Savings account just for Zelle & Cash Deposits: Wells Fargo vs. Bank of America?

[manlymatt83]

I have the need to use Zelle every once in a while, and my main banks don't support it. Additionally, all of my main banks are online-only, and every once in a while I have some excess cash I'd like to deposit.

I recently found out that both Wells Fargo and Bank of America allow you to open savings accounts you can use with Zelle (limited to 6 transactions per month). The minimums are low ($300 and $500 respectively) so to me the lost interest of about ~$15/year at today's rates would be worth having Zelle support and a place to deposit cash.

Honestly, Bank of America's website is horrible. The Bill Pay experience when paying credit cards is very frustrating. The Wells Fargo website seems nicer (I have the BILT credit card) but I've heard all the issues with Wells Fargo in the past.

Curious if anyone has any experiencing banking with either of these banks for the purpose I'd use them for (mostly idle... there when needed). Any thoughts between the two?

[Silk McCue]

But, even if you don't have Zelle® available through your bank or credit union, you can still use it! Simply download the Zelle® app in the App Store or Google Play and enroll an eligible Visa® or Mastercard® debit card. After you enroll, you can send and receive money with confidence to almost anyone you trust.

https://www.zellepay.com/financial-educ ... ou%20trust.

Cheers

[02nz]

Honestly, Bank of America's website is horrible. The Bill Pay experience when paying credit cards is very frustrating.

No experience with Zelle at BoA, but I have a regular checking account at BoA and use bill pay regularly to pay BoA and other banks' cards. It's not the greatest website but I've had no real issues. Wells Fargo seems ok, too. My general experience is that Chase is by far the best of the big banks, followed by BoA, US Bank, Wells Fargo (in that order), and Citi dead last.

[billaster]

But, even if you don't have Zelle® available through your bank or credit union, you can still use it! Simply download the Zelle® app in the App Store or Google Play and enroll an eligible Visa® or Mastercard® debit card. After you enroll, you can send and receive money with confidence to almost anyone you trust.

https://www.zellepay.com/financial-educ ... ou%20trust.

Cheers

If you use Zelle with a debit card, who pays the processing fee?

[manlymatt83]

But, even if you don't have Zelle® available through your bank or credit union, you can still use it! Simply download the Zelle® app in the App Store or Google Play and enroll an eligible Visa® or Mastercard® debit card. After you enroll, you can send and receive money with confidence to almost anyone you trust.

https://www.zellepay.com/financial-educ ... ou%20trust.

Cheers

Unfortunately that’s limited to $500 and the times that I do need it, I need a much higher limit.

[manlymatt83]

Honestly, Bank of America's website is horrible. The Bill Pay experience when paying credit cards is very frustrating.

No experience with Zelle at BoA, but I have a regular checking account at BoA and use bill pay regularly to pay BoA and other banks' cards. It's not the greatest website but I've had no real issues. Wells Fargo seems ok, too. My general experience is that Chase is by far the best of the big banks, followed by BoA, US Bank, Wells Fargo (in that order), and Citi dead last.

I agree that chase is the best, but I used to bank with them and left. Every other thing… fraud. Send a Zelle transaction, account locked! Use your card while traveling in Europe… “please call”. Fraud detection is super sensitive. I switched.

[RetiredAL]

But, even if you don't have Zelle® available through your bank or credit union, you can still use it! Simply download the Zelle® app in the App Store or Google Play and enroll an eligible Visa® or Mastercard® debit card. After you enroll, you can send and receive money with confidence to almost anyone you trust.

https://www.zellepay.com/financial-educ ... ou%20trust.

Cheers

Unfortunately that’s limited to $500 and the times that I do need it, I need a much higher limit.

Both BofA and WF allow some pretty significant Zelle transactions. Schwab allows $2500. I'm not a Zelle user, but as I understood it, Zelle is selectable within Schwab's "move money" functions.

Limit summary: https://www.mybanktracker.com/checking/ ... its-274406

[mhc]

Ally has Zelle. I have been happy with them. I have an Ally account that is just for Zelle and Venmo.

Ally pays some interest. The mobile app is easy to use.

