Online Bill Pay - 2 questions--

My only horror story has to do with Quicken billpay. I have cancelled and cancelled but they just kept billing me. I think I finally got through to get a refund and finally get cancelled.

It matters not to me with my Bank's online payment. If they can't send it electronically, they send a check.

"Clark" wrote in news:_j9Af.13866$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr25.news.prodigy.net:

I pay all but one of my regular bills this way and have never had any security problems. The only problem I ran into concerns my monthly condo fee. The folks who process it can't figure out how to process a payment unless it is accompanied by their coupon. So once a month I write a paper check and mail it in with the coupon.

Don't know or care. If they don't accept EFT my bank cuts them a paper check.

I've run into a few merchants (like my Cable TV supplier) who use a central clearing house which requires the payment stub. For those I direct the online payment to their local office and make them deal with the paper check my bank generates.

Porter Smith wrote in news:Xns9751A7DD42BB0myport2000yahoocom@207.217.125.201:

I second the experience of Porter Smith, with one exception. Way back when Citibank Direct Access software was delivered on 5 1/4" floppies, a Company called Jamaica Water had a few instances of not getting my payment on time or so they claimed. Citibank took care of it. Real estate taxes I still pay by check, and the local water company here wants the stub, so they get the paper check as well.

Two more comments. I keep daily track of what my accounts do, and I don't hesitate to call the credit card company if there is a payment I can't place. Usually it is my error (or SWMBO's). The last comments is that I have asked the credit card companies to take the full amount due out of my checking account on the due date. This relieves a lot of anxiety - I *hate* to pay finance charges.

What is a check? I have done electronic banking - through Quicken (Direct Connect to Wells Fargo) or Web based (other banks or Credit Unions) since the mid 90's. Never had a problem.

Thanks for all the inputs, I guess I might try it. The latest postage increase sort of pushed me over the edge ;-)

Clark

Many companies have an autopay service that you can elect. They pay themselves by a draft on your checking account and send you a paper statement showing the transaction which I then enter in Quicken. I pay nearly all of my bills that way and have never had a problem. I never miss a due date, don't write any checks or use any online billpay service. Works well for me. Carl

Thanks Carl, I'll keep that in mind. Presently I have two accounts that charge directly to a credit card, but they are well know companies so I don't worry too much. I may want to have more control over when the bills are paid than what you probably have. There are several companies offering the service to which you refer, but I feel a little strange about allowing more access to my checking account than is absolutely necessary.

Clark

"Clark" wrote in news:uGrAf.1348$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr12.news.prodigy.com:

I think that the convenience outweighs the risks. And there are risks. Somebody can make a mistake in the amount they take out of your account, or, worse, it may be not so easy to stop the service. I've never had to stop the service, but I wanted to prevent a company to make a charge, and then (some years ago) it turned out that I could only prevent a company from making a charge is both the company and the amount were exactly specified. The company would be easy, but the amount may not be. To stop these types of transactions, you would need to contact the company, not your checking account bank. I think that is something to keep in mind.

Ditto. Checks are for losers!

Personally I'd push them on that one if I were you. They want your money and you indeed sent it, on time, etc. so no penalties should be applied and you shouldn't suffer in the least. It is a perfectly legal and valid way to pay any bill - I know - I pay all of mine that way!

I had a parking ticket once that I paid electronically. A check was cut but it wasn't me who cut the check - Checkfree or whatever did that. Later I got a letter from them stating that I needed to include the yellow ticket with my payment. I told them that I put the ticket number on the check in the memo field (and indeed the online checks that are cut have spaces for such information and indeed it was there). They insisted on me stuffing an envelope with the yellow ticket. I told them "I don't have the yellow ticket anymore - I threw it away long ago" and told them that I'd just send them another online payment and if they wanted the money they'd have to process it. This is the police we are talking about! After about 3-6 months they finally got off their asses and cashed the check. Guess they wanted the money and I guess they learned that there was nothing they could do about it because it is a legal payment for a legal fee. I just sat back and smiled.

Ansdrew - Have you ever used electronic payments for magazine renewals where they send you a form and envelope to return? There are SO many numbers on the renewal form, I'd never venture to try to figure out which are the key ones. Although I do most of my bill paying electronically now-a-days, it seems to me that there's just some things that are easier to simply write a check on, enclose their form, and be done with it. Less hassle in the long term.

Andrew DeFaria wrote in news:43d5d56d$0$58043 $ snipped-for-privacy@news.sonic.net:

What can I say? They are idiots. I'm guessing they open the envelopes and immediately run to the bank to deposit the checks. Then they use the coupons to reconcile who paid and who didn't. After I had to twice mail them a copy of the cancelled check, I decided it was easier to just play by their rules (and avoid having them slap a lein on my house).

Hmmm. I wonder what would happen if I sent them just the coupon? Would they notice there was no check or would them just credit my account anyway?

