Online payment and Citibank

Guy Scharf wrote in news:Xns992F973DA4202guyspamcopnet@

216.196.97.142:

I believe you go directly to Citibank, but you need to have proof that you indeed did instruct Citibank to make the payment. Do realize that there is at least a 1 day period (Saturdays, Sundays and holidays are not counted, so they need to be added) before a payment shows up.

I use the OnLine Center to make payments as well, but I also check the Citibank website because there activities in my checking account do show up earlier than in the Quicken download. Still, activities may not show until the evening of the day you'd expect them.

I was lucky and was able to find a backup of the OFX file with the transactions and determined that they are sent to cfree.com -- checkfree.com. So it looks like checkfree is operating as an agent. I found the missing transaction there. I know about few day delays; this transaction was a month ago.

My bank said to ask Quicken support, so I've email'ed Quicken/Intuit and will see what they have to say.

Guy

Guy Scharf wrote in news:Xns992FB41A29DA5guyspamcopnet@

216.196.97.142:

Wow. My hat's off to you!

Good luck!

I'll be interested in the outcome. I had the same problem (see other thread) with a missing payment. Unfortunately, my old OFX file only went back about a week and I could not see the transactions on the date I was looking for -- 04/27/2007. I can verify that there are many transactions headed with either

SEND from

or

RECV from

I suspect that my missing transaction would have been in the "SEND" transaction but not in the "RECV". I say that because I can see the transaction in my check register but with no check number.

I'm guessing that what normally happens is that when I request a bill be payed by my bank (Wachovia), a "SEND" transaction is transmitted to cfree.com. At the same time, an entry is made in my check register showing an online payment but with no check number. Then Wachovia assigns a check number and which is included in a "RECV" transaction from cfree.com. The entry in the check register is than modified to show the check number and a downward yellow lightning icon is shown next to the check number.

I'd be interested in knowing if you think that this is the way it works. If that is the way it does work, then it might (or might not) be helpful if Quicken had a warning alert stating something like

"You have one or more bill payments that have been submitted but have not yet been received by your Financial Institution. OL-XXX"

Hmmm. I have used Wachovia for years, but had never suspected an outside check processing service was used.

Perhaps this is a recent change, and would explain the notice Wachovia account holders recieved that stated that accounts accessing online banking through Quicken would be charged $5.95 per month, starting April 1st.

Possibly. I've never veen concerned with how the software assigns an online check number, or places the yellow send arrow.

The warning would be meaningless for checks. Unless the transaction went via EFT, Quicken would have no clue as to whether the check reached your intended payee. It could be at the post office, or stuck under the blotter at someone's desk.

What lets you know that a payee has not cashed your check, is that the check has not cleared your bank! To 'warn' you about uncleared sent transactions - well, if you schedule and send bills monthly, and download transactions infrequently (or not at all, if you prefer to match manually to paper statements), that would be a heck of a lot of garbage cluttering up the screen.

Quicken does have a payment inquiry option. Right click on the sent transaction, and select 'Payment Inquiry'. It will initiate a transaction that will be sent next time you do a one step update or a direct update with your bank. You will receive a message in the online message center, stating when the payment was processed, what the amount was, and other information. This information CAN BE PRINTED, for use in confirming payment attempts.

I have used this (for YEARS) to dispute any finance charges or other claims against 'late' payments when the payee has not received the check (once or twice in the past DECADE or so).

Issue has been resolved -- the payee didn't like the account number and rejected the payment. Citibank didn't notify me of the reason until I inquired.

fwiw, the method that worked to track this down was to use Quicken's "inquire payment" method. That produces a dialog box which contains a link to send an email to tbe bank. Using that link, I reached someone who could help.

Guy