NEVER EVER allow accounts to be created without properly linking PayPal or Venmo to both PAY and RECEIVE PAYMENTS
Splitwise currently allows different emails for Splitwise and Venmo accounts without linking them. The result is that Splitwise fails to connect to an account for you to RECEIVE payments but it takes them from you.
Splitwise should NEVER EVER allow accounts to be created that haven't properly been linked for BOTH paying AND receiving payments.
This is Splitwise's fault for not having a verification system. Splitwise needs to fix this problem, otherwise people will pay you and it will just sit around.

Sorry for the trouble! We’d definitely like to add more explicit confirmation for PayPal/Venmo payments in the future, and we’ve been working on the ability for a Splitwise user to have multiple email addresses for their account (e.g. one for PayPal, one for Venmo, etc). Hopefully we can make more improvements in this area this year.
12 comments
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Reid Wilson commented
Add Venmo username to easily send friends money. One friend was added to our Splitwise group with his work email, and when settling up, it sent to the wrong account. This could be prevented if we could add our preferred Venmo account to our Splitwise profile, and pass it through when friends settle up.
It is also common for friends to share a Venmo account with their spouse, since you can only have one Venmo per checking account. This would prevent sending to a friend when the account is in the wife’s name.
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Mike commented
Is there any update from splitwise here on this feature?
For adding specific email id to venmo. and ability for user to set his/her venmo id and only when enabled it will be visible to the payer.
This otherwise leads to payment being made to unused venmo ids which never existed. -
Jessica commented
I don't use Venmo and I don't want to use Venmo, but my friends can still send me Venmo payments via Splitwise. I'd like to be able to restrict that so that my friends don't send money to me through a site I don't use and can't get.
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Divy Shah commented
Everytime a person wants to send the money, it can be seen on splitwise but it would automatically select venmo even when the other person doesn't have a venmo account on the same email address used for splitwise or doesn't have an account at all. Give an option to the person who has to receive the payment for making the transaction less complicated if possible.
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Jake commented
Wish I could plus one this a million times over.
For every payment option that Splitwise wants to natively support, you should ask the account owner to link their payment option accounts. If I only use PayPal and I never use Venmo, then do not present the option to pay me with Venmo at all, and vice versa. In order to accept payments, only show the options to users that I have enabled in my account - it is pretty simple.
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Tushar commented
Instead of sending venmo cash to the specified user email id. Could you guys also have an option where the user can enter his or her intended venmo id. I have separate mails for both. And dont want to keep one email id for both of them
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Sarah Skapik commented
Love the integration with Venmo! However there's no way to specify your venmo account or handle in the app. It looks like the email values are just getting passed, but that presents an issue if you are using different emails between Splitwise and Venmo.
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Joshua Garvey commented
I literally just had this problem where I tried to send money directly through the splitwise app to someone on venmo, and their account didn't have that email. It ended up being a while deal to fix it. It would be so much easier if I could pay directly to the related ACCOUNT instead of hoping that the email they signed up with correlates to the venmo/paypal account.
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Akshay Sharma commented
A user should be able to save / change his own venmo id in splitwise instead of the default email id because they might be different for the same user
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Ashley commented
Someone tried to pay me back through PayPal and this app told him that it worked, but PayPal sent me an email saying I needed to create an account to claim it. I do not use PayPal and do not want to create an account, so I can't access the money. You should have some way to at least list the forms of payment users use so that others do not pay them in a way that they cannot access.
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Alan Derk commented
My email address doesn't match my email address for my venmo account, so people are always sending money via venmo to the wrong, unverified-by-venmo email address. In my profile, I would like to add a venmo user name in my profile
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Jasmine commented
Many users have existing Venmo accounts. It would be easier for users to link their Venmo accounts versus having people send money to email addresses (especially if users have their Venmo account set up to a different email) OR forcing senders to look up recipients in the Venmo database. Splitwise's adding of Venmo is not useful to users without integration, as it places the burden of ensuring payments are received directly on users & absolves Splitwise and Venmo of responsibly connecting and recording payments.