Can a Zelle Bank Transfer be reversed or denied after credit has been added?
After collecting information via web searching, the comments above, and a additional call to BOA, i have concluded the following to the best of my knowledge. Zelle Transfers are final. Irreversible. As Jay mentioned above, funds are subtracted from the sending account before the transfer is made, therefore it eliminates sending funds that do not exist. I validated this information with BOA, and the BOA representative said that once a zelle transfer is initiated and the receiving party has received the funds, it can no longer be canceled. Funds received by the receiving party is credited immediately. I will note that the BOA representative was a BOA representative and not a Zelle representative. I say this because the representatives seemed to be slightly weary in answering my questions about Zelle, as if he was looking up the information as we spoke. If someone is reading this and plans to transfer huge amount of cash from a highly likely malicious user, i would recommend contacting Zelle or your personal bank directly to further validate this information. Zelle, from what i can find, is a fairly new technology. I could not find a Zelle contact number via the web for questioning, so i can only rely on the knowledge on my BOA representative.
Below are some of the differences between FedWire credit transfers and ACH credit transfers in the US. FedWire Same day clearing, which means the sender's account is debited and your account is credited on the same day Irrevocable.  Once a FedWire is sent, the originator/sender cannot send a reversing transaction.  This is a huge advantage of using FedWires because it mitigates risk of reversals. Cost.  FedWire typically cost more to send and to receive ACH Credit (aka Direct Deposit) Allows for Reversals.  Sender/originator does have the ability to perform reversals or correcting entries. Batch Processing  ACH entries are group together into batches and processed by Financial Institutions and the ACH Operators in batch mode. You can find additional information regarding ACH at http://www.achrulesonline.org/ and FedWire at http://www.frbservices.org/serviceofferings/fedwire/fedwire_funds_service.html We have a pre-paid mastercard.  This will only allow the spending up to the amount already paid into the card account.  Visa Electron is a bank account linked debit card that will not allow the account to go overdrawn but this card type is getting quite rare. Short answer: No. Some of those 'automatic' payments you've agreed to (presumably by signing a PAD form) are initiated in batch by the company whom you're buying from (phone company, cable company etc). So no, the bank has no indication from one day to the next what is coming through.  And the request goes from say, your cable company to THEIR merchant bank to YOUR bank. Typically you have a monthly bill date which is fixed, and they should have terms established when it is due.  If a payment comes back NSF they can retry once - but only for the same amount and I believe it is 14 days from the initial payment attempt.  It makes it predictable, and you'd figure banks would clue in and start to predict for you when things may come out - but strictly speaking your bank doesn't know when or how much. If bank B has a transfer limit set, you bet that there is a nice reason for that. Either risk of fraud, liability, client preferences, profiling, credit scoring, etc, etc. For a bank, the cost of denying something [1] is way lower than the potential damages and liabilities of allowing something to go through.  Regarding your concerns for the ACH, here is the summarized transaction walkthrough source: An Originator– whether that’s an individual, a corporation or another entity– initiates either a Direct Deposit or Direct Payment transaction using the ACH Network. ACH transactions can be either debit or credit payments and commonly include Direct Deposit of payroll, government and Social Security benefits, mortgage and bill payments, online banking payments, person-to-person (P2P) and business-to-business (B2B) payments, to name a few. Instead of using paper checks, ACH entries are entered and transmitted electronically, making transactions quicker, safer and easier.  The Originating Depository Financial institution (ODFI) enters the ACH entry at the request of the Originator.  The ODFI aggregates payments from customers and transmits them in batches at regular, predetermined intervals to an ACH Operator.  ACH Operators (two central clearing facilities: The Federal Reserve or The Clearing House) receive batches of ACH entries from the ODFI.  The ACH transactions are sorted and made available by the ACH Operator to the Receiving Depository Financial Institution (RDFI).  The Receiver’s account is debited or credited by the RDFI, according to the type of ACH entry. Individuals, businesses and other entities can all be Receivers.  Each ACH credit transaction settles in one to two business days, and each debit transaction settles in just one business day, as per the Rules.  