Venmo Killer? Zelle Promises Instant Money Deposits

PayPal's money-transferring app Venmo has become so popular, it's now a verb. But big banks are now looking to sway millennials who "Venmo" each other cash with Zelle: a competing service that aims to get you your transferred money even faster.

As reported by Recode, Zelle developer Early Warning shed some details on the still-mysterious app at the Money 20/20 payments conference in Las Vegas. The service aims to stand out by allowing you to instantly deposit any money transferred to you at no extra charge. By contrast, Venmo usually takes about two days to put money in your bank account, while services such as Square Cash make you pay up for an instant deposit.

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Zelle's list of partners includes many major banks, such as Bank of America, Chase, Capital One and Citi. Based on the video on Zelle's website, the app seems like a more colorful-looking version of Venmo — just pick a contact, decide how much money you want to send them and you're good to go.

As Recode points out, several Zelle partners, such as Chase, already offer their own quick-transfer services. Whether those programs will be shuttered to make way for Zelle remains to be seen.

Zelle has its work cut out for it if the service wants a shot at Venmo's ubiquity, but its instant-transfer benefits and partnerships with banks people actually use could resonate with folks who depend on these types of apps to give and receive money. We should have a better idea of how well Zelle holds up soon; the app is slated for a 2017 release.

Mike Andronico is Senior Writer at CNNUnderscored. He was formerly Managing Editor at Tom's Guide, where he wrote extensively on gaming, as well as running the show on the news front. When not at work, you can usually catch him playing Street Fighter, devouring Twitch streams and trying to convince people that Hawkeye is the best Avenger.