It’s a rough Friday for anyone trying to send money through Zelle. The popular peer-to-peer payment service, a go-to for splitting dinner bills or paying rent, went haywire on May 2, 2025, locking thousands of users out of their transactions. Payments are stuck in limbo, marked as “pending,” and some folks are staring at error messages instead of confirmation screens. Here’s what’s happening, pieced together from the companies and banks caught in the mess.
The trouble kicked off early Friday morning, with reports of Zelle failing to process transfers spiking before noon. By mid-afternoon, over 770 users had flagged issues, with the number climbing as the day dragged on. Most complaints—about eight out of ten—center on payments that won’t go through. Others can’t log in at all, and a smaller chunk say the app itself is acting glitchy. Banks like Bank of America, Navy Federal Credit Union, and TD Bank are among those hit, with customers reporting delays or outright failures when trying to move money.
Zelle, owned by Early Warning Services and backed by heavyweights like JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, didn’t mince words. The problem, they confirmed, stems from a third-party provider, Fiserv, which handles payment processing for some banks. Fiserv admitted to an “internal issue” that threw a wrench in services, insisting it wasn’t caused by hackers or foul play. By late Friday, they claimed the glitch was fixed and were grinding through a backlog of stalled payments. But for many users, things still aren’t back to normal—transactions remain frozen, and some banks couldn’t say when full service would return.
The outage’s ripple effect is wide. At Truist Bank, one user’s rent payment, sent Thursday night, was still dangling in digital purgatory by Friday evening. Navy Federal Credit Union and others, like Schools First FCU, acknowledged the issue and said they’re working with vendors to sort it out, but no firm timeline was given. Ally Bank told customers flat-out that Zelle and external transfers were down, with no quick fix in sight. For those relying on Zelle to cover bills or send cash to friends, it’s a frustrating limbo—money debited from one account but not landing in another.
This isn’t Zelle’s first hiccup. The platform, which processed over $1 trillion in payments in 2024, shut down its standalone app on April 1, 2025, pushing users to access it through their bank’s app or website. That move, announced last October, was meant to streamline things since only 2% of transactions happened on the standalone app. Now, with more than 2,200 banks and credit unions in Zelle’s network, the service is deeply woven into America’s financial fabric—making outages like this one sting all the more.
For those desperate to move money, alternatives like Venmo, Cash App, or Apple Pay are still humming along. Zelle’s team says they’re hustling to resolve the issue and will share updates as they come. Fiserv, meanwhile, is focused on clearing the payment backlog and says it’s taking steps to avoid a repeat. Affected banks are directing customers to their support lines, though some report long waits and vague answers.
The outage remains ongoing as of May 2, 2025, with no set end date. Users are advised to check their bank’s app or website for updates or try other payment platforms for urgent transfers.