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I've never really taken much of an interest into the so-called person-to-person pay, sending money from a smartphone to someone else. But there seems to be quite a flurry these days about it in the news and from various financial companies.
I guess there's a certain coolness doing it on the smartphone. The recipient address is the other party’s phone number, transferring the responsibility of knowing the recipent’s bank routing number and account number to the receiving end.
Or you can meet on neutral middle ground such as PayPal. I was just reminded that I have a PayPal account from 2006, which I meant to use then for one specific event and, well, even at that didn’t. But it’s still active and all, so so far so good.
If you use PSECU’s mobile app, the recipient must have a PayPal account to claim the money. It looks like DCU and my local credit union direct the recipient to a website where you enter your routing and account. Wells Fargo uses something called Zelle.
Then there’s Chase QuickPay and probably two thousand other options out there. What’s your favorite?
Several of the big banks (and a few not-so-big) have recently re-branded their person-to-person payment offering to Zelle, previously known as clearXchange.
I happen to use two banks that have changed over to Zelle (USAA and Wells Fargo), so I was able to try it out without recruiting a friend to help. I have my phone number linked to my USAA account and my email address linked to my Wells account.
I did a transaction in each direction, and it was both instant and flawless.
The time delay of getting money into your bank account was (and generally still is) the remaining drawback to services such as Paypal, Venmo, etc. Zelle is the clear winner here.
In my area several of the major regional banks are using PopMoney, which is a competing service, but there are enough major players on Zelle now that I suspect once it picks up momentum it will be hard to compete with.
Here are the banks who have rebranded their person-to-person pay to Zelle:
https://www.zellepay.com/partners
It appears the goal is to make the "Zelle experience" the same across all participating institutions, and I can vouch that in the respective apps the interface is nearly identical between Wells Fargo and USAA, other than the color (the other parts of each bank's app has remained the same).
All-in-all I'm quite pleased with the change, and with the ability to send money to others (or myself) with instant credit to the recipient's account.
@vanillabean wrote:
Thanks for your clarifications. I registered for Zelle once I realized the backdoor approach of providing a cell phone number for receiving money was it. It also helps you can use Zelle with a non-partner bank.
A question. If a system to send money says you can enter a bank account, a debit card or credit card, does that really mean that you can use a credit card to send money to another person? And if so, would the credit card company note it as a standard purchase or a cash advance?
That's a good question. I would like to know the answer as well.
@Anonymous wrote:
@vanillabean wrote:
Thanks for your clarifications. I registered for Zelle once I realized the backdoor approach of providing a cell phone number for receiving money was it. It also helps you can use Zelle with a non-partner bank.
A question. If a system to send money says you can enter a bank account, a debit card or credit card, does that really mean that you can use a credit card to send money to another person? And if so, would the credit card company note it as a standard purchase or a cash advance?That's a good question. I would like to know the answer as well.
I am curious about this as well.
Though my bank will only let me use my checking or savings account to send money.
Venmo is big in NYC.
Separate checks for groups at restaurants is not a thing here. (You can throw down a few cards when it comes time to pay and tell them to split it, but don't ask for separate checks.) I usually throw my card down (rewards! cash back!) and all my friends Venmo me their share.
Same for if you order a pizza, buy a bottle of booze, whatever. People don't even chip in cash if they have it anymore . . they just Venmo their share.
The funds come next business day, but I'm okay with that small wait.
Facebook had a feature where you could send $$ and it'd hit your bank account immediately, but I'm not on it.
@vanillabean wrote:
Thanks for your clarifications. I registered for Zelle once I realized the backdoor approach of providing a cell phone number for receiving money was it. It also helps you can use Zelle with a non-partner bank.
A question. If a system to send money says you can enter a bank account, a debit card or credit card, does that really mean that you can use a credit card to send money to another person? And if so, would the credit card company note it as a standard purchase or a cash advance?
You can fund Venmo transfers with a credit card for a small % transaction fee.
I haven't done this for about a year, but at the time, Discover coded it as "services"
Thank you for the info about Venmo. My sister tried so hard to get me to join but I already had Paypal and since Venmo was the new kid on the block (for me), I didn't trust it; I made my sister start using her old Paypal account again. haha
I didn't realize Citibank went with Zelle. When I last had an account with Citibank about a year and a half ago, they had PopMoney. I used that with no problem with my sister who also had a Citibank account although the money transfer was not instantaneous. I get a notice from US Bank website (credit card only) that they are now with Zelle so curious whether I can use my credit card or whether they just want me to open up a checking account with them. lol
I don't remember what DCU uses but doesn't their service have a fee? I thought I recalled but perhaps I am wrong.
I have to admit that all this about Zelle is new to me; I haven't even heard of it until recently and I wasn't aware that BoA was a participant in the system. For person-to-person payments involving credit cards, I've always heretofore used PayPal, which has worked reasonably well.