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Bank of America has lost Zelle transfers for many customers

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Re: Bank of America has lost Zelle transfers for many customers

#171
post #151
post #147

I got scammed by a Zelle transfer when someone used my phone (without my authorization). I didn't even know I had Zelle but it's built into the BofA app. I lost $3,000. BofA refused to refund any of the transfer or reverse it. Total trash feature. I didn't sign up for it. I don't want it. BofA signed me up for it. I'm changing banks because of it.

How did they get access to the bank app on your phone?

If you close the BofA app after you are done, you have to log in again with either password or biometrics. If you don't and just go to the home screen, it stays logged in.

Re: Bank of America has lost Zelle transfers for many customers

#172

praise that brave reddit moderator for rushing in there to lock down the thread and remove any content that might hurt BoA's feelings.

Amateur moderation is awful and often exploitative. I moderated a sub for about a year. At the time I felt like I was furthering a worthy cause. In retrospect I now feel like a schmuck who basically gave free labor to a company, making the platform more attractive to advertisers. I don't expect the hours I spent combing through troll posts had any measurable impact on the "cause" that sub was nominally furthering. In…

It's like being a janitor but doing it for free.

Re: Bank of America has lost Zelle transfers for many customers

#173
post #169
post #147

I got scammed by a Zelle transfer when someone used my phone (without my authorization). I didn't even know I had Zelle but it's built into the BofA app. I lost $3,000. BofA refused to refund any of the transfer or reverse it. Total trash feature. I didn't sign up for it. I don't want it. BofA signed me up for it. I'm changing banks because of it.

The magic words are “Reg E”. Your bank won’t tell you about it, but they must follow the regulation.

https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/supmanual/cch/efta....

I'm not familiar with this and therefore not sure if this is the correct source but I tried to find something official.

Re: Bank of America has lost Zelle transfers for many customers

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I acknowledge neither of our theories can be proven but it just seems too far fetched to me the unrest was attributable to everything but the banking measures.

> it just seems too far fetched to me the unrest was attributable to everything but the banking measures Temporary and permanent capital controls have a long history of peaceful implementation. Economic collapses do not.

An important consideration here is unrest is in part in response to perceived factors in the economic collapse. Even if one takes the position the measures are not the cause of the collapse they can still be a cause of unrest.

Re: Bank of America has lost Zelle transfers for many customers

#175
post #19
post #10

I have long been terrified of something shaped a bit like this. Here in the US we already treat most workers like absolute garbage. If one day the Average Joe wakes up and finds that all his money is merely some electronic scribbles in a database which have mysteriously gone missing, the social unrest is probably something that most people on this site couldn't even conceptualize of. Today it's Zelle, but what happen…

Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Don't daily carry a physical debit card to your largest accounts that could be easily lost or stolen. Take advantage of credit card protections, or cash. Plopping your life savings in one large savings account has never been a good idea.

> Plopping your life savings in one large savings account has never been a good idea.

Yeah, it should be in a tax advantaged retirement account.

Re: Bank of America has lost Zelle transfers for many customers

#176
I guess I'll be the lone voice in the wilderness. We've been perfectly happy with Zelle.

We use it a couple times a month to pay service providers, send money to family. Never had any issues with it, don't need an "app" for it, works with our normal bank stuff.

Similarly, at the same time, we got a check recently from a settlement. We plonked it into our account, and it bounced. It was a large settlement (i.e. lots of people), and the law firm in charge of writing the checks messed up, and thus canceled all of checks and re-issued them a couple weeks later. It was a big deal. Stuff happens.

Hopefully BofA owns up and refunds all of the overdraft problems, but they can't roll it all back. Bouncing checks have repercussions out of the banks control (landlords tend to frown on bounced checks, for example), which behooves them to be more diligent about things like this that can impact that.

The big problem is that people are out of the loop for things like this. Computer pulls the money back, computer bounces the check, computer notes the bounced check, computer tells the other computer you bounced a check, computer craters your credit rating. There are no "people" involved in this, it's all procedures and rules and such encoding is the "logic" of one of the most inscrutable creations man has ever created -- the computer. And people have to scurry about to compensate for the vast ripple effects these things can have that impact peoples lives.

So, hopefully BofA cleans up their end, but more importantly, hopefully everyone down stream is patient with those affected and helps them recover as well. And, finally, no doubt a legion of scammers will crawl out of the wood work leveraging this event to gain some advantage. Way of the world.

Re: Bank of America has lost Zelle transfers for many customers

#177
post #147

I got scammed by a Zelle transfer when someone used my phone (without my authorization). I didn't even know I had Zelle but it's built into the BofA app. I lost $3,000. BofA refused to refund any of the transfer or reverse it. Total trash feature. I didn't sign up for it. I don't want it. BofA signed me up for it. I'm changing banks because of it.

You let someone use your phone and they were able to open BoA app and transfer funds without your knowledge? I don't fault BoA for ignoring your claim, that's like handing someone a credit card and acting surprised when they use it and wanting the CC company to refund your money.

Re: Bank of America has lost Zelle transfers for many customers

#178

I don't understand why overdraft hasn't been outlawed. It's literally a tax on you if you make one tiny mistake or your bank make a mistake. If I dont have the money block the transaction and offer a line of credit with specific apr for those that want to be able to overdraft.

That's fairly common, most banks have "overdraft protection" that works exactly how you described.

It is not exactly the same thing. The commenter you are responding to is looking to avoid overdraft, not having an insurance on overdraft.

I'd agree with the idea of avoiding overdraft entirely unless a customer signs up for it. I don't want transactions I can't afford to go through. I manage my accounts quite closely. For me such situation would be 99% an unintended transaction that I would like to cancel.

By letting such requests go through, banks put the burden on the customers to clean up after a wrong or, in many cases, illegal transaction.

YMMV.

Re: Bank of America has lost Zelle transfers for many customers

#179

Does anyone have context of the content as the original post is gone from Reddit? Also on my BoA App, I have the notification: > Please Note: Zelle transactions made between and January 17 may be delayed in occurring and posting to accounts as requested. Transfers will be completed and will appear in your account activity and balances as soon as possible. We apologize for any delay or inconvenience. Not to discount t…

https://www.reveddit.com/v/personalfinance/comments/10f8042/...

Re: Bank of America has lost Zelle transfers for many customers

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> sending a wire transfer is usually $15-$20 Will note that there are banks that offer sending and receiving wires for free.

Wow, did not realize that banks also charge for receiving incoming wires, but most of the big guys charge around $15: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/banking/wire-transfers-wh...

And an additional fee it's it's 'overnight' and another fee if it's international.

Then they do a three-way call between the parties and the banks to verify the transaction.

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