Is Venmo Available in Canada? No. Here Are the Alternatives!

Venmo is a U.S.-based payment service operating since 2009. Due to the ease with which its users can transfer money, even between themselves, Venmo has entered the vocabulary as both a noun and a verb meaning ‘paying for your share’.

However, this extremely popular peer-to-peer mobile payment network is only available in the U.S., and consumers wondering, “Is Venmo available in Canada?” should look for alternatives. Don’t worry, though; there are several.

We check out five of the best below!

Why Is Venmo Unavailable in Canada?

Regrettably, Venmo is not available outside the U.S., and yes, that includes Canada because the service only works with U.S. bank accounts and phone numbers.

The most likely reason why Venmo hasn’t made its services available outside of the U.S. is the complexity of foreign transactions and the hoops users and institutions have to jump through to meet all applicable rules, regulations, and standards.

On top of that, foreign trades will most likely involve additional fees, which would conflict with Venmo’s identity to offer cost-free transactions. So to avoid the extra time, money, and effort needed to offer international transfers, Venmo is limited to U.S. use.

Note: Due to regional locks, you cannot even use Venmo if you are a U.S. citizen in Canada attempting to transfer money to another U.S. user. Attempting to do so will result in an error message when signing into Venmo.

Why Is Venmo Popular?

Put simply, Venmo makes it extremely easy to pay and get paid, share bills, loan money to friends, and make touch-free payments with a quick scan of your phone. If you don’t think that’s enough (yes, it is), here’s a list of the best Venmo features:

• Instant money transfers—while standard transfers are free, they take a few days to arrive; for that reason, Venmo also offers instant transfers that complete within 30 minutes, but a fee of 1.75% of the total transfer amount applies;
• Venmo debit and credit cards—Venmo also offers excellent payment cards that reward you with cashback on your purchases; the Venmo debit card can also be obtained without paying any initial or subsequent fees;
• Extremely low or no fees—you won’t be charged any fees to sign up for Venmo, send money to your friends, or manage your account; some fees still apply: instant money withdrawal and sending money using your credit card;
• Splitting bills with friends—Venmo’s most sought-after feature is splitting bills with other users: quickly and easily split the money needed for utilities, rent, and groceries, pay your share for road trips and takeouts, or send gifts. You don’t even have to do the math or look for the right person—you get help with that;
• Customizing your payments—did you know you can express yourself with Venmo? You can customize your payments with messages, emojis, and GIFs;
• Online and in-store purchases—you can also pay for everything from your morning coffee to ordering takeout and paying for your Uber ride via Venmo; the best thing is you can pay your local businesses the same way you pay your friends;
• Earn unlimited cashback—if you have a Venmo credit card, you can earn up to 3% cashback on certain purchases; best of all, you won’t have to pay any annual fees, and you won’t be limited on how much you can earn;
• Venmo Purchase Protection—when buying and selling certain goods and services, users are covered in case the transaction falls through;
• Get into the crypto game—you only need $1 in your Venmo account to purchase cryptocurrency, which you can also track and sell easily.
• Grow your business with Venmo—entrepreneurs can also rely on Venmo to reach new customers by creating a business profile; everyone likes paying with Venmo, and if your trade allows them to do so, you’ll boost your sales.

All in all, Venmo owes its popularity to the rise of social networking platforms, which facilitate quick and seamless communication. Venmo replicates and fuses this social aspect with its digital payment platform, thus allowing friends to meet, talk, and quickly exchange money as easily as swapping real cash without having to carry any.

Venmo Alternatives in Canada

Venmo offers unmatched payment convenience to its users. But since it doesn’t offer its services in our country, here we are listing the best payment apps like Venmo in Canada.

So what are the alternatives? If you want to send money to a friend or want to make cash withdrawals, you need to use other mobile payment services in Canada.

1. KOHO

KOHO is a popular Venmo alternative in Canada for several reasons: offers an unlimited number of free e-transfers (up to $3,000 of outbound transfers per day) and numerous extra features, including instant notifications, budgeting tools, and cashback rewards.

KOHO offers several plans (all of which include e-transfers, and some come at a $0 monthly fee!) and a reloadable, prepaid MasterCard that works with Google Pay. Plus, KOHO helps users build credit history and thus qualify for loans.

2. Paysend

The Paysend app is by far the best way to transfer money to an international card. This fast-growing global fintech company allows Canadians to send or receive money from 170 countries for a flat fee of $3, making it a great alternative to Venmo.

Users can send money using their bank cards or accounts or even by typing in a user’s mobile number. The best part is transfers are incredibly fast, and the security is top-notch. Exchange rates and receivable amounts are shown beforehand, too.

3. PayPal

Canadians love PayPal. After all, it’s familiar and widely accepted, as well as convenient and hassle-free for the most part. The PayPal platform is robust, allowing users to not only send transfer money between them but also make secure online purchases.

PayPal also operates with different currencies, which makes it a rather versatile option for international transfers. Users can receive funds in 100 other currencies, withdraw money in 56, and hold account balances in 25.

4. CurrencyFair

CurrencyFair can also be considered a Venmo alternative, but only when it comes to international transfers. With CurrencyFair, you can make same-day transfers in over 20 currencies across 150+ countries.

Though CurrencyFair’s exchange rates are usually better than traditional banks, users have to pay a flat fee of €3 (or currency equivalent) for transfers and can only deposit funds into their account via bank transfers.

5. Wealthsimple Cash

Last, but not least, we’ve got WealthSimple Cash—another popular Venmo alternative in Canada that lets you split bills with your friends, pay your utility bills, and create a group of friends that will seamlessly send and request money from each other.

At no monthly fees, you can send up to $5,000 per day or $10,000 per week to anyone, anywhere, via the Weathsimple app. If you encounter any issues, Welathsimple offers great customer support with a 24/7 help center and human assistance.

Conclusion

While unfortunate that Venmo doesn’t work in Canada, Canucks still have access to several apps and services that do more or less the same job. So if you want to transfer some cash to your friends and family without any hassles (and low or no fees), check out the alternatives we outlined above. After you do, you’ll forget all about Venmo. We promise!