Best online bill paying service ?

Washington Mutual rules state up to 7 days for paying bills online.

430 No such article 222 10344 body Washington Mutual rules state up to 7 days for paying bills online. Are there more efficient, reliable services. Anyone that completes transactions in a shorter time.
Reply to
malibu.ron
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Sorry I cannot answer your question. Buy I have to ask why someone would need online bill pay. I suspect there are exceptions.

Now that my utility company (SDG&E in San Diego) joined the ranks of those accepting online payments I find myself hardly ever I writing a check.

For example, I pay all of the following online.

The aforementioned utility bill. Cable TV Internet service provider Telephone Auto insurance Dell computer financing Taxes Auto registration Drivers license renewal (Calif) Three credit cards New check orders

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Reply to
Michael T

I like Mycheckfree.com. They don't have all payees, but I find their service is great, and free.

Bill

Reply to
Bill

And how many different websites do you visit to pay all of those people? If you can pay multiple bills from one site, then it's much simpler. And some people prefer the "push" method rather than the "pull" (although I don't really care).

Bill

Reply to
Bill

Point well taken. Although many offer auto-pay.

But there is usually a fee. Righ\t?

Reply to
Michael T

I love using Autopay (where available), especially for my credit cards (Citi and Chase offer this feature -- pay in full on the due date). Mycheckfree.com also offers this feature, but for credit cards they only autopay the minimum payment, so if you want to pay in full you have to logon and change the payment amount.

Perhaps some, but not Mycheckfree.com. They get the bills as they close and you get notified. You can either automatically schedule a payment or do so manually. I think it's a great service, especially for the price, and no, I do not work for them. The downside is that they don't get all bills (like Kohl's, although that may change now that their credit card operations are being taken over by Chase).

Bill

Reply to
Bill

Check

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to see if qualify to join the Philadelphia Federal Credit Union. The free online bill paying service that PFCU offers is excellent.

Reply to
Shawn Hirn

I haven't written a single check for over 10 years now. What do I use online billpay (the one integrated into Quicken that is) for? Paying everybody. This includes my child support payments, rent, automate transfers between accounts, buying DRIP stocks, hell even parking tickets and sending out birthday checks as well as the usual suspects of credit cards, etc. In short I don't have to worry, be concerned about whether or not a company has auto bill pay on their web site. I don't have to remember where that web site is, how to navigate it, to go there to update things, what my username and password is for this web site, etc. I'm just gonna cut an online check to them anyway from Quicken and be done with it. Plus, I control when and where a check will or will not be cut and for how much. IOW I manage my own payments, from Quicken such that when I make a change it's already in Quicken and my financial picture is clear. If, for some reason - I'm going on vacation, low on funds or whatever - I decide to pay less or skip a payment, or even pay an extra payment, I do so from the comfort of my Quicken knowing full well that my own personal view of my finances kept in Quicken is accurate. I don't have to jump to 3, 5, 10, 20 different web sites, only to find they've "redesigned" it and I have to do X, Y and Z to get back to where I was at before, and update each and every one of them.

My ISP pulls from my checking account via a debt card. Normally I don't like this option but I get a discount for this. This is one of the few transactions that I allow to be of the "pull" variety.

What are these? :-)

Like I said I haven't written a check in 10 years (and I have 4 checking accounts!). I still have the starter book of checks but I never use them.

As for my list, well, that would be anybody I have to pay.

YMMV

Reply to
Andrew DeFaria

No. Many sites are competing for this business and have gone "free" for now. I think some banks make money by putting a few days "float" between when they take the money out and it is actually transmitted. This would be equivalent to an uncertain postal mail period. You are losing pennies in interest, but they are making pennies over thousands of transactions. The original poster wants a zero-float account.

Saving @50 cents in postage, envelope and check blank makes it worth to me, say 100 bill pays a year. Also I can exactly synchronize deposits and withdrawals to minimize overdrafts.

Also some services seem to have a minimum and maximum number of transactions on a basic account. I guess a minimum to insure enough float income and a maximum where you'd find more economic to switch to a business account.

Reply to
rick++

I do exactly as you do, but in amazed that you've been able to not write a single check in ten years. I write very few, but it occasionall happens that I pay for a service rendered at my home by someone who doesn't accept credit cards, and I pay on the spot with a check.

