Ask HN: How Does Zelle Work?

13 points by michaelrkn 3 years ago | 10 comments

I'm curious: Does it use ACH behind the scenes? The RTP network? Some other system? Thanks to anybody who can satisfy my curiosity!

bell-cot 3 years ago |

Advice: Avoid paying via Zelle. At $Job, we are a long-time customer of one of the large banks which owns Zelle. Said bank told us to avoid paying for anything via Zelle, unless we had very clear & easy legal recourse in case of fraud. The did not quite say "Zelle is only a better payment solution if you are cheating people"...but they came fairly close.

wobbly_bush 3 years ago | |

Can you elaborate on what kinds of fraud? Like for ex. someone can transfer money from your account, or impersonating someone else, etc?

idunno246 3 years ago | | |

You buy something online and pay with Zelle. Seller never ships it. You have zero recourse, there’s no chargebacks or anything like that, your money is gone. It’s the same as cash, and you should only use it with people you know. Same with Venmo, and cashapp

exabrial 3 years ago | |

Is this because there is no clawbacks or something of that nature?

denimnerd42 3 years ago |

Depends on the implementation. Initially used ACH for settlement and now they are moving towards RTP. (https://www.earlywarning.com/press-release/early-warning-ser...)

michaelrkn 3 years ago | |

Thank you!

yuppie_scum 3 years ago |

The banks just venmo each other afterwards to settle up.

solarmist 3 years ago |

patio11 could probably write an entire essay on this. (In fact, he might have, just not named it as such.)

patio11 3 years ago | |

Someday!