[TheGiantess]

My wife has a small business and uses Zelle for one customer. She has to keep $5000 at B of A to use it. She is considering switching to Discover zelle. I hate that $5000 is sitting there gaining no interest for one customer. Also, zelle has no safeguards so she does not link it to any other accounts and uses the ATM to take money out every month when that customer pays. I know some BHs would not think $5000 is a lot of money but it is for us and I wish she would make her customer use Venmo or pay by cash or check.
She has not had any problems so far.
TG

[Lastrun]

My wife has a small business and uses Zelle for one customer. She has to keep $5000 at B of A to use it. She is considering switching to Discover zelle. I hate that $5000 is sitting there gaining no interest for one customer. Also, zelle has no safeguards so she does not link it to any other accounts and uses the ATM to take money out every month when that customer pays. I know some BHs would not think $5000 is a lot of money but it is for us and I wish she would make her customer use Venmo or pay by cash or check.
She has not had any problems so far.
TG

Questions: is this a business account? Who is she? The customer or your spouse? When you say Zelle has no safeguards what do you mean? Again for the customer or your wife?

[JD2775]

Neither BofA or Wells allows you to schedule recurring Zelle payments, if that's important to you.

I have used BofA for 30 years, no issues with them. No bank is perfect, but it seems like Wells has the worse reputation of the two.

[uaeebs86]

“Wells Fargo is a criminal enterprise masquerading as a bank”.

-Clark Howard

He also advises against ever using Zelle.

[Eno Deb]

My wife has a small business and uses Zelle for one customer. She has to keep $5000 at B of A to use it.

One of their business accounts waives fees if you have a $5000 minimum balance. But that has nothing to do with the ability to use Zelle.

BoA has relatively generous limits for Zelle (I think $3500/day for personal accounts), but they do not offer automatic recurring transfers. Of course their savings account has next to no interest. Ally supports Zelle and has competitive interest rates, but they have a low Zelle limit ($500/day). Capital One may be a better choice.

Also, zelle has no safeguards

Not sure what you mean by that. BoA even requires a verification step if you add a new Zelle recipient to send money to.

[safari]

Curious why you're only considering savings accounts and not checking? The 0.01% savings rate or whatever the brick and mortar banks are paying on Savings is so insignificant, it really doesn't matter. I'd just find a bank with a branch near you that offers a free checking account that works with Zelle. A credit union is worth looking into. Actually, you just need a bank where you can deposit cash, even if it doesn't support Zelle, as many online-only banks offer Zelle (Ally is one example).

[Spring garden]

Sounds like you are looking for a new bank that does 2 things, but don't have other requirements because you aren't planning on using it as your primary account.
1) Has a local branch where you can deposit cash
2) Does Zelle.

Agree why limit yourself to savings and not looking at checking and also why limit yourself to just Wells Fargo or BOA? What area of the country? I use a regional bank that does those two things and doesn't have all the fees and downsides of the big banks and has the upside of lending to our community. Perhaps there are some other options?
I don't think the regional bank I use even has a minimum to use zelle and the app is great and very simple to do core functions of see transactions, make transfers, deposit check, and zelle. What more do you need? I don't keep that much in the regional bank there because the rates aren't high, but it serves much the same purpose as what you are looking for.

As an aside, I don't use billpay at all, just have the credit card on autopay and pull from bank account. That would take that factor off the table for your bank shopping.

[carolinaman]

Long time Wells Fargo customer. They are a big bank, so service does suffer at times. However, I rarely go into a branch and do everything electronically. I find their website to be good and rarely have any issues. I Zelle money to daughter for gifts a few times a year. Process is simple.

I cannot speak for BOA, but I think WF can meet your need.

[rgs92]

Ally is good for Zelle. For cash, try a credit union with offices convenient for you. Just link them for ACH.
Credit unions in my experience let you keep low or zero-balance accounts forever with no fees, just do a little activity each year so they don't become dormant which can cause fees.

Ha ha, BOA online is still pretty confusing for no reason. It's only recently that that they figured out how to establish auto-pay for credit cards. I actually had to call them to set that up and their explanations were incredibly complex and beyond me with diabolically bizarre definitions for their different payment methods. Their explanations of what is easily straightforward in other banks and credit were a lesson in how not to design anything.

[TheGiantess]

My wife has a small business and uses Zelle for one customer. She has to keep $5000 at B of A to use it.

One of their business accounts waives fees if you have a $5000 minimum balance. But that has nothing to do with the ability to use Zelle.