Take heed of this like:  The Originator initiates a direct deposit/payment transaction. In your scenario, the originator would be B. But since the transaction amount is higher than the limit, B would not even initiate the ACH transaction. The request would be denied. So the transaction would look like this: [1] Usually this cost comes down to just the processing costs of the denied transaction (and it is rather fail-fast like). For the other parties involved it may have additional costs (missed deadlines, penalties for not fulfilling an obligation, fines, etc), but for the bank that is irrelevant. In most cases, the brand on the card, eg Visa or MasterCard, is a middleman. The company processes the transaction, transferring $xx from the bank to the seller, and telling the bank to debit the buyer's account. The bank is at risk, not the company transacting the purchase. What's interesting is that American Express started as both. My first Amex card, issued in 1979 (long expired, but in my box of memorabilia) had no bank. American Express offered a card that offered no extended credit, it was pay in full each month. Since then, Amex started offering extended credit, i.e. with annual interest, and minimum payments, and more recently, offering transaction processing for banks which take on the credit risk, essentially becoming very similar to MasterCard and Visa. I’ve been in the mortgage business for nearly 15 years.  Your question is sort of multi-faceted and I’m surprised by some of these answers I’ve read! Anyway, I digress.   Yes, you can be denied even if you have money for a down payment.  One of the BIGGEST factors lenders are now required to take into account when approving mortgages now is a person’s “Ability to Repay.”   Whether your traditional mortgages like Conventional, FHA, USDA, or VA loans, or even an “in-house” mortgage from a local bank —either way, the lender MUST be able to verify someone’s ability to repay.   Your issue is that you won’t have any verifiable income until May.  A couple people have answered correctly in that 1) if you have a firm offer letter that can be verified with the employer, and 2) you can use your education/college to substitute for a two year work history as long as you’re graduating with and working in the same line of work. Some programs require proof of 30 days of pay history once you actually start earning paychecks; some programs will use the offer letter as long as you will start earning paychecks within a certain number of days after the note date (basically when the payments start). Also I’m making the assumption that there is some sort of credit history that can be verified.  Most lenders want at least a couple of accounts reporting a history just to show good use of credit and showing that you can manage your finances over a longer period of time. Just about every lender has some sort of minimum FICO score requirement.  I hope this helps. If you have questions, just reply in a comment. could I decline it so the money would be returned back to the account they were transferred from? As a general banking practise, there is nothing automated that will allow you to mark something as return the funds. You would have to approach your Bank with a written statement mentioning that you don't recognise this credit as belonging to you and request the bank to take appropriate action. I have the PDF of Wells Fargo bank sent by my client which also quotes the SWIFT Confirmation #.  This is just the internal reference maybe from SWIFT terminal. It just means SWIFT received the message. Nothing more. What may have happened ? It could have got stuck somewhere in correspondent Bank chain. Or may have reached ICICI NY and they are not able to apply funds to your account in the ICICI India branch for whatever reasons. What are my next steps here ?  You would need to do 2 things; First contact your ICICI bank branch with this details and ask them if they can trace it for you. Second contact your client and ask them to raise a BCNR [Beneficiary Claims Non Receipt] for this transaction with Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo is bound to investigate this. Depending on your Clients relationship with Wells Fargo, there maybe charges of around 30-50 USD. This would trace the payment via Wells Fargo to the next in chain and can identify where it was stuck or when it was credited. What more information should I ask for The information in confirmation is quite less. Talk to your client and see if you are request for Sender Reference Number [This is preserved from Wells Fargo to your ICICI bank], BIC of Wells Fargo, Immediate routing [or sender Correspondent]; i.e. which Bank the payment was sent to [Wells Fargo may send it to other Bank and then it would reach ICICI] I have already talked to them over the phone and they insist they   haven't charged me yet, and I will not be charged. When I informed   them I had in fact been charged they agreed it would be reversed. So I   have tried to resolve the issue and I don't have any confidence they   will reverse the charge as it has not been done yet. They are   difficult to communicate which makes the whole process more difficult. Your best next step is to call the credit card company and share this story.  I believe the likely result is that the credit card company will initiate a charge back. My question is, is this a valid reason to file a chargeback on my credit card? Yes.   If you attempted to work it out with the vendor and it is not working out, this is an appropriate time to initiate a charge back. "Other answers didn't seem to cover it, but most ""0%"" bank loans (often offered to credit card holders in the form of balance transfer checks), aside from less-obvious fees like already-mentioned late fees, also charge an actual loan fee, typically 2-3% (or a minimum floor amount) - that was the deal with every single transfer 0% offer I ever saw from a bank. So, effectively, even if you pay off the loan perfectly, on time, and within 0% period, you STILL got a 3% loan and not 0% (assuming 0% period lasts 12 months which is often the case)." I'd contact paypal to request clarification.  