[nickjj]

Zelle[1] is a fairly recent solution to that problem.

Free and nearly instant email address based transfers directly through your bank account without having to sign up for anything extra. I've done a bunch of transfers with it and it's been solid.

It's about as easy as you can get and most US banks support it.

[1]: https://www.zellepay.com/

[tempsy]

Double edged sword IMO. If you use Zelle and off a digit in a phone number or email you are out of luck. No way to recover funds once sent.

[nickjj]

If you send it to an email address that doesn't exist, does the transfer go through? If so who ends up with the money?

It's been a while since I sent funds to a new address but I am pretty sure my bank's UI provided protection against that, and now when I send future funds to the same account, I just pick them from a drop down box instead of entering it manually.

[tempsy]

No - it’s more dangerous with a phone number, which is how I usually send/receive.

Much, much safer way to use Zelle is to ask the receiver to request a payment from you and then accept the request.

[nickjj]

That's a good idea in both cases.

Although I'm guilty of just sending funds direct but only through email addresses which I usually copy / paste straight from what someone wrote to me.

[vinay427]

It cancels after a few weeks (IIRC) of remaining unclaimed.