And yet it comes across as a mere clone of Venmo.
I still use it all the time since it's a superior to any other offering for instantaneous high-dollar transfers, but it always feels like a "Venmo got embedded in my banking app" type of interface vs. "my bank is offering a direct payment service to it's other networked banks".
Hard to define, but I do think the marketing/branding/rollout were more to blame than the merits of the service itself (IMHO, Zelle is great).
The banks don't make money on it...so boring to them and therefore neglected from a marketing perspective.
For example, the person who cuts my hair only takes cash. I asked if we could try Zelle (I rarely carry cash). She agreed, and we haven't looked back.
The goal of Zelle was to prevent the likes of Square Cash, Venmo, etc from dis-intermediating the banks from their customers.
How do Americans send money from one bank to another for accounts they operate?
TD also wanted me to come into a branch with a bank statement from my other bank. Not ideal since they don't operate west of South Carolina and I'm in California.
It always struck me as an odd product, since I can just plug my ACH info in directly, but it does provide some level of convenience by allowing, say, a roboadviser app to show the embedded balances of my other accounts.
I’m amazed banks put up with it.
Some banks offer external bank transfers through their online portal, and sometimes with a small transaction fee. I've been told by my bank with that transaction fee that you can avoid it by using the "bill pay" feature and just inputting your other bank account's routing and account information. I think that all works over ACH anyways.