Zelle/ZellePay - Just curious if anyone's already using it

[britechguy]

Yesterday, to my surprise, one of my regular clients who's in her 80s (and who texts - and uses emojis - so that should have told me something long ago) asked me if I accepted payment via Zelle.

This is not a service I'd previously heard of, but it allows virtually instant transfer of funds from bank to bank without either party needing to have the banking information of the other. Obviously, Zelle does. It seems quite like PayPal in regard to the logistics of using it, but faster. Based on the wikipedia page for Zelle, it began as a competitor for Venmo.

I can already accept PayPal payment, if a client wanted to go that route, but there do appear to be advantages, particularly with speed of transfer, with this service. Just wondering if anyone here has direct experience and, if so, for how long?

 

[Markverhyden]

Personally I avoid them if at all possible. Checks don't incur processing fees like all those systems. And none of them have the protections that a regular bank/S&L has.

My previous landlady asked me to use Zelle for payments which BoA does support, typically 1-2 business days to complete. Used Venmo a couple of times to pay for services for my daughter's wedding when I was at Santander. One person I work with wanted me to setup Venmo so he could pay me through that service but BoA didn't like the service for some reason. Been using Squareup since it started in 2010 or so. Works fine but I still prefer checks. And I've got Paypal as well.

 

[britechguy]

I still accept checks, and always will. They're what most of my clients pay me with (as I don't take credit cards - at least not directly).

The main reason I'm considering Zelle as a possible additional option is that it, essentially, runs through existing debit cards to actually effect the transfers, and those are issued by the banks in question and do carry protections.

I'm really kinda leaning against, though, as so few people use any of these services other than PayPal, and even for PayPal very seldom for anything other than online commerce.

But this was the first time I'd heard anyone in the age demographic of this client talk about not wanting to have to buy checks nor write them, and I suspect this sentiment may become more common in the years ahead. Of course, I have no idea how many more years I'll keep doing this, either, but I suspect it will be for as long as it continues to amuse me. It's a side gig and I don't even pretend to try to be making a living from this work at this point in my life.

 

[Markverhyden]

When I used to go visit my parents at their assisted living facility I was amazed at the number of older women, as in late 70's+, who'd skipped the whole PC era and happily signed on to the smart device era. Albeit with some outside help. Last week I was picking up a replacement UPS battery at Batteries Plus, they also do cell phone repair. A woman in that demographic was in there, couldn't figure out where Facebook had gone. Got it back and she was happy as a lark.

 

[Kitten Kong]

I still accept checks, and always will. They're what most of my clients pay me with (as I don't take credit cards - at least not directly).

The main reason I'm considering Zelle as a possible additional option is that it, essentially, runs through existing debit cards to actually effect the transfers, and those are issued by the banks in question and do carry protections.

I'm really kinda leaning against, though, as so few people use any of these services other than PayPal, and even for PayPal very seldom for anything other than online commerce.

But this was the first time I'd heard anyone in the age demographic of this client talk about not wanting to have to buy checks.

Slightly off topic, and sorry for railroading your thread.

Do those of you in the US, have to buy your checks?.

Over here, we used to get them free of charge. Back when the vast majority wrote cheques.

 

[britechguy]

Do those of you in the US, have to buy your checks?

Though I am certain there is the rare exception, the general answer is, "Yes." For myself and my family, it's literally been decades since any bank or credit union provided checks at no charge. And now that so many no longer literally write checks, but use online bill pay to draw from their checking accounts, many never even get them to begin with.

The last batch of checks I bought for the checking account on which I still have them was at least 10 years ago, probably more. The household checking account for paying our bills has never had any actual checks. Everything is done via online bill payer, most of which ends up being electronic funds transfer, but even what isn't is cut on checks generated at some central processing site and I never see them. There are a number of entities, and governments in particular, that will not accept electronic payment (as in through the bank - credit/debit cards are a completely separate thing) and so most bill pay services do still cut checks and mail them for those entities that do not accept EFT.

 

[Kitten Kong]

@britechguy thanks for the info

 

[tek9]

I use Zelle from time to time. There are transfer limits so it's only good for smaller amounts, depending on your bank. It's an instant transfer with no fees so win-win. Many customers ask if I accept Quickpay, which appears to be a Chase thing. Since I don't have a Chase account, and Zelle works with many different banks, I use that instead.

 

[britechguy]

@tek9

I was told that the transaction limit was $1000 per transaction, and the vast majority of my invoices fall well below that amount. You can do more than one transaction in rapid succession, so it's not that difficult to do several if you really need to.

I always think about these services as being for "small" transactions between individuals or small (very small) businesses. Big bucks transactions are still generally by check, EFT, or similar and coming from entities, not individuals.

 

[Markverhyden]

My rent was well above $1000 and had no problems with Zelle.

 

[britechguy]

My rent was well above $1000 and had no problems with Zelle.

It would not surprise me, at all, if specific payees can pre-identify amounts they expect to be receiving on a cyclic basis that are "standard" for them.

 

[Markverhyden]

It would not surprise me, at all, if specific payees can pre-identify amounts they expect to be receiving on a cyclic basis that are "standard" for them.

Did nothing special. No recurring payment setup or anything like that. Being the trusting soul I am the very first payment was just $10 and after she confirmed receipt I did the rest. All the others were full amount. But I did use her cell phone and not email as the recipient ID.

Edit: to clarify this is Zelle offered through my accounts at Bank of America. That might easily explain why I've not seen anything about a $1k/transaction limit.

 

[britechguy]

@Markverhyden

Note, I said the payee (as in your landlord). I imagine if you were expecting payments of some set amount, every month, that is above the "casual transaction limit" you could specify that so that those who were trying to send it could without it being blocked.

I don't know the actual value of the limit, as $1000 was what my client said, but there must be one since, whatever it is, she reported having to break a payment into two transactions on a couple of occasions.

That limit is probably to prevent "account emptying" in a circumstance where someone got their hands on a device and could issue payment to themselves. I'd hate to think that someone could, say, try to send $25K at once and, unless that was expected on the payee's end, it would just go.

I also found it amusing that the wikipedia article on Zelle had this in a section entitled, Criticism, "The Zelle service has received negative publicity for fraud incidents in which bank customers' accounts were compromised through social engineering and Zelle then set up by the fraudsters and used to transfer funds out of the victims' accounts, leaving victims with little practical or legal recourse." My first thought was, how on earth could Zelle, or any other service, prevent people from falling for scams (one variety of social engineering)? That's not their job. But it would not surprise me, based on the dates in the references, that the transaction limit for "single occasion, one-off" payments was instituted. See also:

Is there a limit to how much money I can send?​

 

[cypress]

Yeah I accept Zelle, Square, Cash, and Checks (for established clients only)

I had a couple of clients ask me recently if I accepted Zelle and since I am familiar with and have been using with on my personal account it was a no-brainer.