BoA has relatively generous limits for Zelle (I think $3500/day for personal accounts), but they do not offer automatic recurring transfers. Of course their savings account has next to no interest. Ally supports Zelle and has competitive interest rates, but they have a low Zelle limit ($500/day). Capital One may be a better choice.

Also, zelle has no safeguards

Not sure what you mean by that. BoA even requires a verification step if you add a new Zelle recipient to send money to.

True about the business account. My wife keeps $5000 to avoid fees, not for Zelle. No safeguards means that you have to be careful who you send me to. If you send money to someone and it is the wrong person, you won't get it back. B of A warns you on their website to only use zelle with people you trust.
TG

[TheGiantess]

My wife has a small business and uses Zelle for one customer. She has to keep $5000 at B of A to use it. She is considering switching to Discover zelle. I hate that $5000 is sitting there gaining no interest for one customer. Also, zelle has no safeguards so she does not link it to any other accounts and uses the ATM to take money out every month when that customer pays. I know some BHs would not think $5000 is a lot of money but it is for us and I wish she would make her customer use Venmo or pay by cash or check.
She has not had any problems so far.
TG

Questions: is this a business account? Who is she? The customer or your spouse? When you say Zelle has no safeguards what do you mean? Again for the customer or your wife?

Business account. She is my wife, no safeguards meaning you should only use it with trusted people, as B of A warns on their website. My wife usually only receives money so that is safer than sending it seems.

[androiddd]

Why not use Ally Bank? Unlimited Zelle receiving, and can pair a checking account to receive unlimited Zelles, with a 4% mm saving account to xfer the money to to earn good interest. Great online presence, and no minimums.

[JBTX]

Honestly, Bank of America's website is horrible. The Bill Pay experience when paying credit cards is very frustrating.

No experience with Zelle at BoA, but I have a regular checking account at BoA and use bill pay regularly to pay BoA and other banks' cards. It's not the greatest website but I've had no real issues. Wells Fargo seems ok, too. My general experience is that Chase is by far the best of the big banks, followed by BoA, US Bank, Wells Fargo (in that order), and Citi dead last.

I agree that chase is the best, but I used to bank with them and left. Every other thing… fraud. Send a Zelle transaction, account locked! Use your card while traveling in Europe… “please call”. Fraud detection is super sensitive. I switched.

Been at BOA for 25 years. Mostly non eventful, but recently their fraud dept froze my account due to one not particularly noteworthy transfer, and initially refused to unlock it until after a 30 day “review”. Only after I went through other less common channels was I able to get them to fix it, after many autopays had bounced. I have since greatly scaled back use of this account, and only use it for Zelle, cash and the occasional check deposit. It has worked fine for the Zelle transactions.

I now use capital one as a primary account and so far much prefer it to BOA. They also have Zelle but I haven’t really used it yet.

[Eno Deb]

No safeguards means that you have to be careful who you send me to. If you send money to someone and it is the wrong person, you won't get it back. B of A warns you on their website to only use zelle with people you trust.
TG

I don't understand. If someone sent me money, why should they be able to just claw it back later. That would make the payment method practically useless. Obviously you need to pay attention to whom you are sending money, but that is true for any payment method.

[TheGiantess]

No safeguards means that you have to be careful who you send me to. If you send money to someone and it is the wrong person, you won't get it back. B of A warns you on their website to only use zelle with people you trust.
TG

I don't understand. If someone sent me money, why should they be able to just claw it back later. That would make the payment method practically useless. Obviously you need to pay attention to whom you are sending money, but that is true for any payment method.

Eno Deb, perhaps you are not as fearful of a person as I am but credit cards have safeguards that zelle and others do not so that is why I posted what I did. A person has to be much more careful, in my opinion. There are a lot of scams and quite a few target sole prop businesses. Not saying they have anything to do with zelle. I am telling the OP my opinion and experience with zelle. It seems you have a very different opinion and that's why these boards are good.
TG

[Eno Deb]

Eno Deb, perhaps you are not as fearful of a person as I am but credit cards have safeguards that zelle and others do not so that is why I posted what I did. A person has to be much more careful, in my opinion. There are a lot of scams and quite a few target sole prop businesses. Not saying they have anything to do with zelle. I am telling the OP my opinion and experience with zelle. It seems you have a very different opinion and that's why these boards are good.

