Haven’t used Zelle for a while, but used to do it a lot, and the transactions have always completed within minutes, sending or receiving payments. Transactions taking days is unheard of. And, as stated above, the other party has no access to any info in your bank account, except either your email or your phone number, which you provide to them. That’s how transactions go through, email or phone number.

I use Zelle monthly. My oldest son is on our cell phone plan, and he pays his part of the bill using Zelle to transfer the funds to my checking account.

I have also used it to pay for goods and services with no issues whatsoever.

Zelle isn't attached to PayPal like Venmo is.

Never used Zelle. Same with Apple Pay.

As other's have indicated, the other party has no access to any bank account info, however they do see the account holder's name. And that, IMO is one of the huge advantages of using Zelle! You know exactly who the account holder is, regardless of whether you're sending or receiving funds. Enrollment in Zelle does not allow one to use an alias that would shield their identity, so both parties always know the name of the other party, thereby avoiding transactions with unknown fraudsters such as 'tommymallninja@hotmail.com', and the like.

Not only can you not use an alias, you can only sign up via your bank.

So you have to have sufficiently proved your identity in order to open the account in the first place, in order to even get access to Zelle.

Yes. I have paid some members here for their goods, my lawn guy and occasionally send $$ to my daughter in college

I use it to send cash to my sisters. Transactions always completed quickly (seconds).

I just got a message from Zelle / my bank that they're going to slow down transactions to Social Contacts. This is supposedly from many people being scammed. I don't know how they would flag a contact as a social media contact.

I have made a Zelle payment that turned out to be a scam. Zelle did send me a message questioning if I really trusted the recipient. Turned out I was dead wrong. Once Zelle money is sent, there is no way of retrieving it. So unlike, e.g. credit card payment, the bank will not try to get your money back or reimburse you for fraud.

Fraud prevention starts with you.

Even the best fraud department can't protect you from yourself.

They can keep an external bad actor from taking your money, but they can't prevent you from willingly (though perhaps unwittingly) giving away your money to bad actors.

Sending money using Apple Cash is the same. Once you tap the send button it’s a done deal.

I use Zelle fairly often, transferring funds to/from my son. We both use the same major bank and we’ve never had an issue. Seems to almost be instantaneous. I used it once to take a payment for an item at a garage sale we were having. That one went smoothly as well.

Apple Pay was mentioned and I use it where it’s available. Once I convinced myself that it was as secure as or better than handing out a credit card, I’ve decided I like it. One of the pluses is I can use my Apple Watch on the payment device much quicker than digging a card out of my pocket.

I bought a rifle on GunBroker and the guy wanted me to pay him through Zelle. I had never used it, so I went ahead and sent him $1,100 through Zelle.

He had hacked another GB account, and my money was gone. My bank told me there are no fraud recovery protections to be taken through Zelle. I was out the cash and never received the rifle.

The bank told me it's primarily to send money to relatives, so I will never use it again.

And there you have it, gentlemen and ladies.

I don't use it, won't use it.

I looked at my Zelle history, and found that I have used it primarily in transactions with SIGforum members.

I'm just a little bit paranoid, so I am extra careful to verify who I am dealing with, and I do confirm the phone number or email address of the other party.

To date, everything has been smooth.

quote:

Originally posted by AUTiger89:
I bought a rifle on GunBroker and the guy wanted me to pay him through Zelle. I had never used it, so I went ahead and sent him $1,100 through Zelle.

He had hacked another GB account, and my money was gone. My bank told me there are no fraud recovery protections to be taken through Zelle. I was out the cash and never received the rifle.

The bank told me it's primarily to send money to relatives, so I will never use it again.

If you did it as friends and family transfer, there is no recourse.

If you did it via an invoice then you're doubly screwed because Zelle does not allow it to be used for any firearms transactions and your account may be suspended.