Zelle® for your business

Zelle® is a fast, safe and easy way for small businesses to send, request, and receive money directly between eligible bank accounts in the U.S.* If your customers use Zelle® within their mobile banking app, they can send payments directly to your Citizens business checking or savings account with just your email address or U.S. mobile number. With Zelle®, payments typically arrive within minutes**

You can send, request, or receive money with Zelle®. To get started, log into the Citizens mobile app and select “Send Money”. Enter your email address or U.S. mobile number, receive a one-time verification code, enter it, accept terms and conditions, and you’re ready to start sending and receiving with Zelle®.

When you use Zelle® with a small business account, you can send money to other small businesses that bank with a financial institution that offers Zelle® to small businesses. You can also send money to consumers who have access to Zelle® through their mobile banking app. At this time, we don’t support sending to (or receiving from) consumers that are only enrolled in the Zelle® app.

If the small business or consumer you send money to has already enrolled with Zelle® through their bank’s mobile app, the money is sent directly to their bank account and cannot be canceled. It’s important to only send money to people you trust, and always ensure you’ve used the correct email address or U.S. mobile number when sending money.

To get started, log into the Citizens mobile app. To enroll a small business bank account with Zelle®, you must use a different U.S. mobile number or email address than the one you used to enroll your personal bank account with Zelle®. For example, name@email.com would be connected to your personal checking account, and 555-555-1234 would be connected to your small business checking account.

You can receive payments from consumers using Zelle® through their bank’s mobile app. You can also receive payments from other small businesses if their financial institution offers Zelle® to small businesses. At this time, you’re not able to receive payments from consumers that are only enrolled in the Zelle® app.

Once you’re enrolled with Zelle®, the money you receive is typically available within minutes.

First, you should enroll your email address or U.S. mobile number with Zelle® through your mobile banking app and associate it with your small business banking account. Second, share your enrolled email address or U.S. mobile number with your customers and ask them to send you payment with Zelle® right from their banking app. You don’t need to share any sensitive account details they can send you money by using your enrolled email address or U.S. mobile number to identify you. After the consumer sends you payment with Zelle®, you will receive your money directly into your enrolled bank account.

You can also request payments directly through your mobile banking app by clicking “Send Money with Zelle®,” selecting “Request,” entering your customer’s email address or U.S. mobile number, confirming the recipient is correct (make sure you’ve entered the correct email address or U.S. mobile number of the person or business you want to request payment from) and tapping "request".

If your customer is using Zelle® through their bank’s mobile app, they’ll be able to pay you with Zelle®. You’ll receive a payment notification once your customer has sent you money in response to your request. If your customer is enrolled in the Zelle® app, they will not be able to send you money with Zelle®, and you should arrange for a different payment method.

There are a few ways you can encourage your customers to pay you with Zelle®.

• Tell customers verbally that you accept payments with Zelle®, and that they can easily send you money right from their banking app.
• Include it on an invoice. We recommend adding “I accept payments with Zelle®” or “Pay me with Zelle®”.
• Use Zelle® to request money* from your customers (which will send them a notification telling them you’ve requested payment with Zelle®).
• Add pre-approved Zelle® content to your business website: zellepay.com/smallbusiness-toolkit.

Please note, you’ll only be able to receive payments from consumers using Zelle® through their financial institution’s mobile banking app. You will not be able to receive payments from consumers enrolled in the Zelle® app. If the person you are requesting money from is not yet enrolled with Zelle®, you must use their email address to request money.

To request money with Zelle®, select “Send Money with Zelle®” in your mobile banking app, choose “Request,” select the individual from whom you’d like to request money, enter the amount you’d like to request, include an optional note, review and hit “Request”.

Neither Citizens nor Zelle® offers a protection program for any authorized payments made with Zelle® – for example, if you do not receive the item you paid for or the item is not as described or as you expected.

Whether you use Zelle® with a business account or a consumer account, Zelle® uses the same network to initiate payments to small businesses and consumers. Consumers who are already enrolled with Zelle® through their mobile banking app don’t need to do anything different to send money to a small business – they use the existing Zelle® experience they already know and trust within their bank’s mobile app. However, the experience is slightly different for small businesses,* as small businesses cannot currently send payments to or receive payments from consumers who are only enrolled in the Zelle® app.

Read the updated terms and conditions that were provided by Citizens.

No, Zelle® does not integrate directly with accounting software at this time. However, since Zelle® is connected to your bank account, you are able to see all Zelle® transactions in your online banking transaction records. If your bank account transactions feed into accounting software, you will see the Zelle® transactions.

All small business checking and savings accounts are eligible to use Zelle®.

Please contact Customer Service for help.

You can only cancel a payment if the small business or consumer you sent money to hasn’t yet enrolled with Zelle®. To check whether the payment is still pending because the recipient hasn’t yet enrolled, you can go to your activity page, choose the payment you want to cancel, and then select “Cancel This Payment.”

If you send money to a small business or consumer that has already enrolled with Zelle® through their bank or credit union’s mobile app, the money is sent directly to their bank account and cannot be canceled. This is why it’s important to only send money to people you trust, and always ensure you’ve used the correct email address or U.S. mobile number when sending money.

If you try to send money to a consumer who is enrolled in the Zelle® app, the payment won’t go through and a message will pop up to let you know the payment cannot be completed. With small business accounts, Zelle® does not currently support sending money to users enrolled in the Zelle® app.

If you sent money to the wrong person, please immediately contact Customer Service so we can help you.

Citizens does not charge any fees to send money with Zelle®. However, if your personal and/or business account includes transaction limits, you may incur a fee for exceeding those limits.

Citizens account and/or any wireless/data fees may apply.

There is no limit on the number of Zelle® transactions that can be completed each month, however there is a $5,000 daily limit and a $30,000 monthly limit.