I tried Zelle for a rent payment and got burned

Sent $1,200 to my landlord in Chicago through Zelle last month like I always do, but it went to the wrong account because I mistyped one digit. Zelle told me tough luck, no fraud protection since I authorized the transaction. Learned real quick that Zelle is great for splitting dinner but not for big payments without triple checking. Has anyone else had a Zelle screw up that cost them real money?

2 comments

2 Comments

luna_kim4028d ago

Ugh that sucks so bad. I started sending my landlord a $1 test first before the full amount after I almost did the same thing.

the_sam27d ago

Man, that's brutal. @luna_kim40's test trick is smart - I do that for any new payment now too. But here's something nobody's talking about: Zelle's whole model is built on speed, but that speed means you're basically flying blind. If they held payments for like 15 minutes and let you review the destination account name or phone number one more time, stuff like this would almost never happen. Instead they push it through in seconds so it's gone before you even realize. Feels like they designed the system to make errors way too easy and way too permanent.