Online bill payment through my bank

I use quicken 2005 to pay bills using my banks PC banking option. This provides the same interface as Quicken BillPay, but my bank provides the service instead of Intuit.

Every few months my credit card bill will contain a new mailing address. Sometimes this address reverts back to the old one on the next bill. Sometimes it doesn't.

Is it really necessary to delete the online payee and recreate it with a new mailing address every time this happens? I am pretty sure that the credit card bill is payed using electronic funds transfer, and not a paper check.

I have not bothered to change it on a couple of occasions without consequence, but I don't know if this is wise.

Thanks.

Gregg

Reply to
GB
Loading thread data ...

I have been using Citibank for bill payment, since they started offering the service many years ago. During that period of time, I have paid thousands of bills online. I have never had problem, especially with credit cards. Citibank pays almost all credit card by electronic funds transfer, based upon their agreement with the credit card company, and doesn't care what physical address is on the statement. Even in cases where one bank was taken over by the other, I have continued to pay the prior bank for months without a problem. Citibank makes the change. A recent example is Fleet Banks, now Bank of America. I never changed my online payee, and everything has gone smoothly, with all payments accurately and promptly posted.

Reply to
Z Man

"Z Man" wrote in news:t8poe.39857$ snipped-for-privacy@fe09.lga:

I have used Citibank's Direct Access as well, more frequently in the distant past than now. I only had problems (a few times) with the Jamaica Water Company. They were always resolved through Citibank with no problems on my part.

Nowadays, I have an "everything counts" account with Citibank (already quite a few years). In exchange for a high minimum combined balance, this account gives no fee checking, with me doing all the paying from within Quicken, from my Citibank account, at no extra cost.

It is easier (for me) to enter the payments in Quicken and hit send to get the payments done. This way I only enter them once and have an overview (in Quicken) of future payments. If I had to go through Direct Access I would have to either enter them in Quicken, or wait until they download. An added bonus is that entering the payment in Quicken will result in the payment to the merchant being done first, and only thereafter the debit to my account occurs. Through Direct Access, the debit to my account occurs before the merchant is paid. Of course, I do many payments now by authorizing automatic payment.

Reply to
Han

That's certainly an interesting way of processing payments. I have used Direct Access, and had not considered paying through Quicken. How did you set up to pay through Quicken?

Reply to
Z Man

"Z Man" wrote in news:XJtoe.3028$ snipped-for-privacy@fe12.lga:

Normally there is a $9.95/mo fee for Quicken support from Citibank, at least there was years ago. I had to change my account to that "everything counts" account (that's the current name - it is promoted for brokerage stuff - but it may not be necessary to have brokerage accounts included)

*and* agree to a 20K minimum balance (without "non-deposit" accounts the minimum is 10K). Mortgage, credit card, checking and savings, etc are all combined to get to that balance. Now I have free Quicken support.

I tried to find the relevant Citibank page. I did find this page, but I'm not sure it addresses the question (sorry for the wrapping) :

The process involves signing up at Citibank for this account *and* for Quicken. That will mean filling out forms and mailing them snailmail fashion, and waiting for specific instructions, again in the mail (security, you know).

It should be possible to call Citibank, and ask for all the specifics. I vividly recall that I had to be persistent, and eventually had to call an

800 number in Chicago to get that account, but I've had it so long, I don't recall everything involved in getting this, and who knows, they may have changed things.

One thing: Don't ever fall below the minimum balance. You'll get an immediate $25 fee, $1.50 per check and per ATM charges, and you will only find out with the next download.

Reply to
Han

Rather than use on-line bill pay, check with your various payees to see if they offer direct debit. More and more companies and utilities offer this. It should be 100% FREE, and the money is usually debited on the due date. After doing this, you may end up with only 1-2 checks to write per month, enough to do by hand rather than pay somebody to do it for you.

Reply to
Andrew Rossmann

It is immaterial whether it works or not, and the experience of the group as a whole does not matter. All that is of importance here is that your payments arrive at their destination on time. If a payment does not arrive on time and you have the wrong address in the payee field, then you have no recourse to being compensated. It may work for months, years or whatever. One day if it does not work, then you have a problem.

Reply to
Mike B

I was unable to get that link working, but I did call Citibank. The tech rep initially had not heard of downloading Quicken data via direct connect, and said that I must use web connect. When I insisted, I was placed on hold for a couple of minutes, and then the rep come back and told me I could do it, he would have to send me a letter to sign and return, and then I will get a welcome kit with a new Quicken online PIN. This will save me considerable time, as I download my data every day using one step update for a bunch of credit cards including 3 American Express cards. Frankly, one step update is so convenient that it is almost not worth it using the web connect process, and I will probably cut down or eliminate cards or accounts that do not support one step update. Fortunately, my two banks, Chase and Citibank, both support one step update. Thank you VERY much for pointing me in the right direction.

