Tulsa Woman Warns Others After Venmo Freezes Her Account

A Tulsa woman's Venmo account is frozen because she didn’t read the fine print and now, she has a warning for others about what went wrong. 

"180 days is a long time for a significant sum of money to be sitting somewhere interest-free at someone's whim,” said Delana Taylor McNac.  

She said she can't access the $1,000 sitting in her Venmo account. Delana McNac got a Venmo account so she could send money to a friend for their weekend getaway thinking the app would be convenient. 

"I have one friend who's already on Venmo and I added her to my account and that's it and I didn't send her any money. It's just sitting out there,” said McNac. 

McNac tried depositing $1,000 into her Venmo account but got an email saying she'd violated the company's user agreement. 

“Nobody has time to go through a 28-page user agreement and when I read it, I still don't see exactly how they have the right to do what they've done,” said McNac. 

According to the Venmo Help Center, “If you have not yet completed identity verification, you will have a lower weekly spending limit of $299.99.” 

 McNac said she hadn’t verified her identity before depositing $1000 dollars. She said she didn’t know she needed to, but she has now. 

"I just want my money back and a person to find out what the heck," said McNac. 

McNac sent a copy of her driver’s license to verify her identity and later a bank statement. But apparently, she said that wasn't enough. 

"Within 72 hours I was permanently shut down,” said McNac. 

McNac said a Venmo assistant within the chat feature told her that her best option is to reply directly to the email she received. However, she already had. 

"[It’s a] generic account specialist... you have no person, no nothing," said McNac. 

Her latest email from Venmo said in part, "[T]he funds in your account will be held for up to 180 days for loss prevention purposes,” as detailed in the Acceptable Use Policy.           

"This could be a house payment or a car payment or something that was just stuck in limbo for 6 months,” said McNac. 

The email also said, "[F]uture contact or inquiries will not be answered and that this matter will be considered closed upon her receipt of the email." 

"They just wanted to shut it down and tell me too bad,” said McNac. 

A Venmo representative responded to our email and provided information about the app. Some of that information is below:

1. According to Venmo, accounts could be permanently limited if the account is found to be in violation of the User Agreement [venmo.com], which all customers must acknowledge before they can use Venmo’s services.
2. The company said its committed to the highest levels of risk management and compliance, and its decisions are designed to protect customers, also acknowledging the impact account holds may have on individuals, saying they take the process very seriously.
3. Venmo said a list of reasons why an account may be restricted by the company can be found in the User Agreement under “Restricted Activities.”
4. Additional information regarding a temporary account freeze can be found here: https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/217532077 [help.venmo.com]
5. According to Venmo, the company can't divulge certain levels of decision-making criteria about account restrictions to protect the systems that monitor activity on its platform and that includes corresponding with an account holder.
6. Customer Services can be reached by phone, email, mobile app chat: https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=624807"