Review Insights · App Store
Varo Bank: Online Banking
Varo Money inc · 233,457 ratings · ★ 4.9
4.9
★★★★★
233,457 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 35 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"account"
16 negative reviews mention this · 46% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Scam. Varo will randomly close people’s accounts, hold people’s funds and much more avoid them" - PVTTebbers
2
"varo"
14 negative reviews mention this · 40% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Scam. Varo will randomly close people’s accounts, hold people’s funds and much more avoid them" - PVTTebbers
3
"bank"
14 negative reviews mention this · 40% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Minimum balance required. They closed my account for zero activity with zero balance, do not use this bank. Obviously needs minimum balance." - tlang11
4
"money"
12 negative reviews mention this · 34% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Refused to pay me back. Worst banking app ever. I filed a dispute and got denied, even sent in police reports and proof I didn’t do anything and still got denied. Do not use this company. I am currently using a lawyer to file suit because the amount of money taken…" - bdel84
5
"scam"
6 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Scam. Varo will randomly close people’s accounts, hold people’s funds and much more avoid them" - PVTTebbers
6
"support"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Can’t log into my account. Made a account switch my direct deposit over they but when I try to log it I can’t in they also took my direct deposit still so I’m missing a whole pay check can’t get in contact with support unless you log in if you can log in you can’t ge…" - Dayday5607
7
"help"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Scam. Even after paying for their service they would give me an advance, then once I’ve cancelled my account they still take money from me WEEKLY, and I’m currently trying to go through their help service but they are belittling me and talking ah…" - wontontwuan
8
"nothing"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Advance option glitches. I have had Varo for a while now and recently when I go to the advance option, it glitches. I contact support and they do nothing. Get your act together Varo!" - Slothgirl1982
9
"been"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Customers service is bad. Zelle has not been fully functional i can only receive money i cant send its been a whole week and no solution on the support side keep telling to try again later but its not working and the agents end the chat to avoid the issue" - sont download
10
"illegal"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ ""Illegal argument exception". Usually this app is pretty good and I don't typically have issues with accessing my account unless it's a sitewide outage. However, I have been receiving this error message, illegal argument exception, for the past three days now. I have tr…" - cocoayayo
11
"deposit"
4 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Can’t log into my account. Made a account switch my direct deposit over they but when I try to log it I can’t in they also took my direct deposit still so I’m missing a whole pay check can’t get in contact with support unless you log in if you can log in you can’t ge…" - Dayday5607
12
"service"
4 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Scam. Even after paying for their service they would give me an advance, then once I’ve cancelled my account they still take money from me WEEKLY, and I’m currently trying to go through their help service but they are belittling me and talking ah…" - wontontwuan
📋 All 35 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Scam
Varo will randomly close people’s accounts, hold people’s funds and much more avoid them
Scammers
Fuk You
Can’t log into my account
Made a account switch my direct deposit over they but when I try to log it I can’t in they also took my direct deposit still so I’m missing a whole pay check can’t get in contact with support unless you log in if you can log in you can’t get into contact with support unless
Minimum balance required
They closed my account for zero activity with zero balance, do not use this bank. Obviously needs minimum balance.
Refused to pay me back
Worst banking app ever. I filed a dispute and got denied, even sent in police reports and proof I didn’t do anything and still got denied. Do not use this company. I am currently using a lawyer to file suit because the amount of money taken was a lot. Sad that you have proof your money was stolen and they refuse to pay it back when in reality it’s their fault and they are insured. Trash bank
Scam
Even after paying for their service they would give me an advance, then once I’ve cancelled my account they still take money from me WEEKLY, and I’m currently trying to go through their help service but they are belittling me and talking ahit while still just taking my money and refusing me using the service. Go anywhere else but here
Varo problems
I’m tired of Varo forcing me out my account. Saying my password from 3 years need to be updated and it won’t let me in my own account. I’m tired of this happening randomly. Varo was ok until I noticed all these little problems at the wrong times. I need to access my account, but Varo won’t let me in and it suck’s banking with AI. That’s really all Varo is . You have to wait til 7 am the next day to talk to a machine . It sucks now .