Well, using a credit card at a merchant is not the same as person-to-person money transfers. The proper comparison would be something like Paypal, Venmo, ACH transfers, or even checks. None of them allow you to simply get the money back if you later discover that there was some mistake.

[Lastrun]

My wife has a small business and uses Zelle for one customer. She has to keep $5000 at B of A to use it. She is considering switching to Discover zelle. I hate that $5000 is sitting there gaining no interest for one customer. Also, zelle has no safeguards so she does not link it to any other accounts and uses the ATM to take money out every month when that customer pays. I know some BHs would not think $5000 is a lot of money but it is for us and I wish she would make her customer use Venmo or pay by cash or check.
She has not had any problems so far.
TG

Questions: is this a business account? Who is she? The customer or your spouse? When you say Zelle has no safeguards what do you mean? Again for the customer or your wife?

Business account. She is my wife, no safeguards meaning you should only use it with trusted people, as B of A warns on their website. My wife usually only receives money so that is safer than sending it seems.

Still confused. So your wife has a business account with one customer for Zelle and you are concerned about fraud. I would argue that Zelle actually has more fraud protections then a normal bill pay ACH mistake.

You later stated:

Eno Deb, perhaps you are not as fearful of a person as I am but credit cards have safeguards that zelle and others do not so that is why I posted what I did. A person has to be much more careful, in my opinion. There are a lot of scams and quite a few target sole prop businesses. Not saying they have anything to do with zelle. I am telling the OP my opinion and experience with zelle. It seems you have a very different opinion and that's why these boards are good.
TG

I am not sure you understand Zelle. I posted this on another thread so that others understand sending money to someone by Zelle for the first time.

Recently Zelled a couple hundred bucks to a family member for a birthday, who was NOT a registered recipient on my account. I had 2 confirmations on the website and a 2fa to add her as a recipient, and then 1 or 2 more confirmations and a 2fa to send it, and then an email alert for a new recipient added, and an email alert that I Zelled, and a final email alert that my account had been debited.

It is not easy to add a new person to send money with Zelle, your amounts are more limited than ACH, etc.

And if she truly uses the business account for Zelle, then people should be sending her money, right?

[TheGiantess]

My wife has a small business and uses Zelle for one customer. She has to keep $5000 at B of A to use it. She is considering switching to Discover zelle. I hate that $5000 is sitting there gaining no interest for one customer. Also, zelle has no safeguards so she does not link it to any other accounts and uses the ATM to take money out every month when that customer pays. I know some BHs would not think $5000 is a lot of money but it is for us and I wish she would make her customer use Venmo or pay by cash or check.
She has not had any problems so far.
TG

Questions: is this a business account? Who is she? The customer or your spouse? When you say Zelle has no safeguards what do you mean? Again for the customer or your wife?

Business account. She is my wife, no safeguards meaning you should only use it with trusted people, as B of A warns on their website. My wife usually only receives money so that is safer than sending it seems.

Still confused. So your wife has a business account with one customer for Zelle and you are concerned about fraud. I would argue that Zelle actually has more fraud protections then a normal bill pay ACH mistake.

You later stated:

Eno Deb, perhaps you are not as fearful of a person as I am but credit cards have safeguards that zelle and others do not so that is why I posted what I did. A person has to be much more careful, in my opinion. There are a lot of scams and quite a few target sole prop businesses. Not saying they have anything to do with zelle. I am telling the OP my opinion and experience with zelle. It seems you have a very different opinion and that's why these boards are good.
TG

I am not sure you understand Zelle. I posted this on another thread so that others understand sending money to someone by Zelle for the first time.

Recently Zelled a couple hundred bucks to a family member for a birthday, who was NOT a registered recipient on my account. I had 2 confirmations on the website and a 2fa to add her as a recipient, and then 1 or 2 more confirmations and a 2fa to send it, and then an email alert for a new recipient added, and an email alert that I Zelled, and a final email alert that my account had been debited.

It is not easy to add a new person to send money with Zelle, your amounts are more limited than ACH, etc.

And if she truly uses the business account for Zelle, then people should be sending her money, right?