In the meantime, most banks will credit outgoing transfers immediately but process later, and only debit incoming after it passes through a processing team. So while the money will go out right away it may take a few days for your bank to actually process the withdrawal and the subsequent reversal from Paypal. In reality Paypal doesn't usually recieve the money immediately either, but they extend you credit to speed up things. Either way, it doesn't hurt to contact Paypal to make sure they have reverted the amount to your bank, and if they confirm such you can also reach out to your bank and ask where the money is stuck. Usually delays like this will happen in the interface between two unrelated financial institutions. "you could get a discover card and then just ""freeze"" it.  you might need to unfreeze it for a few minutes when you sign up for a new service, but it is unlikely an ongoing subscription would process a charge in that window. i believe merchants are charged a small fee for a transaction even if it is declined, so they won't try constantly forever. discover account freeze faq capitalone offers this freeze feature on their ""360"" debit cards. you can even freeze and unfreeze your card from their mobile app. this feature is becoming more common at small banks and credit unions too. i know of 2 small local banks that offer it. in fact, almost any bank can give you a debit card, then set the daily POS limit to 0$, effectively making it an atm-only card. but you may need to call the bank to get that limit temporarily lifted whenever you want to sign up for a new service. alternatively, jejorda2's suggestion of virtual account numbers is a good idea. several banks (including discover) have discontinued that feature, but i believe citi, and boa still offer them. side notes:" "The statement is (in laymans terms - if not in real terms) correct. Most credit cards (I know this to be true for VISA and Mastercard) have dispute processes and will do a chargeback on the merchant - ie take the money back from the supplier in cases where you don't receive the goods or other fraud - Particularly if they can't produce a signature and (for transactions which are not face-to-face) a tracking number. Your exact rights will vary by bank, but mostly they need to follow the guidelines set by the Credit Card company - and you do need to be a bit careful - if you received goods which were fake or a dispute arises you may be up for shipping the goods back to the merchant - and you have a limited - but reasonable time - in which to make the dispute. (The statement ""the money is the banks"" is not technically true, there is no money involved until you pay it, only credit [ they are very different, but almost no-one knows that, I communicated with a Minister of Finance on the topic], but this is quite technical and as a layman not something you need to worry about here)" "There's a difference between missing a payment and ""carrying a balance"" (making an on-time payments that are less than the full balance due). I have heard mortgage brokers claim that, if you have no other credit history, carrying a small balance here and there on a credit card may improve your score.  (""Small"" is in relation to your available credit and your ability to pay it off.)  But actually missing a payment will probably hurt your score. Example: You have a card with a credit limit of $1000.  In July you charge $300 worth of stuff.  You get the next statement and it shows the balance due of $300 and a minimum payment of $100. If you pay the entire $300 balance in that cycle, most cards won't charge you any interest.  You are not carrying a balance, so the credit scores may not reflect that you actually took a $300 loan and paid it off. If you instead pay $200, you'll be in good standing (because $200 is greater than the minimum payment).  But you'll be carrying a $100 balance into the next statement cycle.  Plus interest will accrue on that $100.  If you do this regularly, your credit score will probably take into account that you've taken a small loan and made the payments.  For those with no other credit history, this may be an appropriate way to increase your credit score.  (But you're paying interest, so it's not free.)  And if the average balance you carry is considered high relative to your ability to pay or to the total credit available to you, then this could adversely affect your score (or, at least, the amount of credit another provider is willing to extend to you). If you instead actually miss a payment, or make a payment that's less than the minimum payment, that will almost certainly hurt your credit score.  It will also incur penalties as well as interest.  You want to avoid that whenever possible. My guess is that, in the game of telephone from the banker to you, the ""carrying a balance"" was misinterpreted as ""missing a payment.""" There is a LOT of shuffling going on in the financial services industry. I would not immediately say your advisor is acting in bad faith. The DOL fiduciary changes are quite significant for some brokers. Investment Advisors who are fee-based have less of an impact since they are already fiduciaries. That being said, your issue is still the same. How can you get a low-cost solution to your problem? You might want to consider Vanguard, Fidelity, or another mutual fund company that can keep your costs low. However, you should understand that if you are using mutual funds, the fees are paid one way or another. 12b1 fees, commissions, and expenses are all deducted from the fund's gross returns.  You have to choose between low cost and paid advice. you cannot get high-quality low-cost advice. Fortunately, there are a lot of new solutions out there, robo-advisors, indexing, asset allocation mutual funds, ETFs, and more. Do a bit of homework and you should be able to come up with a reasonable solution. I hope you found this helpful. Kirk