Is there a New zelle $500 weekly limit? or is it just some banks?

Question

I have been getting some payments from friends and while some always had a limit a few now have a $500 weekly limit that wasn't there before. Outgoing on my business account I have not had a problem. Since most of my tenants pay by zelle I am wondering if there is a new limit on personal accounts. For friends this has occurred in the last month. One credit union tenant always paid in two payments as they already had a limit but the rest were able to pay up to $1500 in one payment. What is your experience? Anything new?

Mason Hickman · Answer

@Colleen F.This happened to me a little while ago and they made me RE-verify the account and then the amounts were back to normal. I think it had something to do with changing the phone numbers that decided which accounts funds routed to.

Account Closed · Answer

I recently had two outgoing payments via Zelle from my business account that were over $500. I had to call to verify my identity, but had no trouble with the payments going through afterward.

Bill B. · Answer

@David M.That was my point, its an unsecured system with no guarantees and no refunds. That exactly why you should always use a credit card and not an atm card. These accounts aren’t being hacked, the users are being tricked. In 30 years I’ve probably had 4 or 5 unauthorized credit card charges. (Don’t know if it was criminal restaurant employees or what happened.) But one 5 minute call or website visit gets your money back. Even if it was 45 days ago. These Zelle customers figure it out in 5 minutes or 5 hours, and their money is gone and bank says too bad. How about adding a built in 24 hours to transfer and make it fully reversible during that time? Make people use two factor authorization? Or, as the OP discovered here, put in limits to reduce customer losses. I don’t know why any landlord would be using anything other than EFTs. No limits, no theft, automated transfers even on holidays.

David M. · Answer

@Bill BrandtLets face it --- any electronic system is "open" for hacking/fraud/mis-use. That's why some of my tenants like to mail or give me a paper check and one still actually goes to my bank and literally directly deposits the rent every month. That's just part of the trade-off of whether to go into the digital world.

Bill B. · Answer

Google seller scam especially Wells Fargo and Bank of America I only know about it because a wife’s friend lost almost $10,000 and Bank of america said sorry we only protect against unauthorized transactions although you were scammed, you authorized the transaction. Bye.From Zelle: Zelle urges its users to only transfer money with parties that are known to them, given that the service has no form of fraud protection. However, the service was meant to allow banks to compete directly with platforms such as PayPal and it is not uncommon for people to use it that way for purchases. This has created a thriving market for Zelle fraud. Access to a target’s Zelle account allows the attacker to fund it with potentially thousands of dollars a day (and tens of thousands of dollars per month) before hitting the bank limit. Those funds are drained directly from checking and savings accounts, and victims sometimes have little recourse once compromised.

Colleen F. · Answer

@Gevin Glines last month went through just fine. Like I said a couple people said their limits were lowered. Will see about this month @Bill Brandt Thanks, I will mention that about account types to the people who had the lower limits. Funny you say zelle didn't refund. The one we had a problem with was venmo, and they only refunded after we got the bank involved. I don't do venmo after that experience.

Bill B. · Answer

It might be their way of fighting all the scams? They got a lot of bad press because they don’t refund any money to people who get scammed through Zelle. Maybe they want the customer to specifically have to do for a higher limit?It can also be a limit for their type of account. Until I changed account types I couldn’t photo deposit more than $10,000/day or $30,000/mo in checks. A new account type set the limit at $50,000/day and $250,000/mo. (Same account number just different type.)

Gevin Glines · Answer

I received a payment of 900 earlier this month without any issues! Unless this was a recent change or perhaps the difference between using your phone number versus an email address?

Colleen F. · Answer

@David M. it is always their limit. I was surprised, we have several friends going on a boat trip that need to pay us and two just said the bank now made their limit $500. And their bank balance or phone number changes isn't the issue. Some banks will raise it, some won't. I have a tenant with navigant who pays in two payments already because they won't raise the limit, it is $1000 limit for everyone at her bank now. sent you a DM too.

David M. · Answer

@Colleen F.Is this your limit or their limit? I've only run into issues on the sender side. It usually "seems" to turn out to be a credit-type issue. I've half guessing because most people/tenants aren't going to tell me their financial issues. Basically, if they don't have much money in their account on average or have done some overdrafts the Zelle limits get lowered on them. that's a bit of my experience.