Advance option glitches
I have had Varo for a while now and recently when I go to the advance option, it glitches. I contact support and they do nothing. Get your act together Varo!
Terribly Inconvenient
Everything about this app is inconvenient when you want to move money around between your Varo and non-Varo accounts or other people's non-Varo account.
1) It says you can transfer money instantly to your friends who don't have Varo accounts. It's a lie. They'll send your friends a text which leads to an advertisement for Varo with a tiny option at the bottom to receive money to a non-Varo account.
You just have to give them your debit card info. Except no matter what, it will always say that your "expiration date" is wrong even if everything is exactly the same on your card. Deliberately messing up anything else, but leaving the expiration date correct, will still pop up the same error message that only the expiration date is wrong.
So they essentially never wanted to let you send money that way in the first place.
2) Depositing money into a Varo account is instant but sending money from your Varo account to a different, non-Varo account you have takes a long time.
It took 6 days to send money from Varo to my non-Varo bank. There was no "instant send" option like on CashApp or so many other apps nowadays.
Ultimately Varo just wants your money and doesn't want you to move it anywhere else and will deliberately slow you down or make it downright impossible.
1) It says you can transfer money instantly to your friends who don't have Varo accounts. It's a lie. They'll send your friends a text which leads to an advertisement for Varo with a tiny option at the bottom to receive money to a non-Varo account.
You just have to give them your debit card info. Except no matter what, it will always say that your "expiration date" is wrong even if everything is exactly the same on your card. Deliberately messing up anything else, but leaving the expiration date correct, will still pop up the same error message that only the expiration date is wrong.
So they essentially never wanted to let you send money that way in the first place.
2) Depositing money into a Varo account is instant but sending money from your Varo account to a different, non-Varo account you have takes a long time.
It took 6 days to send money from Varo to my non-Varo bank. There was no "instant send" option like on CashApp or so many other apps nowadays.
Ultimately Varo just wants your money and doesn't want you to move it anywhere else and will deliberately slow you down or make it downright impossible.
Issues
Another TYPICAL bank that has over seas customer support an American company to cheap to hire American workers the overseas customer support has no clue what they’re doing it literally says Apple Pay is currently down I was told to make sure to “login to my Apple Pay account” which doesn’t exist… these people have no clue what’s going on garbage bank
Ripoff/ Terrible Service
This App Sucks !!So does Varo Bank. Make offers they don’t keep ! Not Recommended! Terrible Service ! Way Better Apps out there. /
Please Create a Way to Search Transactions
This is my only issue with this bank, everything else is amazing.
Very bad nausea bad horrible
Don’t ever download this bs this app is horrible
Total Criminals
This bank is total scam! I be misplaced my online ID so my money sits in savings and I can’t ac aess it because their 1800 is never manned by a human. The company never returns a email nothing but straight lies!
"Illegal argument exception"
Usually this app is pretty good and I don't typically have issues with accessing my account unless it's a sitewide outage. However, I have been receiving this error message, illegal argument exception, for the past three days now. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling this app about five times with no change. The only way that I am able to access my account is if I delete the app and login through the website which is not convenient. I need to be able to access my account through the app.
Do not do business with this bank!
Suspended my account for NO reason. Terrible bank
Varo is off
Why does varo tend to lock the account and say some illegal whatever when im not even using the app ?
Illegal Argument Exception??
Ever since I signed up with Varo, it’s giving me a message of “illegal argument exception”.
Can’t login to the app but can from my laptop. What gives???
Can’t login to the app but can from my laptop. What gives???
Took my money
I used to love this app until my $200 was taken and I was only offered $50 after being 3 days late with my borrow payment so I will no longer be using this app and I wish to stop seeing it yall taking my money set me back so badly but it’s cool god got me won’t be using Varo again or shall I say I won’t let yall use me again
Misleading Ads
This app advertises cash advances but after going through the entire account creation process I was denied for a cash advances with a generic ineligible checking account as a reason. If you need help right away VARO can’t help you.
