ZimpleMoney

Frequently Asked questions

What can we help you find?

Zimple Inc.

There are several reasons you might want to use ZimpleMoney

  • You want to keep a private loan professional and more formal
  • You need to keep accurate detailed financial records for estate and tax purposes
  • You want to help a friend
  • You want to help a village

ZimpleMoney clients use our software to:

  • Make and manage a private loan
  • Access an online payment tool
  • Help finance the purchase of a house or car
  • Make regular tithes to a place of worship
  • Track and manage an insurance settlement
  • Track and manage alimony payments
  • Manage and track any formal or informal financial agreement
  • Make and manage a “program related investment”
  • Collect rent from tenants
  • Collect capital commitments for schools, hospitals or other non-profits
  • Simple interest loans
  • Fully amortized loans
  • Balloon payment loans
  • Interest-only loans
  • Principal- and interest-at-maturity loans
  • ZimpleAuto was designed for Auto Dealers making loans to low and middle income families in need of reliable transportation to get to work and school. Many of these families have bad credit or no credit at all. Our Auto Dealer’s serve the “Under Banked and Un-Banked” members of our community. In 2009 the FDIC reported that nearly 26 Million US households fit that description.
  • Zimple does a few things differently than a bill pay service:

    • ZimpleMoney gives contract parties total access to all information
    • It lets you share and save documents with all parties online
    • It lets you send private messages using ZimpleMoney’s in-network messaging
    • It gives all parties 24/7 access to the contract, payments, and terms
    • It provides event alerts to all parties in a contract
    • It does your financial accounting by updating ledgers automatically
    • It provides tax-reporting information
    • It saves you time and money
    • Once Zimple is set-up, it sends bills, collects payment, updates ledgers and deposits your payment automatically – your bill pay service doesn’t do any of that!

Who uses zimpleMoney?

Broadly speaking Zimple sends bills, collects payments, post ledgers and deposits funds into beneficiary accounts. The Zimple software lets you automate your billing and collection in a secure and confidential environment. This is how members are using it:

  • Parents – can make loans to help children and other family members, buy cars, build credit, start businesses, travel, weddings, and buy homes.
  • Family and friends – can help you start a business, buy a home, build your credit, buy a car, pay for school, and pay for honeymoon expenses.
  • Business owners – manage cash advances to employees, manage loans from personal savings, extend credit terms for customers, and offer point of sale financing and leasing.
  • Trusts and estates – track and manage any family loan, home loans, car loans, and loans to build credit, as well as deposit money into multiple beneficiary accounts.
  • Charitable foundations – make and manage Program Related Investments, loans to nonprofits, manage and collect capital commitments from donors and deposit money into multiple fund accounts.
  • Large and small businesses – track, manage, and collect long term accounts receivables, manage cash advances to employees, finance the sale of equipment, and point-of-sale financing.
  • Places of worship – manage tithing online, track capital commitments, share project information and reports with donors and deposit money into multiple fund accounts.
  • Auto Dealers – make, track and manage loans and loan portfolios, sell loan portfolios to banks, credit unions and other note buyers.
  • Landlords – bill and collect rents, and deposit funds into multiple beneficiary accounts.
  • Real Estate Investors – Track property loans (that you have extended and or made), rent billing and collection, track investor equity loan management, and deposit funds into multiple beneficiary accounts.
  • Banks and Credit Unions – Resell ZimpleMoney tools to Customers that need financial contract collections: Loans, leases, rents, settlements, etc., and deposit funds into multiple beneficiary accounts.
  • Accountants – manage client’s contract collections, intercompany and intra-family loans, and deposit funds into multiple beneficiary accounts.
  • Attorneys – manage client settlements, notes, interfamily and intercompany loans, manage employee advances, and deposit funds into multiple beneficiary accounts.
  • Trust Departments – manage interfamily and intercompany loans, loans to buy homes, cars, investments, art, and other properties; and deposit funds into multiple beneficiary accounts.
  • Property Owners and Tenants – send rent bills, collect and pay payments, track payments online, and deposit funds into multiple owner accounts.
  • Seller’s financing property – sellers manage loans made to finance the sale of property or other assets, and deposit money to multiple owner accounts.
  • Consumer Credit Companies – make and manage loans prior to selling them to investors, banks, credit unions or other loan buyers.
  • Commercial Credit Companies – make and manage loans prior to selling them to investors, banks, credit unions or other loan buyers.

Operations & Use

It takes five to six banking days to complete the process. On day one Zimple sends member instructions to the members bank to initiate the payment, day two to four Zimple waits to clear the item, if the payment clears it is deposited on day five in accordance with member deposit instructions. Items are processed when the Federal Reserve is open: Monday through Friday. Payments initiated on Friday after 2:30PM PT are processed on the following bank day. Items initiated on a weekend are processed on the following bank day. Items initiated on a bank holiday are processed on the following bank day.