I just checked the register and I see that I've written 32 checks in the past year--actually substantially more than I thought I had.

What I like best about on-line bill-paying are two things

  1. saving the $.39 in stamps for each check I used to mail
  2. Being able to schedule in advance when a check is mailed. When I used to write checks, I didn't want to pay a bill too early, but if I didn't do it right away, I would worry that I might forget to pay it on time. Now with bill-pay, I pay the bill as soon as I get it, but schedule it for the date I want.
Reply to
Ken Blake

Online Bill Paying Reviews

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Reply to
Michael T

Well I don't get many services rendered at my apartment - at least none that I pay for. Simple. Just tell the guy up front that you'll pay him with a credit card. If he doesn't accept then tell him you can send him an online check. If he says no then say "OK then I'll call your competitor - surely he can work something out".

But I have had to, on very brief occasions (like a handful) had to get a cashier's check for legal reasons. Then again, I didn't actually write those! ;-)

Exactly.

Reply to
Andrew DeFaria

On 7/7/2006 1:13 PM, Michael T wrote the following and I, Dennis Marks, have replied at the bottom:

I've use Bank of America since they offered the service. They have arrangements with some companies that take electronic transactions from them which clear in a couple of days. Some companies have a check mailed to them that can take up to a week. Some companies offer an online statement at the site. You can pay anyone with the service, not just companies. They also offer a service where you can immediately transfer money to specific BofA checking accounts with approval of the other party. All free.

Reply to
Dennis Marks

I'm sure I could do that if it were important. Most vendors wouldn't mind getting a check in the mail if necessary. But there's really no reason for me to do that. I don't mind writing the check manually, and having the bank do it instead doesn't accomplish anything. The point isn't to avoid writing checks, unless there 's some advantage to not doing so.

I remembered that I also have a couple of teenage relatives to whom we send checks as birthday presents. Since they accompany birthday cards, I don't use bill-pay for that either,

Reply to
Ken Blake

Wrong. Fees for electronic bill pay are rare.

Reply to
Rich Greenberg

We must be talking about different financial entities Rich.

My bank as well as most other large banks do charge many customers for online bill pay.

To wit: "For customers who do not have an eligible account, Bill Pay is free for the first two months for new customers only, and remains free of monthly service fees if you maintain at least $5,000 in your qualifying personal accounts at all times. Otherwise, Bill Pay is $6.95 per month."

Reply to
Michael T.

Then your bank likes to rip customers off. Mine (Wacovia) has no such charge. And I rarely keep more than a thousand or two in that account.

And what about customers of your bank who do have an eligible account? What constitutes an "eligible account"?

Reply to
Rich Greenberg

"Michael T." wrote

Until you, or anyone else, can objectively define "rare", "usually", or "common" in this context; I suggest you, and others, modify your rhetoric. You have posted no definitive standards for judging the differences. When you want to express an opinion: make it clear that your post is an opinion.

[And I don't understand why you posted to multiple newsgroups.]
Reply to
John Pollard

I had a guy who used to do my haircuts. Since I knew him I told him how I only do online checks. I simply asked him how much and told him I'd send him a check. Worked fine.

You have a reason if you do not want to write checks.

I do. You're required to first carry them. I don't know about you but checks don't fit in my wallet! Then you gotta fill them out. Often they ask for ID. Then you gotta update something so you remember to put it into Quicken later. Extra work, extra entry. They're time consuming. In short, checks are for losers!

By doing it at Quicken first you don't need to do it twice. What's accomplished is less work.

The advantages are many. Again, one you don't have to remember to carry checks. You don't have to pay for them. You don't have to fill them out. You don't have to wipe out your ID when requested. You don't have to remember to notate what the check was, who it was written to, how much and for what. And you don't have to then enter all that information again into Quicken. Sounds like checks have a lot of disadvantages - IOW checks are for losers!

I just cut them a check. Trust me, that's what they're really interested in in the first place.

Reply to
Andrew DeFaria

They like to be annoying on many fronts with little effort on their part?

Just a guess! ;-)

Reply to
Andrew DeFaria

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