Gee you'd think that you have the same name as I do that you could spell it right! :-)

(Just kidding - everybody makes typos!)

Actually I don't subscribe to any magazines! I read things online...

A simple call and a question would probably resolve that for you.

How much hassle can it be to set up the online payee in a one time operation?!? I can't think of a single thing that would be easier to write a check (BTW I don't have any checks - I believe I do have my starter checkbook from about 10 years ago though somewhere....), enclose their form, etc. Hell most of the time when I do break down to send a letter (not a bill payment but a letter) I have to put two or three stamps on the envelope because invariably my few stamps that I own are out of date WRT price....

If they are idiots then my long standing policy is not to drop to their level. YMMV.

Personally I'd let them do whatever they would like. If you have a canceled check then payment was made and accepted. I'd only send them one and then if they'd like they could take me to court. I'd show the judge the canceled check and be done with it. It'd cost them much more money to prosecute you and they'd learn a lesson.

I had a fopah (sp?) with the good state of California and the Franchise Tax Board that ran for most of the year... I had paid an estimated tax payment to them in 2004 that they misapplied to 2003. (What would make them take a check dated Nov 2004 and assume it was a payment for 2003 is beyond me). Since I didn't owe taxes for 2003 they send me a refund. I called them and asked "Why the refund?" and they told me that I didn't owe any money for 2003. I told them it was for 2004 and they told me to not cash the check and send them a statement saying that. Begrudgingly I did.

Then, about every 3 months I got a letter saying I was short on 2004. I'd call up and go through the shpeel (sp?) again and again and they kept promising me they'd fix it. A couple of time they asked me to send in a statement again saying that I didn't cash the check. I told them "Ah, no. Tell ya what, you go back to your little bank there and produce proof that that refund check was cashed!".

After going through several iterations of this and several managers I finally demanded that I get a call back from them everyday with a status report of where my case was in resolution. Surprisingly a very good manager (East Coast boy - figures) did just that and it was finally resolved.

No there are times when it is indeed your responsibility to do something and there are many times when it is not. On the later times I simply refuse to do their work because another long standing policy of mine is that I don't work for anybody unless they are paying me.

Hell if that be the case just print up a bunch of them for the year and send in the whole lot! Then you get your place mortgage free for this year! You did say they were idiots didn't you? Now is the time to test your theory! ;-)

"A-N-D-R-E-W" (My original bad but I think I got it that time! - Check the time of my post - it was a little after 8 AM this morning - I didn't have my first cup of coffee, and the keys weren't working right :-)

Well, if there was an 800 (or 888, 877, 866, whatever) phone #, I could do that. But most of them are phone-number-less, and they all seem to go to Boulder Colorado (that's another story...); if I had the phone #, that would be a good idea

I think writing the check is easier than entering a one time payee that has an address. My concern is that if the payment screws up, one could end up fighting with the magazine subscription dept. so long you start missing issues.

Well, the whole thing isn't that big a deal. 'Enuf said on this one. Take care.

Well, I started using my bank's online bill pay and am already seeing problems. Some places, I haven't determined how many yet, won't take an electronic payment from my bank. They are happy if I use their system, but not my banks. USAA seems to be the first and I believe it wants to use the Quicken Bill Pay. I would think a bank would take an electronic payment from a bank, but they refuse.

I might end up in an partial online bill pay situation. I realize the bank will send a paper check, but I would rather do that myself. Time will tell, I suppose.

Clark

Dude I was just razzing. I make typos too!

I happen to disagree.

By and large, as long as you get the address correct, this never happens. If they move or the address gets changed then yes, there may be a bump in the road. But it should be easily fixed on those rare times when it does. If not, if a fight ensues because of such incompetence at the magazine subscription place then quite frankly I'd love to know because another policy of mine is not to do business with any business that maintains a staff of incompetent people. Yes, yes, I am demanding and discriminating about who I do business with. I wish everybody were. We'd have better service departments!

I do this as a public service, not necessarily for you but for all.

It is my understanding, based on 10 years of using online billpay to pay

*every* bill I have to *any and everybody*, that this is quite simply just not so. Online billpay will do an EFT *IFF* the receiving payee accepts them otherwise it will cut a paper check which is legal tender for payment of obligations. Therefore there should be no places that you personally have to worry about accepting or not accepting an electronic payment. Maybe you are using a different online bill payment system than I? I use the one that is integrated into Quicken itself and requires that your bank support such an online billing system. I believe the backend is still run by Checkfree.

Out of curiosity you say "I realize the bank will send a paper check, but I would rather do that myself". Why would you rather do it yourself? Why do you care if an EFT is done or a paper check is cut - as long as the payment is made why would you care?

I got the USAA thing straightened out. The Bank was listed with FSB and USB for an address. I noticed the zip codes were different and the USB designation works. I guess if I would have gone ahead and set it up as a paper check, the payment would have been delayed, assuming the other zip would have forwarded it to the correct department.

Thanks, Clark