I definitely do not understand it like you and Eno Deb. Thanks for the info. My spouse so far only accepts money thru Zelle so yes, not a big risk. If you have a link to how it works with all the details, I would love to read more. So far, what we have read on bank and other websites is that people using it should be cautious because unlike Venmo there will be no help if there is an issue with sending to the wrong person. I understand that if someone is paying for something they should not just be able to take it back but if it is a mistake it appears there is no help. And maybe other P2P platforms really are the same in that regard. Thanks.
TG

[Eno Deb]

So far, what we have read on bank and other websites is that people using it should be cautious because unlike Venmo there will be no help if there is an issue with sending to the wrong person.

If you accidentally send money to the wrong person with Venmo, there is no "help" either that can automatically get your money back. You can send a request to the recipient and Venmo's support may contact them on your behalf, but it's up to the recipient if they actually return the money. Same as with Zelle and other person-to-person payment apps:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90844581/ve ... what-to-do

[dcabler]

But, even if you don't have Zelle® available through your bank or credit union, you can still use it! Simply download the Zelle® app in the App Store or Google Play and enroll an eligible Visa® or Mastercard® debit card. After you enroll, you can send and receive money with confidence to almost anyone you trust.

https://www.zellepay.com/financial-educ ... ou%20trust.

Cheers

Unfortunately that’s limited to $500 and the times that I do need it, I need a much higher limit.

Yep. And I somehow missed that there was a limit when I first opened up my Zelle account and tried to use it. Dang. Reminds me that I still need to close that account.

Cheers

[VanGar+Goyle]

I have the need to use Zelle every once in a while, and my main banks don't support it.
...
Curious if anyone has any experiencing banking with either of these banks for the purpose I'd use them for (mostly idle... there when needed). Any thoughts between the two?

I use Zelle very rarely but automatically to transfer money in one direction.
Recently I logged into my bank website, and was surprised to see a notice that my Zelle was going to be deactivated
as no transfers in the other direction in 6 months. I was able to manually confirm that my account was active, but
I did not see any email or physical mail notice of this new policy.

Did others here receive a 6 month idle notice?
If you have to ask which bank, then you did not receive the notice.

[Lastrun]

....a notice that my Zelle was going to be deactivated as no transfers in the other direction in 6 months.

Interesting, I Zelle regularly from both Ally and BofA. But they are all sends (outbound), no one has ever sent me money that I can recall. No 6 month notice.

Which "direction" are they upset about?

Also, I thought Zelle was separate from the banks, run by a consortium for sure, but more like a service. So should not others, irrespective of the bank, be receiving these if this is a Zelle requirement.

[DeliberateDonkey]

Capital One offers Zelle on their checking account, has no minimum balance requirement, and has a branch and ATM network to handle cash deposits. The limit on outgoing Zelle transactions is $2,500 per 24-hour period.

[valleyrock]

I use Wells Fargo because there's one on every corner and sometimes I need walk-in services. I just keep the minimum to have free checking.

[anon_investor]

....a notice that my Zelle was going to be deactivated as no transfers in the other direction in 6 months.

Interesting, I Zelle regularly from both Ally and BofA. But they are all sends (outbound), no one has ever sent me money that I can recall. No 6 month notice.

Which "direction" are they upset about?

Also, I thought Zelle was separate from the banks, run by a consortium for sure, but more like a service. So should not others, irrespective of the bank, be receiving these if this is a Zelle requirement.

I have the same experience with Ally, which I now primarily use for Zelle, PayPal and Venmo. I have never received any kind of inactivity warning, depsite very long periods of non-use of Zelle, in either direction.

[VanGar+Goyle]

....a notice that my Zelle was going to be deactivated as no transfers in the other direction in 6 months.

Interesting, I Zelle regularly from both Ally and BofA. But they are all sends (outbound), no one has ever sent me money that I can recall. No 6 month notice.
.
Also, I thought Zelle was separate from the banks, run by a consortium for sure, but more like a service. So should not others, irrespective of the bank, be receiving these if this is a Zelle requirement.

I found an email from the bank with "Verify your ... Zelle® contact options in the next 30 days"
I figure that this was some kind of anti-fraud policy by that bank for inactive accounts.
Different banks have different implementations for Zelle, different limits for example.

[Doctor Rhythm]

My experience is with Zelle at WF and CapOne.

Transfers from WF to CapOne are instantaneous. The money shows up faster than I can FaceID into the app. I make these transfers several times per month.

Transfers from CapOne to WF are acknowledged by WF immediately, but it takes at least one business day for the money to become available. I only make these transfers a few times per year, so don’t really care, but I wonder if I did it more frequently, it would grease the wheels.

