My primary use of Zelle is sending/receiving money between family members. For example, sometimes it's easier for me to spec and buy a computer for a family member, vs. walking them through the web site to purchase. I trust my family members to be good for the payment, and there's enough communication involved in such a purchase that I know I'm not being scammed.

I would be perfectly fine if I could be repaid via a next-day mechanism like ACH, but that isn't often available to retail banking users. Wire transfers are still a paid service to most people, and I don't want to fall back to sending a check. So that leaves services like Zelle.

IMO, it should be the bank that receives the money that should have to pay. Banks (even small ones) need to know their own customers, and they take on the risk of not knowing them well enough. They can impose verification rules to stop typical scam behaviour, at least up to the level of risk they're comfortable carrying.

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