To set up an account all we need is an e-mail account and a password. This gives you access to our free loan tracking tools and free loan calculators. If you want to set up a financial agreement for us to track, we’ll need a little more information. You’ll need to provide us with you legal name, address, credit card, checking or savings account information and your social security number.

We need to validate and confirm that you are who you say you are. We also have to comply with the bank’s automated clearinghouse rules for transferring money between bank accounts. These rules are administered by the National Automated Clearing House Association, http://www.nacha.org, an association established to manage electronic payment processes.

You can use a PrePaid Debit card to make payments. Contact the “Issuer” on the back of the card or go online to get the BANK ROUTING NUMBER and the BANK ACCOUNT NUMBER associated with your debit card account. Then enter the new information into the ZimpleMoney system via My Profile and Linked Accounts. Select the option to ADD a new Checking Account when using the confirmed bank/prepaid debit card information.

Although Zimple is not a financial institution, Zimple may be required to comply with Federal law that requires all financial institutions to obtain, verify, and record information that identifies each person who opens an account.

When a Client sets up an account with Zimple, we will ask for the name, address, date of birth, social security number and other information for each party involved with the transaction, which will allow us to verify the identification of the parties to the transaction. If a business is involved in the transaction, Zimple will ask for the legal name of the business and the address where the business is located.

The Patriot Act does not override Federal Privacy Laws.

No, Zimple does not run credit reports when you track loan payments. 

At this time we do not report payment history to the major credit bureaus. This feature will be available in a future release. When it is available we plan to make it available as an option. . People wishing to have their payment history reported can have it reported to help them build a credit history file. Those that do not want to report credit will have the option not to report payment history.

Keeping your personal information secure and transactions safe is the responsibility of our members and of Zimple. We take care in establishing procedures and selecting vendors that share our concern for secure and safe use of the Zimple system and Internet. To that end, we use Wells Fargo Bank as our bank clearing house, Authorize.net as our credit card gateway, and Latisys as our secure SAS 70 compliant data center.

Using Elavon and other electronic service providers, Zimple can cross verify personal and credit data provided by our members to verify their authenticity.  Additionally we will collect Government issued ID from all payment Members.

Zimple does not share non-public personal information.

Zimple will treat the information volunteered to us with utmost discretion. Our active customers, for example, can expect secure information storage and even annual notices regarding Zimple’s Privacy Policy and the status of their information. As for those people who aren’t full-fledged Zimple customers, we will not share collected information except as permitted or required by law. Even after a relationship with Zimple ends, Zimple’s duties and commitment to its Clients continue.

Zimple will continue to treat your information as though you actively remain our customer. Zimple will abide by applicable record retention and privacy rules even after the loan has been repaid or otherwise has come to a close.

At all times, Zimple will furnish pertinent information where compelled or in order to comply with relevant law, in response to a subpoena, court order and other judicial processes, or as required by competent regulatory authorities.

As many lenders or beneficiaries can participate in each financial contract. There is an added charge for each additional lender. The additional charge is to cover the costs of verification and processing the disbursements. If you have a contract with more than one lender or beneficiary please contact us at members@zimplemoney.com.

An unlimited number of borrowers can participate; however only one designated account each month can be used to make payments.

We understand that under some circumstances custodians or trustees do require paper checks. Accordingly, we can send checks for payment disbursements to custodians and trustees as required. There is an additional charge for writing and processing check payments. As for accepting checks, we really don’t see the value of doing so. For an additional processing fee you can make arrangements as well. For more information contact Zimple at members@zimplemoney.com.

Zimple has convenient tools to edit errors and correct mistakes. If you cannot make the changes you wish, contact us at members@zimplemoney.com to make arrangements to correct your files. In some cases we do require all member participants to authorize the requested changes.

We do not currently offer any benchmarked interest like prime-rate, ten-year treasury, Libor or other such published rates. This is a feature we expect to offer in the future. Until then we can make periodic adjustments with contract member authorization. This can be accommodated by uploading a .pdf file into the contract data vault and advising Zimple at least 5 days prior to the adjustment date.

All contract members have to approve any changes. We plan on automating the process to change terms. Today there are two ways to manage the process. You can start a new loan and cancel the old loan. Or you can contact Zimple and have all parties to the agreement provide written authorization to make changes to the loan. There is a loan modification fee that is charged to self administer or to have Zimple make the changes on your behalf. If you have specific requirements, contact us at members@zimplemoney.com.

  1. Yes, you can cancel a loan at any time during the contract. There are no pre-payment or contract cancellation fees to Zimple. Each contract runs month-to-month and is independent of other accounts members may have in the Zimple system. Canceling the loan stops the billing and collection service Zimple provides and you are no longer charged the monthly transaction fees.

