Zelle

Zelle is run by Early Warning Services, owned by Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and others, and launched in 2017. Recipients are identified by phone number or email, and the money shows up within minutes. Because it lives inside the banks' own apps, it reached hundreds of millions of users without anyone downloading anything. The standalone Zelle app was shut down in 2025.

The speed is also the problem. A Zelle payment cannot be pulled back, and for years banks held that a customer who authorised a transfer owned the loss, even when they had been tricked into it. That made the service a favourite tool of scammers. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued the company and three banks in 2024; the suit was dropped the following year.