharing routing and account numbers directly with strangers.

Is it smart to keep a lot of money in your Venmo balance?

This is where many regulators and financial planners get more cautious.

Because Venmo is not a bank, money stored in your Venmo balance generally is not protected by federal deposit insurance in the way a checking or savings account would be.

Venmo’s own debit-card FAQ notes that FDIC insurance applies to funds held at partner banks in certain situations — but that “Venmo is not a bank, does not take deposits, and is not FDIC-insured,” and pass-through insurance does not automatically cover all Venmo balances.

In 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a broad advisory about nonbank payment apps, warning that money stored in apps like Venmo, Cash App and others is often not protected by deposit insurance at all. Keeping large balances in these apps could put consumers at greater risk if a company fails or funds are frozen.

Because of that, it’s recommended to treat Venmo as a payment tool, not a place to stash savings or an emergency fund. A common rule of thumb: Keep only what is needed for short-term transfers, and move larger balances into a federally insured bank or credit union account.

What Wednesday’s Venmo outage does — and doesn’t — change

This week’s outage can bring up two questions:

1. Reliability: Can the app go down at inconvenient times?
1. Yes. Wednesday’s outage — and previous disruptions tied to cloud-computing problems — show that even major payment apps can be temporarily unavailable.
2. Safety: Does the outage mean Venmo is insecure?
1. So far, there’s no evidence that this incident was a hack or data breach. Venmo has framed it as a technical issue that has now been fixed.

For users, the outage is a reminder to have backup options — a physical card, some cash, or an alternate app — especially for time-sensitive payments like prescriptions or transportation.

Here’s what people are saying on social media