Send Money in the Moment with Zelle^®

Zelle is a fast, safe and easy way to send money directly between almost any bank accounts in the U.S., typically within minutes¹. With just an email address or U.S. mobile phone number, you can send money to people you trust, regardless of where they bank².

You can send money to friends, family and others you trust².

Since money is sent directly from your bank account to another person’s bank account within minutes¹, 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 phone number.

You can send, request, or receive money with Zelle. To get started, log into your mobile banking app and select “Send Money with Zelle®”. Following the prompts, enter the information requested, accept the terms and conditions, and you’re ready to start sending and receiving with Zelle.

To send money using Zelle, simply select someone from your mobile device’s contacts (or add a trusted recipient’s email address or U.S. mobile phone number), add the amount you’d like to send and an optional note, review, then hit “Send.” In most cases, the money is available to your recipient in minutes¹.

To request money using Zelle, 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”³.

To receive money, just share your enrolled email address or U.S. mobile phone number with a friend and ask them to send you money with Zelle.

Note: Zelle is currently not available for use with NIHFCU business accounts.

If you have already enrolled with Zelle, you do not need to take any further action. The money will move directly into your bank account, typically within minutes¹.

If you have not yet enrolled with Zelle, follow these steps:

1. Click on the link provided in the payment notification you received via email or text message.

2. Select NIH Federal Credit Union.

Follow the instructions provided on the page to enroll and receive your money. Pay attention to the email address or U.S. mobile phone number where you received the payment notification – you should enroll with Zelle using that email address or U.S. mobile phone number to ensure you receive your money.

Zelle is a great way to send money to family, friends, and people you are familiar with such as your personal trainer, babysitter or neighbor².

Since money is sent directly from your bank account to another person’s bank account within minutes¹, Zelle should only be used to send money to friends, family and others you trust. Neither NIH Federal Credit Union 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.

NIH Federal Credit Union does not charge any fees to use Zelle⁴.

Your mobile carrier’s messaging and data rates may apply. Follow-up with your wireless provider for more information.

It’s easy — Zelle is already available within NIH Federal Credit Union’s mobile banking app! Check our app or sign-in online and follow a few simple steps to enroll with Zelle today.5 

You can find a full list of participating banks and credit unions live with Zelle here.

If your recipient’s bank or credit union isn’t on the list, don’t worry! The list of participating financial institutions is always growing, and your recipient can still use Zelle by downloading the Zelle app for Android and iOS.

To enroll with the Zelle app, your recipient will enter their basic contact information, an email address and U.S. mobile number, and a Visa® or Mastercard^® debit card with a U.S. based account (does not include U.S. territories). Zelle does not accept debit cards associated with international deposit accounts or any credit cards.

When you enroll with Zelle through the NIH Federal Credit Union app, your name, your financial institution’s name, and the email address or U.S. mobile number you enrolled is shared with Zelle (no sensitive account details are shared – those stay with your bank or credit union). When someone sends money to your enrolled email address or U.S. mobile phone number, Zelle looks up the email address or mobile number in its “directory” and notifies your financial institution of the incoming payment. Your bank or credit union then directs the payment into your bank account, all while keeping your sensitive account details private.

In order to use Zelle, the sender and recipient’s bank or credit union accounts must be based in the U.S.

You can only cancel a payment if the person 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 the person you sent money to has already enrolled with Zelle, 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 sent money to the wrong person, we recommend contacting the recipient and requesting the money back. 

Money sent with Zelle is typically available to an enrolled recipient within minutes¹.

If you send money to someone who isn’t enrolled with Zelle, they will receive a notification prompting them to enroll. After enrollment, the money will move directly to your recipient’s account, typically within minutes¹.

If your payment is pending, we recommend confirming that the person you sent money to has enrolled with Zelle and that you entered the correct email address or U.S. mobile phone number.

If you’re waiting to receive money, you should check to see if you’ve received a payment notification via email or text message. If you haven’t received a payment notification, we recommend following up with the sender to confirm they entered the correct email address or U.S. mobile phone number.
Still having trouble? Please give the NIH Federal Credit Union member support team a call at 1-800-877-6440 or through our support email: nihfcu@nihfcu.org.

Yes! They will receive a notification via email or text message.

Keeping your money and information safe is a top priority for NIH Federal Credit Union. When you use Zelle within our mobile app, your information is protected with the same technology we use to keep your bank account safe.

If you don’t know the person, or aren’t sure you will get what you paid for (for example, items bought from an online bidding or sales site), you should not use Zelle for these types of transactions.

These transactions are potentially high risk (just like sending cash to a person you don’t know is high risk). Neither NIH Federal Credit Union 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.

Your email address or U.S. mobile phone number may already be enrolled with Zelle at another bank or credit union. Call our member support team and ask them to move your email address or U.S. mobile phone number to NIH Federal Credit Union so you can use it for Zelle.

Once member support moves your email address or U.S. mobile phone number, it will be connected to your NIH Federal Credit Union account so you can start sending and receiving money with Zelle through the NIH Federal Credit Union mobile banking app. Please call NIH Federal Credit Union member support at 1-800-877-6440 for help.