Zelle 4+

Zelle would be the perfect digital checkbook, if they could convince banks to treat them like a separate, trusted app. Instead, most of the time it gets reduced to a crappy widget hidden in online banking apps.

If you’re the typical Zelle customer, Zelle has the ability to instantly add money to your traditional bank account as soon as you get paid. No more bogus 2-business-day transfers or 1% transfer fees. In a world where everyone keeps a bank account that uses Zelle, Zelle would be perfect. Your checks, debit card, savings account, and ATM access would be joined by a powerful, simple mobile app that allows you to pay someone using your bank without having an external balance (which is the case for Venmo, Apple Cash, Google Pay, PayPal, and so many others). This is Zelle’s leg up on the competition.

Unfortunately, Zelle’s features themselves typically are only available through the mobile banking app that your bank offers, leaving it subject to frequent log-outs and wonky security barriers that the average user isn’t able to deal with in casual situations. This makes asking people to “pay me with Zelle” in the moment a non-option and largely defeats the purpose of the app.

Went to create a password; saw list of requirements. Created a strong, 100-character password in 1Password. Pasted it in; got all green checkmarks. Great! Hit “Done;” got “Invalid password,” with NO EXPLANATION. 1. It’s 2021; there is literally no excuse for not giving users *complete* information on *all* password requirements *at the start.* AMC (the movie theater) has been able to do it since 2013; you should be able to do it. 2. It’s 2021; error messages that don’t tell users how to fix the error are simply amateurish. 3. It’s 2021; passwords of *any length* should be acceptable (because I’m betting the issue is that you hid a length requirement there and that’s why it’s being rejected; either that, or there are ASCII special characters that you can’t handle, even though, again, decent systems have been able to handle any combo of characters for years now - and don’t try to use the, “oh, we’re trying to prevent injection attacks” thing, because again, a decent system can recognize those and block them). Do better. EDIT: Indeed - when I updated the length from 100 char to 64 char, your system accepted it without issue. For the love of God, why did you decide to hide this requirement from users??? Have I mentioned it’s 2021 and anyone who knows anything about good design practice has known to do this for years??

This is not attuned to the ever changing lives of clients using this app. I’ve been attempting to switch cards and add an email to my account. First day the error message was uh oh come back later and try again. Second day your account is temporarily locked for security reasons. Mind you password and all info being entered is MINE and accurate. Then yesterday after getting the same message as the previous day, I called “customer service” via the app who informed me they would have to VET ME with some questions to unlock and to Update my information for me. I asked why am I NOT ABLE to update my own info as needed? The response- Zelle doesn’t allow so many changes as it wants you to use A PERMANENT CARD as it only allows for infrequent card updates. Nevermind that life is what it is and if you want to change out your card to you should allowed to do so. We go through that process and they said now I need to wait 15 min for the system to reset my account. After some small talk, the call is ended NOT BY me. I had other things to do so I come back later. Not only can I NOT ACCESS MY ACCOUNT BUT ITS NOW SAYING I AM PERMANENTLY LOCKED OUT and to CALL CUSTOMER SERVICE. Not Zelle’s greatest moment. I just deleted the app.