Tax reports can be downloaded for reporting purposes. Zimple plans on offering a 1099 print function in the future. We do not have a release date for that service.

You can pay off your loan anytime. Your loan payoff status is provided each day. Login, Go to My Portfolio > Click on the loan you wish to pay-off > See payoff amount in the Payment Summary box on the upper left > Select the Payment Tab > select “Principal Payment” and click submit to make your final payment.

Any party to the agreement can pay the fees. The person setting up the loan (loan originator) generally pays.

The details tab has the member details and key information associated with the contract. This is also the page where you set-up the account to accept payments and pay fees.

The ledger tab has the account ledger associated with the contract. This is where you would go to see the actual disbursements, payments, fees and loan balances.

Yes a tool for making adjustments to the contract ledger is available to you. If you cannot make the adjustments you can always contact Zimple at members@zimplemoney.com.

Yes, you can accept a payment directly from the payer. If you do, you need to make adjustments to the ledger to reflect the payment. If you have trouble making the adjustments, fax or e-mail a copy of the payment to Zimple and we can assist you in making the adjustment. Our fax number is 877-FAX-ZIMP or e-mail to members@zimplemoney.com.

Go to the contract then click on the Ledger tab. Go to the gold bar on the right to make corrections. If you have trouble making the adjustments, fax or e-mail a copy of the payment to Zimple and we can assist you in making the adjustment. Our fax number is 877-FAX-ZIMP or e-mail to members@zimplemoney.com.

Members making payments use the Payment tab. You’ll go to My Portfolio, select the contract, and then select the Payment Tab. The Payment Tab is the place where you can make a payment, pay fees and assign accounts from which to make payments.

Go to My Profile and locate the “Cancel Membership” link.

Financial Agreements & Contracts

We provide a unique platform that supports most financial agreements. If we don’t support it now we can build the interface for your unique transaction.

We currently support:

Loans:

  • Amortized
  • Simple Interest
  • Interest only
  • Principal and interest at maturity
  • Balloon payment
  • Fixed Payment with Balloon
  • Fixed Balloon payment with calculated payment
  • Monthly, Quarterly, or Annual payments
  • Auto loan
  • Program Related Investments (Charitable Trusts and Non-profits)

Leases:

  • Residual payment at maturity

Settlements:

  • Recurring periodic payment of a specified amount

Recurring payments:

  • Rental payments
  • Other recurring payments

Capital campaign management:

  • Track multiple year capital commitments
  • Individual
  • Corporate
  • Charitable Trust

A financial contract may be a loan, settlement, payment stream, or other payment agreement. They are generally legal contracts to pay, so we generally refer to loans as contracts.

Affiliate, Licensing, User Programs

Yes, we have an affiliate program. If you are interested please select Contact Us and we will promptly follow-up on your inquiry.

Yes. The Zimple platform was designed to be licensed, co-branded or white-labeled by third party users. Please Contact Us for more information about our licensing options.

Security & Safety

  • Yes, we are safe! We have taken great care to be compliant with both Federal and State regulatory authorities as well as with NACHA, “The Electronic Payment Association” rules and regulations that apply to ACH funds transfers. We have also partnered with some of the top payment industry vendors and service providers in the world, including: www.CheckGateway.com, www.Experian.com, www.EarlyWarning.com, www.Microbilt.com, Elavon, and www.Comodo.com

Zimple’s software sends your payment instructions to a regulated payment processor and 3rd party originator; your instructions are processed by a Federal Reserve Member Bank, “the originating bank” (an FDIC Insured Bank) to the Federal Reserve Bank Automated Clearing House (ACH) System. Your funds are settled in an account controlled by the Federal Reserve Member Bank. When cash payments clear, funds are forwarded to your bank account using the same methodology and in accordance with the instructions you provided online to ZimpleMoney.

 

CheckGateway and Cliq provide electronic payment processing services for ZimpleMoney.

 

Experian provides user identity verification services.

 

EarlyWarning provides checking account validation services.

 

Microbilt provides OFAC verification services. OFAC is the Office of Foreign Assets Control and is part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. This check cross references users to known terrorist or people suspected of terrorism ( http://www.treasury.gov/about/organizational-structure/offices/Pages/Office-of-Foreign-Assets-Control.aspx ).

 

We use Elavon for our secure payment gateway and its fraud protection suite. The Elevon Payment Gateway is available 24/7 for processing transactions and they offer a number of value-added services to protect our members from fraud.

