Zelle to M-Pesa: Why It Doesn't Work, and How To Save Money With Alternatives

If you're a Zelle user, you probably know that it's one of the best ways to send and receive money right from your smartphone. But if you've tried using it to send money across the border to Kenya, you'll probably not have found a clear way of doing so.

This is because, sadly, Zelle doesn't work for sending money to M-Pesa and doesn't work in Kenya at all. If you want to transfer your money to M-Pesa in Kenya, you'll need to pick a Zelle money transfer alternative to M-Pesa in Kenya instead, such as Remitly

In this short guide, we look at why Zelle doesn't work in Kenya in the first place. Then, we'll delve into the best Zelle alternatives for sending money to M-Pesa in Kenya to help you make the best money transfer choices.

Why Doesn't Zelle Work With M-Pesa?

As we saw above, Zelle is unavailable in Kenya and therefore cannot be used to send money to M-Pesa. —

To use the Zelle app in the first place (let alone send and receive money via online banking), both the sender and the recipient must have US bank accounts. And while you can use Zelle in Kenya if you're an American in that country, you won't be able to transfer money via Zelle to a Kenya-based bank or an M-Pesa account.

So why exactly doesn't Zelle work in Kenya?

In a nutshell, Zelle transfers to M-Pesa in Kenya aren't possible because foreign exchange is a hugely complex market, with many rules, regulations, and industry standards that companies are obligated to follow. Over and above this, the profit margins tend to be very tight and competitive.

Simply put, this leads to many mobile payment apps avoiding international transfers altogether. It saves them a lot of time, money, and stress! Zelle isn't the only app to avoid foreign exchange for this reason: Venmo and Square Cash do the same. And those mobile payments apps that do get involved in foreign exchange usually charge exorbitant fees to cover the costs (e.g. Paypal).

Zelle Alternatives for Transfers to M-Pesa in Kenya

The good news is that if you're a Zelle user who'd like to send money abroad, you'll have plenty of options to choose from to send your money overseas instead. In summary, here are the main two:

1. Transfer via a digital provider: Many money transfer providers offer low fees to M-Pesa in Kenya, as well as fast transfers and a great user experience to suit your needs. The best are Wise for bank transfers, and Remitly or Small World for cash pick-ups. However, pricing and exchange rates vary constantly, so compare providers on Monito to find the best deal every time.
2. Send an international bank wire: US banks such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citibank, and others charge very high fees and poor exchange rates because they transfer over SWIFT. We therefore don't recommend them for transferring money abroad for most people. You can learn more about bank charges for international transfers here.

We go over both of these options in detail below:

Option 1 — Digital Providers

Digital international transfer providers are online platforms that have grown in popularity in recent years as a low-cost, savvy, and safe way to send money across borders. If you're a Zelle user, we think switching over to a digital provider is a natural choice for a number of reasons:

• Savviness: The user-friendly, seamless experience is usually slick and similar to Zelle in terms of accessibility and convenience.
• Cost: They're (by far) the cheapest way to send money to M-Pesa in Kenya, usually costing between 0.5% and 3% in total fees.
• Speed: Money usually arrives overseas in a matter of hours or, at most, around one to two days depending on the provider.

To learn more about digital providers and how they differ from banks, take a look at our bank vs digital provider comparison.

In the end, the best digital provider for you will depend on factors such as 1) which country you're sending to, 2) how much you're sending, and 3) how your recipient will receive their funds. According to millions of searches on Monito's real-time comparison engine, here are the three best digital providers for transfers from the US to bank accounts abroad:

Remitly — Great for Cash Pick-Up

A world leader in low-cost international cash pickup transfers, Remitly often offers the cheapest (although seldom the fastest) money transfers to M-Pesa in Kenya from the United States.

Transfer cost (US to Kenya): 1.2% on average.

Transfer time: 2-3 business days.

More info: See our Remitly review, or visit their website.

Small World — Great Option All-Round

Small World is a much-loved money transfer service that's particularly popular for remittances across the globe. It offers fast, affordable bank transfers and cash pickup transfers, but its mobile wallet deposit options are particularly extensive and affordable.

Transfer cost (US to Kenya): 0.6% on average

Transfer time: 1 business day.

More info: See our full Small World review, or visit their website.

Option 2 — Banks and PayPal

The second (and generally the far worse) alternative to using Zelle Kenya-bound transfers is to use your bank or PayPal.

Not only is using your bank or PayPal the slower and less convenient to transfer abroad, but going this route also comes with high hidden fees, as both your bank and PayPal will typically give you a poor exchange rate on top of the standard service fees for transfers to M-Pesa in Kenya.

For example, our research revealed that sending $1,000 from the US to a Eurozone country with Wells Fargo would cost $30 in service fees and $50 in exchange rate margin fees. Together, these fees amount to around 8% of the amount transferred, which is about 10 times more than the cheapest available service compared on Monito's comparison engine for the same transfer. And given PayPal's similarly high exchange rate margins, the story isn't very different with them either.