Loan options
I do not like the fact in order to qualify for a loan you have to set up your direct deposit meaning that they take the money directly from your employer. That sounds like a bunch of BS to trust a app to get your direct deposit going directly to them and they also expect you to work for major companies so my private job is not listed. There are more things I have to say, but most of all don’t waste your time thinking you would get any longer from them even after linking your personal account.
“Illegal argument exception”
Can’t log in after doing update- I keep getting an error - please fix!!
Advance change
I am very disappointed with the new change for the advance requirement. It requires me to have an actual bank account when I have been using Varo and getting the advance and paying it on time for years. I do not have a regular bank, because it would take away my deposit from here. Let’s not mention the financial strain it placed on me last minute because I did depend on the cash advance to help me. Fix it back, or allow those who have been using it with good payment history be grandfathered in.
Scam will hold your direct deposit for weeks now
I introduced my friend to Varo he set up his direct deposit and it’s been pending for 3 weeks now everytime he calls them they say it will be posted the next day for 3 weeks now and still nuthin
Won’t let me sign into my old account
My old account has a number I don’t use anymore and instead of making it easier to get that account back all varo does is NOTHING to help and I got money sitting but I can’t access it
Worst Banking Ever
Extremely upset with Varo. This bank is great if you have or keep less than 1K in it ever. The spending and transfer limits are ridiculous. Let me spend my own money. Never using again
Closed my acct
I give this a negative star I have money in this acct and I get email saying they closed my acct for no reason is crazy to me can't get ahold of no one I want my money
Bad representation
Wish I could leave 0 stars
Scam
This app is a scam. When you try to borrow money they turn around and pull that amount from your account. Do not give them your information!!
Many issues
I wish I could have had the other experiences as other users but I haven’t. I have linked my bank and debit card and this app would not let me put money in this account. I’ve contacted chat and they said unlink the accounts try again and also delete and redownload the app. Nothing has worked so they advised just use the cvs option. I’m not doing that to use a debit card to place money for my spending leisure. Will be deleting and finding something else
Horrible customer service
Worse customer service I received supervisor even lied on a recorded call I want that recorded call and will be pursuing legal action
THIS APP ISN’T SAFE!!!
I decided to open a Varo believe card to just simply build my credit a little more. I put in $200 for a secured credit and enrolled in “safe pay” but I have of yet to see “safe pay” work even once. Even worse when I reach out to customer support to understand how the Varo believe card works & what account it uses to “safe pay” for my secured believe card the customer support team are the most incompetent “support” I have ever encountered and they are extremely short and don’t even remotely attempt to do their “job” or answer the questions you are specifically asking. Instead they repeat the same statements over and over and then rudely ask if you’re ready to wrap up the chat. Thank GOODNESS I didn’t trust them enough to use them as my primary bank account. This “bank” is a nightmare and has been nothing but a scam.
Customers service is bad
Zelle has not been fully functional i can only receive money i cant send its been a whole week and no solution on the support side keep telling to try again later but its not working and the agents end the chat to avoid the issue
App Broken Again
After the update that app is having issues logging in stating “Illegal argument exception” online login works fine. This is the second time this has happened. Love this bank but their app sometimes is horrible.
They really need to do better
They really need to do better this whole entire communication system of talking through the chat or talking with AI and not being able to directly dedicate or call or talk to someone in a in a more receptive manner to help us with our concerns needs and abilities through the app. It is frustrating to have to keep and consistently talk to someone via chat and they don’t know what the hell they’re doing. We need to go back to a period where there’s options of talking to someone via phone call versus talking with AI in the app this is ridiculous. I don’t know how much longer I’m gonna be with this bank if I’m having
Sentiment summary
97%
Positive (4-5★)
1%
Neutral (3★)
2%
Negative (1-2★)