 

C.O.M.O.D.O. Extended Validation SSL (the Green Bar) – (EV) SSL certificates are the highest assurance certificate, perfect for reassuring our members. The green address bar, exclusive to EV SSL, provides visual assurance to visitors that the site is verified and secured. EVSSL provides users with the following:

  • Highest assurance certificate
  • 2048-bit, next generation SSL
  • $250,000 warranty

E-commerce merchants are going beyond the gold padlock to go green with Extended Validation SSL certificates, the e-commerce standard for trust and security. The green browser address bar, exclusive to EV SSL certificates, assures website visitors that they are transacting on a highly trusted and secured domain. The EV SSL certificate was designed to strengthen e-commerce security and combat phishing attacks to make EV SSL the most complete SSL certificate available.

 

Obtaining an Extended Validation SSL certificate requires a rigorous validation performed by Comodo, a registered Certificate Authority (CA). This is required to ensure that the company behind the site meets Extended Validation standards. These strict validation guidelines help keep the green address bar associated with only trusted organizations to maintain the highest level of security.

 

  • KYC is part of the Patriot Act Compliance. In compliance with the national effort to stop financial fraud, money laundering and the transmittal of money to terrorist organizations ZimpleMoney validates 100% of all accounts with third party validation by its Member’s financial service provider. This link is a sample letter ZimpleMoney requires to activate your account for use:

    >> Sample Bank Letter 

Excel Issues

Recent updates by Microsoft on their Microsoft Office products prevent opening html based .xls (Excel) files directly without first unblocking the file. To “unblock” the excel file you downloaded:

  1. Right-click the file, and then select Properties.
  2. On the General tab, select Unblock.
  3. Click Apply and then click OK.

Pricing & Refund Policies

Recent updates by Microsoft on their Microsoft Office products prevent opening html based .xls (Excel) files directly without first unblocking the file. To “unblock” the excel file you downloaded:

  1. Right-click the file, and then select Properties.
  2. On the General tab, select Unblock.
  3. Click Apply and then click OK.

If a Payer’s payment is returned for any reason, Zimple is authorized to debit your checking or savings account or charge your credit card to recover the returned payment. Further, each member guarantees that they will cover any cash lost due to returned items. Zimple charges a fee each time an item is returned.

A contract can be canceled at any time and there are no further charges. When a loan is paid-off there are no further charges. Zimple guarantees that the system will support your contract or we’ll refund set-up fees.

Termination of Services

Members can cancel contracts anytime. Login > Select a contract. In the blue bar above the file tabs you see “This Loan is Active,” on the right of the bar it says “Deactivate.” To cancel a loan click “Deactivate.” If members have a difficult time in terminating a contract you can contact Zimple at members@zimplemoney.com. If you want to terminate the entire account and access, please email us at members@zimplemoney.com. 

Features & Functionality

Yes, each contract has a document file for saving important documents related to the agreement. Items such as notes, leases, financial data, spreadsheets, budgets, photos of collateral, or other items.

The loan originator controls the upload tool. From the contract file click on the Documents Tab – on the right side of the gold title bar click Add Documents; Describe/Name it, Add or Browse your file; and click the Add button.

No Problem! Click through the Forgot Password page then type in your email. A new password link will be sent to the e-mail address you entered.

Not yet. We plan on offering credit reporting as an option to our members.

The contract parties decide what a fair rate of interest is. Interest charged in excess of State’s Usury limits is not collectable. It is important to check the usury laws that apply to your loans. See the following link: http://www.usurylaw.com/state/.

Interest can be paid monthly, quarterly or annually. In some cases we can allow for twice monthly payments.

Payers log into their Zimple account, select the contract they wish to pay, select the payment tab, check the payment they wish to make and add any additional principal, then click the submit button.

Today the lender advances money to the borrower outside of the Zimple system. This is a feature that may change in the future.

 Interest begins to accrue on the date you assign when the loan is set-up. During the set-up you will be asked to fill out a form that includes the interest starting date. This is generally the day money is given to the borrower or in the case of an existing loan, the interest paid to date on the existing note.

Contact us at members@zimplemoney.com and we can answer your questions or correct errors.

Privacy Policy

See our complete privacy and permission marketing policy in our Terms of Use.

Tax Information

Each month, the IRS provides various prescribed rates for federal income tax purposes. These rates, known as Applicable Federal Rates (or AFRs), are regularly published as revenue rulings. The website URL is as follows: http://www.irs.gov/app/picklist/list/federalRates.html

General Resources

Zimple provides sample drafts of loan documents that are configurable to our Zimple system. They are sample documents and any legal document should be reviewed by a competent attorney. You can find our free loan documents and worksheets at the following link: http://www.zimplemoney.com/Free-Loan-Documents

Yes. We offer guests and members sample loan documents. We highly recommend that guests and members use these drafts as such and have all legal documents reviewed and prepared by an attorney familiar with such agreements. The documents are only sample agreements.

Yes. Zimple offers a document vault that may be used to upload documents associated with the contract. The document vault might include signed notes, side agreements, or collateral documentation. Almost any type of file can be uploaded. Documents can be uploaded by the contract originator and be viewed by all parties of the agreement.

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