Refresh
While Zelle is the front-facing service that’s seeing a significant outage, the root cause has been identifies as Fiserv. The company still hasn’t commented on the outage, so we’re currently left in the dark.
Users aren’t happy
Lots of people are upset, and with good reason. They feel like their money is aimlessly floating while they wait for it to reach their destination (or themselves).
“BoA to Schwab is not working. I was sent my paycheck and needed it asap to buy a ticket for an emergency overseas flight, and the money has not come thru yet. It was sent about an hour ago,” one user posted on Down Detector.
“This is ridiculous Zelle is still down.. I’ve been trying since 8am smh,” said another.
“It’s 1:30 in the afternoon and I still can’t access Zelle. I’ve been trying since 6am. What’s taking so long????,” a third commenter added.
We see a lot of outages, but few have the widespread effect of Zelle, as people are mainly concerned about their money getting where it needs to go. We expect money to reach the expected destinations once things are resolved (or be returned to the original sender).
The up and downs continue
Unsurprisingly, the roller coaster of Zelle outage reports continues to go on. While reports dropped to 700 just a few minutes ago, it’s back to around 800 now. That seems to be the pattern we’ve been stuck with for some time, and it shows no sign of letting up.
The cause
Zelle told CNN that payments giant Fiserv, which provides services to some banks, is the reason for the outage. Fiserv has yet to comment on the issue.
On a decline…
While it’s certainly not over, the numbers are trending downward right now, with the Down Detector reports hovering around 700 right now.
Zelle alternatives
While many users rely on Zelle to send money because it’s baked right into their online banking experience, there are plenty of other ways to send money. If you need to send cash right now and can’t wait until the Zelle outage is resolved, here are some other apps to try:
That’s not an exhaustive list, as there are other, smaller Zelle alternatives, but at least one of those should do the job for you to get your rent or any other payments sent until Zelle is back.
A few users have commented on the Down Detector page for Bank of America with the specifc issue they’re having. As expected, they’re reporting issues with sending money, which is where Zelle comes into play.
Zelle confirms outage
CNN spoke to Zelle about the outage and received confirmation that something is wrong and the company is working on it.
“We are aware that certain Zelle users at some financial institutions are not able to use Zelle at this time,” Zelle said to the publication . “We are working diligently with our partners to resolve this matter as soon as we can. Zelle users may see transactions marked as ‘payment pending’ in the meantime.”
While the company didn’t offer specific banks that are having issues, the Down Detector report spikes for Bank of America and Ally lead us to believe those are the two currently being hit the hardest.
Other banks showing outages
Because of Zelle’s integration into online banking, it seems like the banks themselves are actually down when they’re not. For most of the reports at Bank of America, Ally, Old National Bank, Navy Federal and others, Zelle appears to be the root of the problem.
If you can’t send money through your online banking like you usually would, make sure it’s actually the bank that’s having problems and not Zelle.
A steady outage
The Zelle outage has been going on for most of the day, but it never hit the fever pitch that some other outages reach. It peaked at 988 reports and has remained steady in the 800 range for the last few hours. A decent number of users still have issues with a service designed for sending money.
Whether it’s sending rent or other payments, Zelle is one of those services that needs to work, and the fact that it isn’t is concerning.
