Zelle is an electronic person-to-person payment service offered by many U.S. banks as an alternative to nonbank P2P services, like PayPal or Venmo. Zelle is convenient, safe, secure and usually free if you have a bank checking or savings account.
Those benefits, combined with Zelle's near-instant and irreversible transactions, make the service popular not only with consumers, but also scammers, who've used Zelle to steal millions of dollars from consumers' bank accounts. Users lost an estimated $440 million to Zelle scammers in 2021, according to Zelle parent company Early Warning Services. Projections have fraud growth rising to $1 billion by 2025.
Find out how to protect yourself from Zelle scams and what to do if you lose money.
Zelle is easy to use. To send funds, all you need to do is log in to your bank's online banking service or mobile app, access the integrated Zelle features, and then enter the amount you want to transfer and the recipient's U.S. phone number or email address.
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