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I would like to refund money received via Zelle by a family member. What procedure to follow? Is it possible to return to sender or is there another way to return/refund the money?

clarification:

I received a gift payment which I would like to return to the sender the same way it came-via Zelle. There appears to be no such way to refuse, refund or return to sender as Zelle is a cash transaction initiated and taken from the senders Bank account the moment the account is accessed. Sending it back through other channels as in Paypal etc incurs extra charges

mhoran_psprep
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user91995
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    If they sent it to you via Zelle, can't you send it back the same way? – mkennedy Nov 30 '19 at 16:41
  • I tried. Doesn't work. – user91995 Nov 30 '19 at 16:46
  • Just to be clear, I meant to initiate a new transaction, not to try to reverse the existing one. Is that what you tried? If you did try that, what was the error message? – mkennedy Nov 30 '19 at 16:52
  • I received a gift payment which I would like to return to the sender the same way it came-via Zelle. There appears to be no such way to refuse, refund or return to sender as Zelle is a cash transaction initiated and taken from the senders Bank account the moment the account is accessed. Sending it back through other channels as in Paypal etc incurs extra charges. – user91995 Nov 30 '19 at 17:10
  • Ah, so you don't have access to Zelle. That's what I wasn't understanding. – mkennedy Nov 30 '19 at 17:17

1 Answers1

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If you received money through Zelle, your bank is a part of the Zelle agreement and network, and they are using the email or phone number they have from you to identify you as the receiver. The sender definitely has entered your email address or your phone number to send to you - it doesn't work any other way. There are no account numbers or even bank names exchanged - the sender can only use email or phone number, and he will never know which bank you are with.

This implies that your bank supports Zelle. You might not know, or if you don't use online banking, you might not have access to it, but they do support it, or it wouldn't have ever worked.

There is no direct 'returning' or 'rejecting', all Zelle transactions are final. But you can send money to the original sender simply by doing the same thing the sender did: log on to your online banking, enter the recipient's email or phone number, and send it.
If you don't have their email nor their phone number, you can ask them, but otherwise, you are stuck.
If you don't use online banking, you can either start using it (it's nearly always free), or walk into your bank, and ask them to do it for you (I never tried that, but I'd think they can do that).

Aganju
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