Several major banks in the United States have worked together to develop and release a new mobile money transfer service named Zelle. Zelle promises to provide a faster and less complicated service compared to the more traditional online money transfer services like Venmo and Paypal. As Zelle is backed by some of the largest financial institutions in the US, some of the financial transactions will be processed much faster compared to its rivals. For example, Zelle is claiming that it can transfer money between bank accounts instantaneously, as opposed to the competition where it usually takes a day or so before the money arrives in the receiving accounts. While the instantaneous money transfer can only occur between banks that support Zelle’s network, many Americans will likely benefit from it anyway as most of the major banks support the new money transfer service. While the money transfer service already has the support of big banks like Bank of America, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo, the service also hopes that within the next few months, more banks and credit unions will support its network.
To use Zelle, bank account holders only need to access either the mobile apps or the websites of the supporting banks. Once Zelle is already accessed, users may now send money to another person using either the receiver’s mobile number or email address. Once the sender has entered the amount of money to be sent, the service will then send a notification that will guide the sender on how to finish the transfer process. On the part of the recipient, they will receive a notification on how to collect their payment through the bank’s mobile app.
For people whose banks do not support Zelle’s network, the service provides two options to take advantage of the features of the said service. The first option is for users to register at clearXchange in order to receive money. The second option is to wait until Zelle releases its standalone app, which allows users of other banks to send, receive and split payments within the Zelle’s network. Meanwhile, users who have accounts on banks that officially support the service will have to wait for a little bit as the said banks will only start supporting the service later this month.