Zelle is undoubtedly the future of money transfers across the United States, thanks to the eliminated cost and almost instantaneous speed. With Current describing itself as the future of banking, you may want to ask: does it even support the Zelle payment service for interbank payments?
If the availability of Zelle in your bank account matters to you, it’s crucial to ask this question before making an account with your bank, especially when it’s an online bank, like with Current. If you’re not aware yet, Current is still not a bank, at least, not yet.
In this article, you’ll learn what the Current app is and why it’s a compelling finance app. Then, you’ll learn if Current works with Zelle, and also some workarounds to try if it turns out that the app is incompatible with the Zelle payment service.
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Does Current Work with Zelle?
As I’ve mentioned in the preceding section, the Current mobile app is not a bank. Also, I should make it clear that it’s only possible to use Zelle if you’re an affiliated bank. The first step to being an affiliated bank is being a bank, so, you kind of have to be a bank to offer transfers with Zelle.
Since Current doesn’t even fulfill the first obligation, it’s technically impossible for the app to work with Zelle. If you go through the list of supported banks and credit unions on the Zelle official website, you’ll notice that Current is missing, which signifies that it’s not supported at the moment.
Current doesn’t integrate automatically with Zelle at the moment doesn’t mean you can’t find a way to integrate your Current account with Zelle somehow. If you’re curious, yes, it’s possible to integrate Current with Zelle, but not as a supported bank.
While you’ll face significantly more limitations than you would if you were using a supported bank, it’s still worth trying if you must link your Current account to Zelle instead of a regular bank account. The following section will show you how you can get both accounts to work together and the potential limits.
How to Link Current with Zelle
If you’ve been following this article carefully, you’ll notice that I described Current as “not a bank” earlier. That may bring up the question if Current is not a bank, how are they able to facilitate banking transactions like issuing debit cards and allowing money transfers?
Well, the answer is simple and right on Current’s official website: they partnered with actual banks; Choice Financial Group, and the Metropolitan Commercial Bank to offer those banking services you cherish. That explains an aspect, but there’s something else you need to know.
When you head over to Zelle’s Get Started page, you’ll see a list of the banks it support. Look through the list, and you’ll see Metropolitan Commercial Bank as one of them. Remember, this same bank is one of the two that facilitates banking services for the Current app.
In short, that link should make it possible to use your Current account with Zelle somehow, and yes, it does. You can use both accounts together by linking your debit card to a Zelle account you’ve already created. If that sounds too overwhelming, I’ll explain better. Here are the steps required to make Current work with Zelle.
- Download the Zelle app
Since Current doesn’t work natively with Zelle, you’ll have to download the Zelle app to make an account. For comparison, this step will be unnecessary if your bank supports Zelle by default since the option to send money using Zelle should appear whenever you want to send money to someone.
- Register without a bank
One of the first steps you’ll have to complete before you can create a Zelle account successfully is selecting your bank. The interface gives you a search bar that you can use to find the bank you use, and if it isn’t available, you can continue without a bank.
When you get to this stage of the registration process, type “current” into the search bar and select the option to continue without a bank. You’ll have to enter more details than someone willing to link an affiliated bank account since Zelle doesn’t have any information about you at this point.
- Add your Current debit card to your Zelle account
After going on to register your Zelle account without a valid bank account, you’ll have to add a valid debit or credit card for the account to work properly. The debit card is what you’ll be using to fund your Zelle account for money transfers, and if possible, you can even withdraw the money you receive from others to it.
If you’ve noticed, Current lets you order a debit card that you can use with your account. When you add that debit card to your Zelle account, you can start funding Zelle using your Current account, and you can even withdraw from Zelle to your account.
However, you should note that you’ll still be liable to the limits of a Zelle user without a bank account, which makes it impossible to send more than $500 in 24 hours. At the moment, there’s still no limit on how much you can receive, making it a very good option regardless.
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Conclusion
The Current app does not work with Zelle; if you need to use the Zelle payment system as intended, you should probably go get a regular bank account. But if you only have an account with Current and you insist on using Zelle, you can do that using a workaround that I’ve discussed in the article.
My Name is MIKKY, I’ve been on the internet for years building legit ways to make money online. I am a proud promoter of financial literacy (Making money, building wealth and investment). On this website, I try things out and share them with you guys. Read More about me on the about page.