Almost never have to make 3rd party payments, so can’t opine about the process.

[normaldude]

Try Capital One (no fees, no minimums):

1) ZELLE: Capital One has Zelle, and you can send $2,500/day with it. https://www.capitalone.com/bank/zelle/

2) CASH DEPOSITS: Capital One allows cash deposits at Capital One ATM machines (often inside Target stores), and at CVS stores (max $999/day; max 5 times per month). https://www.capitalone.com/bank/add-cash-in-store/

3) SAVINGS ACCOUNT: Capital One savings account pays 3.90% APY, no minimums, no fees. Meanwhile, savings accounts at brick & mortar banks pay nothing (0.01%). https://www.capitalone.com/bank/savings ... s-account/

[retiringwhen]

I have the same experience with Ally, which I now primarily use for Zelle, PayPal and Venmo. I have never received any kind of inactivity warning, depsite very long periods of non-use of Zelle, in either direction.

This is a good thread and has prompted me to build a bit of a barrier that I have considered a good idea for a long time but had not acted upon.

I have decided to move all my Zelle, Paypal and Venmo connections to an Ally Savings account away from my primary checking account at a different institution. Zelle and Paypal setup directly just fine, but Plaid at least would not let my Ally Savings Account work for Venmo. I just requested a manual addition (send the pennies thing). Was that your experience as well?

[Carson]

I maintain a credit union account for my day-to-day banking, but used Capital One for long term savings and credit card.

I opened a Capital One checking just to use with Zelle. I'm really happy with it and even subsequently opened a capital one Teen account for my 13-yo. Aside from having to keep tabs on the savings account rate, I don't really see a downside of banking with cap 1

[anon_investor]

I have the same experience with Ally, which I now primarily use for Zelle, PayPal and Venmo. I have never received any kind of inactivity warning, depsite very long periods of non-use of Zelle, in either direction.

This is a good thread and has prompted me to build a bit of a barrier that I have considered a good idea for a long time but had not acted upon.

I have decided to move all my Zelle, Paypal and Venmo connections to an Ally Savings account away from my primary checking account at a different institution. Zelle and Paypal setup directly just fine, but Plaid at least would not let my Ally Savings Account work for Venmo. I just requested a manual addition (send the pennies thing). Was that your experience as well?

I avoid using Plaid (for data privacy reasons), but had no issue using micro deposits to verify my Ally account with Venmo or PayPal.

[LittleMaggieMae]

I use Zelle with Chase - but I have WF and BoA and a local bank accounts as well. My experience is - once you get the hang of which ever bank you will use for your Zelle transactions - it will be fine. Just pick a bank and go with it. Once you know the path - it's not time consuming or confusing. There's a learning curve no matter which bank you use.


Be aware that you may need to coordinate your phone number(s), email address(es) and if you have "turned" on Zelle at multiple financial institutions.

Zelle assumes that you have ONE bank account attached to your phone number/email address. If you ONLY have one phone number and one main email address - you can only use Zelle at ONE bank. You need to make sure that you have not activated/allowed Zelle usage at your other banks.

If you have multiple phone numbers and email addresses you need to make sure that you do not duplicate phone or addresses at the banks you will use Zelle. Gotta keep 'em separated.

I use Zelle at two different banks
Chase uses my cell phone and gmail as my contact profile info - Zelle is turned on.
my other bank uses my landline and my original email address from the 80's as my contact profile info. Zelle is turned on. It's all very "retro".
I have not "turned" on Zelle at any of my other banks - which use my cell phone and gmail account as my contact/profile information

If I turn on Zelle at any of my other banks - my cell phone/gmail will STOP working in Zelle.

[anon_investor]

I use Zelle with Chase - but I have WF and BoA and a local bank accounts as well. My experience is - once you get the hang of which ever bank you will use for your Zelle transactions - it will be fine. Just pick a bank and go with it. Once you know the path - it's not time consuming or confusing. There's a learning curve no matter which bank you use.


Be aware that you may need to coordinate your phone number(s), email address(es) and if you have "turned" on Zelle at multiple financial institutions.

Zelle assumes that you have ONE bank account attached to your phone number/email address. If you ONLY have one phone number and one main email address - you can only use Zelle at ONE bank. You need to make sure that you have not activated/allowed Zelle usage at your other banks.

