Examined Sep 18, 2026 Paid in cash No published amount Varo will not tell the internet what its referral pays. Only your app knows.
Whatever number your own offer names, the work behind it is published. Your friend has to receive a qualifying direct deposit, somewhere between $500 and $1,000 depending on which offer applies to them, within 45 days of opening the account. Payment follows within 30 business days, but only if you are among the first five people to complete the offer on the sender's link that calendar year. Varo reports what it pays you on a 1099-MISC.
What Varo counts as a direct deposit
Counts. An electronic deposit of a paycheck, a pension, or government benefits, sent by an employer or by the government. In plain words: money a payer sends you because they owe it to you, arriving through the banking system rather than by hand.
Does not count, in Varo's own words. Tax refunds. Government stimulus payments. Person to person payments, naming both Venmo and Varo's own Varo to Anyone feature. And funds deposited using a Varo routing number, which is the self funding route described above.
Why the routing number line matters. Varo does not stop at excluding transfers in general terms. It names funds deposited using a Varo routing number, which closes off pushing your own money in from another bank.
Qualifying Direct Deposits are an electronic deposit of a paycheck, pension or government benefits (such as Social Security or Unemployment Insurance) from an employer or the government into the New Customer’s Varo Bank Account. Tax refunds and government stimulus payments, person-to-person payments (such as Venmo and Varo to Anyone), and funds deposited using a Varo routing number are not considered a qualifying direct deposit.
What pays what
| New customer receives the qualifying direct deposit named in their offer, within 45 days | The amount your offer names |
|---|---|
| You, if five people on the same sender's link were paid before you that year | $0 |
| Money you push in using your own Varo routing number | Does not qualify |
| Venmo, Varo to Anyone, or any person to person payment | $0 |
| Tax refunds and government stimulus payments | $0 |
| A qualifying deposit that arrives on day 46 | $0 |
Do this, in this order
- Look up your own number first, because there is no public one. Open the Varo app or check the email Varo sent you. The offer there names both the bonus and the size of deposit it wants, and that deposit sits somewhere between $500 and $1,000.
- Ignore every Varo figure you find through a search engine. Varo's own content servers still host expired referral terms as official looking PDFs, and they rank well: one promises $50 and expired on August 31, 2022, another promises $35 and expired on July 13, 2023. Their version numbers run the wrong way, so the higher number is the older document. Third party sites currently claim $150, which we could not confirm anywhere Varo controls. A $300 offer circulating in search results is labeled as targeted, meaning it was sent to specific people and is not a public offer. None of these are your offer.
- Confirm your pay is the kind Varo accepts. A real paycheck, pension, or government benefit sent by an employer or the government. Not a transfer you make, not a friend paying you back, not a tax refund, and not anything routed through a Varo routing number.
- Open through the referral, then start the payroll change the same day. The 45 day clock runs from account opening, and employers routinely need a full pay cycle to switch. If your offer asks for $1,000 and you are paid twice a month, you have very little slack.
- Watch that the deposit clears the threshold in one piece if your offer says so. The policy describes a qualifying direct deposit between $500 and $1,000 for your specific offer. Read your own wording carefully before assuming several small deposits will add up to it.
- Then wait. Varo pays within 30 business days, which is about six weeks of calendar time. Do not start chasing support in week two.
The fine print that can still cost you the bonus
Being sixth in line costs you the bonus, even if you did everything right. The new customer half of Varo's terms: “if you complete the Offer, but are not one of the first five Referees from a single Sender to do so, you will not receive a Bonus”. If the person sending you a link has shared it widely, ask how many people have already used it.
A paid bonus can be taken back. The August 12, 2026 terms add a clawback that was not in the July version: “If Varo determines you obtained a bonus through fraudulent methods, Varo will reverse the bonus deposit transaction(s) or recover the funds from your account”.
It is taxable, and reported. Varo reports referral bonuses to the IRS on Form 1099-MISC.
The bonus is for people who have never banked with Varo. Varo's referral terms exclude anyone who has ever been a Varo customer, at Varo Bank or at Varo Money. An account you opened and closed years ago does not reset you back to new.
If you refer later. The August 12, 2026 terms cap each customer at 6 bonuses and $1,000 a calendar year, counting a bonus received as a new customer, and anything past either cap is forfeited. They also make you promise you had permission to send your link at all: “You represent and warrant that you have obtained consent from any and all Receivers to whom you have sent your unique referral link”, and “Varo is not responsible for messages you send”.
Is it worth your time?
This is a hard offer to judge, because Varo has taken the number away. A deposit of $500 to $1,000 is a serious ask, roughly what Chase wants for $400, and you are being asked to do it without knowing what you are being paid. So look in the app first, then decide. If the figure there is good and your payroll can move, it is a clean enough offer with a slow but stated payout. If the app shows you nothing, or a small number, spend the afternoon on Chase or on Ally's savings route instead. We have read four versions of Varo's referral terms, two of which were years out of date while still sitting on Varo's own servers.