Reply to
Z Man

"Z Man" wrote in news:JoFoe.40861$ snipped-for-privacy@fe09.lga:

That link above does work (I tried it again after I ahd rebooted), you just have to use notepad to get it all on 1 line.

Just make sure you have the right kind of accounts to get the direct download for free! It may not be worthwhile at $9.95/mo

Reply to
Han

"Z Man" wrote

(snip)

(snip)

Try this:

formatting link

Reply to
Rick Hess

On Sun 05 Jun 2005 10:12:55a, Mike B wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

You are correct about having a problem, but from past experience I believe you are off the mark when you say there is no recourse. I have found credit card companies to be very understanding and forgiving of late charges/penalties/interest involving an infrequent billpay service problem.

If you have been generally paying on time and you someday end up getting a late charge I recommend it as worth your while to call their customer service group to make a polite inquiry... even if you have a stupid excuse like being out of town. You WILL (probably) be surprised at how easily they will relent (even if you aren't a Quicken user :).

I also see very few "out of the blue" changes of address on a cc bill which then reverts back to the original address the next month! In my experiece these type of changes are usually well advertised and do not "randomly" switch. It would behove any cc company doing this type of thing to be extra understanding (but you still have to make the call).

Reply to
Mike L

I have a Citigold account. The Citibank rep confirmed that there would be no charge for direct download. Even so, it might be worth ten bucks per month, considering the time and effort saved not having to service my account through web connect, when I am already doing one step update for a whole bunch of accounts.

Reply to
Z Man

Yes, that did work a lot better. I had copied/pasted each line of the longer link directly into my browser, but still couldn't get it to work. Makeashorter link does a very nice job of simplifying the process.

Reply to
Z Man

Mike, the address on the bill is generally irrelevant, as virtually all credit card charges are paid through electronic funds transfer. Citibank must be grouping thousand, or even then of thousands, of payment together and sending them using just one EFT. The mailing address is significant only if *you* are mailing a check, not if Citibank is making payment.

Reply to
Z Man

On Sun 05 Jun 2005 03:57:56p, Z Man wrote in news:pHJoe.2660$ snipped-for-privacy@fe11.lga:

I realize that. I was responding to Mike B's warning that you had NO recouse if you did somehow end up with a late charge situation.

Reply to
Mike L

"Z Man" wrote

Actually, TinyURL.com is even better (less to type and it doesn't hold their website until the redirect like Makeashorter link does); however, TinyURL was offline earlier.

Reply to
Rick Hess

In my case it was AT&T Universal Card that does this. They will have a NJ mailing address normally, and every once in a while it will change to a NV address, and then usually back to NJ the next bill.

To make it even more interesting, if I go online to their web site and query the mailing address there, I get yet another address.

I guess I should really be asking them this question.

Thanks.

Gregg

Reply to
GB

} Rather than use on-line bill pay, check with your various payees to } see if they offer direct debit. More and more companies and utilities } offer this. ...

I think you should stay away from this sort of thing like the plague. If there is a problem of any sort, the way you'll find out about it is when your account is screwed up [and, potentially, other checks start bouncing and other badness could ensue [e.g., you can't get cash if you need it]]. [and note that it isn't even clear when/how you'll get it fixed: some banks now offer some kind of fraud protection with their debit-access machinery, but it isn't clear to me that a pre-arranged problem would count for that [dunno -- I won't do this kind of payment so I'm not sure of all the ins and outs] and if not, it is *YOUR*MONEY* that is "missing" while you settle the dispute....

If you have to do anything "direct" with a vendor/supplier, I recommend you not do anything more tightly tied to your actual money supply than to have them charge a credit card.

/Bernie\

Reply to
Bernie Cosell

Bernie Cosell wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@library.airnews.net:

Those are certainly considerations. However, you should still get statements some 25 days before the dreaded transactions are going to take place. That should be enough time to query the billing party as to any perceived mistakes. Just did that with Amex - a restaurant had made 2 charges, a $50 charge (presumably a "holding charge") plus the specific bill payment. Amex gave an immediate credit, and the "bad" charge is on hold until they figure it out. The next step would be to call my bank and tell them not to honor a specific amount that was going to be debited. I have no experience with that, but I would tell both bank and debiting entity that if the charge was imposed, it would be the end of our relationships. *My* credit is good enough they better honor my requests.

Reply to
Han

I have over 200 APS transactions going out of one of my accounts every month. I rarely (maybe once per year) have any problems. When I do, I call my bank (BankOne) and THEY credit my account by the disputed amount until they sort it out. I recall that I was mistaken once or twice and the amount was re-debited, along with a small interest charge from BankOne. The exception seems to be a federal government debit. BankOne will not credit a disputed amount withdrawn from Fed. But that was a case with HUD, and I never even authorized withdrawals -- only credits.

I think it's a good system with rare errors and I recommend it.

Reply to
Rick Hess

BeanSmart website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.