Author: Kelechi Young
Zelle is a payment platform that allows users to receive and send money to friends and family. Users can bypass the need for account numbers by sending money directly from their bank account to a receiver’s bank account through email or phone number. Zelle’s service is swift and makes payment as easy as possible.
Currently, Zelle is in partnership with over 1000 banks in the United States. Recently, the company made some updates to its features and policies to help provide better payment service to its users.
What Are Zelle’s Latest Updates?
Zelle announced that it would be making some changes to help protect its users and make payment better. Some of them include the following:
1. Anti-Fraud Update
Zelle recently updated its security features and policies to protect its users from fraud and scams. The new ‘Risk Insight for Zelle’ is one of them. Customers and financial institutions involved in the transaction will both be protected by the new feature.
How does it work?
The Zelle Risk Insight gives financial institutions access to validate transactions. When you use Zelle to initiate a transaction, the financial institution evaluates the information of the receiving token in the transaction. After a few minutes of evaluation, the financial institution sends users an option to cancel the transaction if there are any red flags.
Third-Party Blocking: Another new feature available to Zelle users is the ability to block third-party tracking. This feature provides users with maximum control over the cookies and technologies placed on their websites and emails. As a result, Zelle users no longer have to be concerned about their data being collected or used without their consent.
2. Tax Update
Earlier this year, in January, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced a new law requiring payment service platforms to report payments for goods and services exceeding $600. However, Zelle users will be happy to know that this new policy does not apply to the platform m. Zelle is one of the payment platforms that will not report or send their users a Form 1099-K (the form used to report payments to the IRS) if they receive more than $600 for their goods and services. Users can, however, make tax reports by themselves.
3. Privacy Features Update
Zelle introduced new privacy features that give users greater control over their data. The most recent updates include the features ‘Data Deletion’ and ‘Data Retention.’ The data deletion tool in Zelle allows users to delete their data from the platform’s server. On the other hand, the data retention policy limits the amount of time Zelle can keep user information on its servers.
Conclusion
Zelle is a payment platform that allows users to swiftly send and receive money. Zelle’s most recent updates, such as the data retention and deletion policy, aim to make payments more secure and convenient. Users do not need to be concerned about receiving payments for goods and services worth more than $600 because Zelle is not one of the payment platforms required to report payments, under the new tax law.