If you have multiple phone numbers and email addresses you need to make sure that you do not duplicate phone or addresses at the banks you will use Zelle. Gotta keep 'em separated.

I use Zelle at two different banks
Chase uses my cell phone and gmail as my contact profile info - Zelle is turned on.
my other bank uses my landline and my original email address from the 80's as my contact profile info. Zelle is turned on. It's all very "retro".
I have not "turned" on Zelle at any of my other banks - which use my cell phone and gmail account as my contact/profile information

If I turn on Zelle at any of my other banks - my cell phone/gmail will STOP working in Zelle.

email address from the 80's!

[retiringwhen]

I avoid using Plaid (for data privacy reasons), but had no issue using micro deposits to verify my Ally account with Venmo or PayPal.

Thanks, that what I wanted to hear!

[gtrplayer]

No safeguards means that you have to be careful who you send me to. If you send money to someone and it is the wrong person, you won't get it back. B of A warns you on their website to only use zelle with people you trust.
TG

I don't understand. If someone sent me money, why should they be able to just claw it back later. That would make the payment method practically useless. Obviously you need to pay attention to whom you are sending money, but that is true for any payment method.

You may not understand the sheer scale of fraudsters taking advantage of the lack of safeguards of these new platforms and the level of sophistication they have. You can blame the people for falling for the scams but there but for the grace of god and instant payment systems go I.

The ability to send money instantaneously is a positive innovation but people are just now learning how much they relied on the protection a non-instantaneous transaction provided.

[anon_investor]

I use Zelle with Chase - but I have WF and BoA and a local bank accounts as well. My experience is - once you get the hang of which ever bank you will use for your Zelle transactions - it will be fine. Just pick a bank and go with it. Once you know the path - it's not time consuming or confusing. There's a learning curve no matter which bank you use.


Be aware that you may need to coordinate your phone number(s), email address(es) and if you have "turned" on Zelle at multiple financial institutions.

Zelle assumes that you have ONE bank account attached to your phone number/email address. If you ONLY have one phone number and one main email address - you can only use Zelle at ONE bank. You need to make sure that you have not activated/allowed Zelle usage at your other banks.

If you have multiple phone numbers and email addresses you need to make sure that you do not duplicate phone or addresses at the banks you will use Zelle. Gotta keep 'em separated.

I use Zelle at two different banks
Chase uses my cell phone and gmail as my contact profile info - Zelle is turned on.
my other bank uses my landline and my original email address from the 80's as my contact profile info. Zelle is turned on. It's all very "retro".
I have not "turned" on Zelle at any of my other banks - which use my cell phone and gmail account as my contact/profile information

If I turn on Zelle at any of my other banks - my cell phone/gmail will STOP working in Zelle.

I wish Zelle allowed you to have multiple bank accounts tied to the same email/phone.

[retiringwhen]

I wish Zelle allowed you to have multiple bank accounts tied to the same email/phone.

You can switch them back and forth, it is not hard. I just did it this week and it appears to be instantaneous. You set up the address in both banks and then choose it in the one you want to be active and it then disables on the other one.

[anon_investor]

I wish Zelle allowed you to have multiple bank accounts tied to the same email/phone.

You can switch them back and forth, it is not hard. I just did it this week and it appears to be instantaneous. You set up the address in both banks and then choose it in the one you want to be active and it then disables on the other one.

How do you do that? The last time I checked it required a phone call with one of my banks, too lazy for that.

[retiringwhen]

I wish Zelle allowed you to have multiple bank accounts tied to the same email/phone.

You can switch them back and forth, it is not hard. I just did it this week and it appears to be instantaneous. You set up the address in both banks and then choose it in the one you want to be active and it then disables on the other one.

How do you do that? The last time I checked it required a phone call with one of my banks, too lazy for that.

My credit union and Ally automatically transferred it with with a few text message notifications after I a chose the address in the new bank.

[anon_investor]

I wish Zelle allowed you to have multiple bank accounts tied to the same email/phone.

You can switch them back and forth, it is not hard. I just did it this week and it appears to be instantaneous. You set up the address in both banks and then choose it in the one you want to be active and it then disables on the other one.

How do you do that? The last time I checked it required a phone call with one of my banks, too lazy for that.

My credit union and Ally automatically transferred it with with a few text message notifications after I a chose the address in the new bank.

I will have to try that.