bill payment

It appears not. From what I've read it is getting almost impossible to upload payments without a fee. Wachovia will allow that for old customers. I moved my account to Wachovia for that very purpose. I have since learned that as a "new customer" I can not use this feature. I'm looking for another bank that will let me use Quicken the same way I have used it for years. i.e. download and upload everything. I did pay a fee at the other bank. However, when I could no longer trust them with my money I moved to Wachovia. Their web site said I could use Quicken and has detailed instructions. When I tried to set everything up my troubles started. After may emails and phone calls I was told I can not upload payments from Quicken. I must either use their web site or use Quicken bill pay.

I upload my payments from Quicken to Bank of America -- no fees and (so far) no real problems.

The Bank of America web site says, "..and pay bills directly through your Quicken software using Online Banking through Quicken." To me that means you pay the fee for Quicken Online Bill Pay. In other words you are paying Quicken and not your bank. If you can directly upload payments to Bank of America I would certainly like to know.

I think that you are confusing "Online Banking through Quicken" with "Quicken Online Bill Pay".

I do *not* pay Quicken and I do *not* use Quicken Bill Pay.

My process is this ... I enter a payee's information (address, account number, etc.) in my Quicken programs Online Payee List. Then, when I use that entry to pay a bill Quicken puts that in my check register with a Num of "Send". The next time I do an online Update, this transaction is sent to Bank of America. On the date I've specified. BofA then pays the payee -- either electronically or via a paper check. Done.

As I mentioned, I don't pay for this service -- either to Quicken or to BofA.

I am a BofA Premier Banking customer but I don't know if other customer have to pay for this service or not.

Clear?

Very clear! Thank you very much. I'm not confused at all about the difference methods. It is just that others seem to have trouble understanding that I want to do exactly what you do. And, what I did for many years. Your Premier Banking might make a difference. Tomorrow I'll call BofA and ask. Again, thanks for your reply.

Yes, you *DO* seem to be confused about the different methods of initiating payments through Quicken and through your bank, as your reply stated "web site says, "..and pay bills directly through your Quicken software using Online Banking through Quicken." To me that means you pay the fee for Quicken Online Bill Pay. In other words you are paying Quicken and not your bank."

Your understanding is incorrect. It is incorrect for Bank of America, AND it is incorrect for Wachovia. Wachovia has a similar disclosure on the bank website. It states "Online Banking includes access from the Internet, Microsoft® Money, Quicken® for Windows, and Quicken® for Macintosh." and, in addition, the fee schedule states "Online Fees For Personal Accounts Online Banking/BillPay Fees Online Banking..........................................................................No Charge Online BillPay............................................................................No Charge"

Wachovia has a direct access through Quicken. It is NOT disabled for new customers. There is no seperate 'upload' and there is no fee for entering bills IN QUICKEN for your Wachovia account.

What may have changed are some scheduling options, I know reminder dates work differently now. It may be the case that you can no longer initiate what Quicken refers to as a 'Repeating Online Payment'. If that option is no longer available, be advised that it can be emulated easily within Quicken. Personally, I have NEVER used 'Repeating Online' payments in Quicken. What I have always done instead is enter a payment to be automatically placed in my Quicken register (payments are entered into the register with a check type of 'send'). I send the payments whenever I danged please, as many days ahead of time as I wish, using the same one step update feature I use to download my account activity.

Since you are clearly having a miscommunication with the Wachovia reps you have spoken too, perhaps folks in the ng can be of assistance?

Tell us the method you have used to try and schedule a payment through Quicken for your Wachovia account, and the error you are receiving. No acct numbers or other personal details, please.

Have you tried creating an online payee, and entering an online payment with your Wachovia account?

What error(s) did you get? Did the errors occur at the time of creating the payee, at the time of entering the payment in the register, or at the time of sending the payment information to the bank? Or perhaps, there were no program errors, but the payment never was processed? Can you view the payment information in your check register? Does it allow you to query the payment info?

Hopefully, someone here can get you up and running with your bill payments.

Banking..........................................................................No

BillPay............................................................................No

Thanks for trying to help. Here is the latest message taken directly from a response I received from Wachovia.

"I certainly understand your frustration in this situation. As stated in the previous response, the option to pay bills through Quicken using Wachovia's Bill Pay service is not available to newer customers. The instructions on the website are there for customers with the ability to pay bills using their personal finance manager. I apologize that this information was misleading on the website. I regret that newer customers do not have the same personal finance manage capabilities as others."

So, no matter what the web site says or what you say "newer customers do not have the same personal finance manage capabilities as others." Yes, I have tried to send payments even thought I knew it wouldn't work.

If you think it will help I would be willing to try just about anything to avoid moving my account. However, from the response I've gotten it appears to me I can NOT simply enter a payment in Quicken and have it send when I do an "update". I'll try not to use the terms download and upload any longer. I think that might make you think I am confused. You say, "It is NOT disabled for new customers. From the message I got directly from Wachovia it looks to me like it IS.

As for Bank of America - I just tried to set up an online account. When Quicken tried to access the bank I got an error with the message to call the BofA 800 number!!

Again, I really do appreciate your message and offer of help. Please don't think my statement "no matter what you say" was said in any offensive manner. I am thankful for your reply, and the above was written with a smile on my face and a warm spot in my heart. :)

The way I pay most all my bills automatically without any fees is make arrangement with the companies and services to make the charge against my Credit Card. And even my Credit Card is paid in full automatically each month. The several pluses are, no late fees, retains a good credit report, no lost in the mail, no stamps to buy, my money continues to earn interest up to the date of payment AND the card pays me 1% of charges.

Companies and services that offer this service are:

Gas, phone, sewer, power, gasoline, cable, garbage, recycle, insurance, auto license, ISP (one or two of these I have to go online and make the payment but most are done automatically).

Then I also make use of the auto transfer of monies, i.e., payments to our daughter's GET, educational IRA and educational mutual funds. It is getting to be I don't know what money looks like anymore.

One important part of the process is to monitor the transfers and charges multiple times per week to ensure safety and accuracy.

Banking..........................................................................No

BillPay............................................................................No

My experience with BofA is that accounts need to be specifically enabled for Quicken access. I recently went through this for my mother and it took several calls and delays until I was able to access her accounts through Quicken. In my experience, one cannot just set this up on their own.

Banking..........................................................................No

BillPay............................................................................No

As a wachovia customer of long standing, (I just never used wachovia's online bill pay until last yr) I can confirm that my experience was similar with them, namely they direct you to use quicken bill pay otherwise you have to do it online. Frankly for the number of transactions a month I use quicken bill pay does not make sense, so I do the 2 step process. Kind of a pain but its free:)

It isn't just a pain. It is a waste of good software. I don't write many checks either, but until I move the account to another bank I'll be writing checks and refuse to use the 2 step process. If the other bank charges a service fee to use Quicken so be it. I was paying a service fee before I moved the account.