Why does my bank push Zelle to me?

[Bill Dufour]

Why does wells fargo push me to sign up for Zelle? Do they get a kickback? they do not ask me to switch to paypal and drop my wells fargo accounts. Zelle looks to be just another debit/credit card. I see no advantage over my wells fargo credit card or atm card.
I have not bothered to really do any research When I tried all I get is how wonderful push notifications from wells fargo are and why I should not block them or opt out..
Bill D

[Kev Williams]

There's a way to turn off the Zelle nag on the website, 'swhat I did...

[Stan Calow]

I thought Zelle was more of a way to do business transactions transferring funds, like PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, etc.

[Mike Gresham]

I've been using Zelle for years, but haven't seen a card. It's just a way to send money to or receive money from someone through the bill pay system.

[Jim Becker]

Zelle is merely a person to person payment method...analogous to cash in every way including risk. Venmo is similar. Zelle is a service that just securely moves money from your existing bank account to someone else's bank account and vice versa.

[roger wiegand]

They do it because then they profit from it rather than Paypal/Venmo.

[Brian Elfert]

I don't think banks really profit from Zelle. There is no fee for the user and no credit cards accepted so no merchant fee either. I wish my credit union offered it. I tried to set up Zelle with my debit card, but my credit union keep rejecting it as potential fraud.

[Mark Brewer]

Just don’t open the email, mark as spam.

[Jim Koepke]

I don't think banks really profit from Zelle.

How long is the time between sending and receiving with Zelle?

Could it be like using a card at a gas station with a short term hold put on excess funds for a day or two? There is usually a note posted about this on fuel pumps.

Many years ago banks could make money on what was called "the float." This often involved overnight loans between financial institutions. Not sure if banking is still that way.

Surely Paypal has a way of earning money off of funds left in the Bank of Paypal when someone sells something before the funds are spent or sent to their own bank. Just like other financial players make money holding stocks and bonds for short periods of time.

jtk

[Mike Henderson]

My wife tried Zelle but it was difficult to use. As I remember, before she could send money to someone, that person had to be in her Zelle list. That is, you couldn't just send money to someone using their email or phone number.

Venmo is more general. You can send money to someone using their email, phone number, or Venmo ID. One thing is that you need to know the last four digits of their phone number. Venmo asks for that when you use their Venmo ID to make sure you're sending to the right person. A lot of Venmo IDs are similar.

PayPal bought Venmo a while back. Venmo does much the same thing as PayPal so I guess PayPal bought them to get rid of a competitor.

Mike

[roger wiegand]

OK, so it's more complicated. Zelle is largely a defensive measure to stem the flood of business moving from traditional banking to alternate services like PayPal, Venmo, and many more obscure servives. The banks saw a huge drop in their money transfer fees and created the Zelle network in response. So yes, I think it's about making money, but perhaps not in such a direct way.

They also work the float on transfers (when you get to hold $305B, which they did last year, even for a few hours and days it can add up), and charge a 1% fee to merchants who use their services.

The primary benefit as of now is to the consortium banks in retaining their customers and their business. -- hence the bank's interest in having you in their system rather than Paypal's.

[Jim Becker]

Just don’t open the email, mark as spam.
The issue with that is it can then cut off important communication from one's bank. It may be possible, however, to turn off marketing emails within one's bank online profile to reduce or eliminate these kinds of emails.

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One other thought on the push for Zelle is the recent changes in IRS rules that payment processors must follow that are going to cause lots and lots of folks in the US to have to get 1099s for transactions...that affects PayPal and other payment processors because of how they work. Zelle is purely a transportation network and doesn't process payments. AFAIK, those new regulations don't apply to Zelle transactions, but I could be wrong about that.

[Phil Mueller]

I’ve used Zelle occasionally through my business account. I found it very easy to use. Just put in the recipients name, email or phone #. The $ is transferred immediately. The recipient just uses the email/phone number and transfers it to their bank account. There was no need for me to have the recipient’s bank info/routing info/ etc. Just click the recipients name, put in the amount, and click transfer.

[Victor Edwards]

Can people claw money back with Zelle? I know PayPal has the Friends & family option or the Goods & Services option. Does Zelle have a similar set up? I use the Friends & Family when I'm selling or buying something face to face. Saves me from carrying a large amount of cash with me.

[Mike Henderson]

Can people claw money back with Zelle? I know PayPal has the Friends & family option or the Goods & Services option. Does Zelle have a similar set up? I use the Friends & Family when I'm selling or buying something face to face. Saves me from carrying a large amount of cash with me.

I'm pretty sure that once you send money via Zelle, it's gone. There's no easy way to get it back.

Mike

[Jim Becker]

Can people claw money back with Zelle?

It's essentially...cash.

[Phil Mueller]

Yep. When I use it, there is a notice that says something like “once you click the send button it cannot be reversed”.

[Victor Edwards]

Much thanks.