Quicken Bill Pay

Ron - timely question. Thanks for posting. I saw a promo fee recently as part of Q2009 I believe for one month free. My credit union has a free bill pay service (via Checkfree) that I can pay any bill to any payee no charge. Electronic funds transfer for those firms (cc, utilities, etc.) that are members of ACH I believe, and if not, they pay the postage for the paper check that they would need to cut.

Yes, I have to either cut/paste the dollar amounts, or simply enter the transactions manually (although for some repeating payments, I have a scheduled transaction group that enters it automatically) in Q.

So I too wonder what other advantages (if any) QBP has over CF (esp. if it is free!). Hope to see those cards and letters coming!

I have used Quicken Billpay since 03/07. It allows me to have the following benefits:

1) Direct Connect Interface with Quicken 2) Ability to issue payments from multiple Financial Institution Accounts. I have 5 checking accounts and four Banks/Credit Unions, 1 brokerage account and my HELOC set-up (HELOC is for emergencies). 3) I can enter the payments within Quicken or via their website. 4) They aggregate bills and present the statements online. 5) Transfer money between any one of those seven accounts I have set-up.

Yes, much of this is like Checkfree. I have had no problems with it. I had done this basically to make my life easier - which it has done.

With that said, I am in the process of dropping this service. I am down to two checking accounts (Bank of America and a Credit Union) and I have transferred my brokerage to Banc of America. Bank of America also will aggregate the bills and present statements online. Their bill payment (via web) is more the adequate and I can issue a payment from my Credit Union account (although not as easy as Quicken Bill Pay). All of this is free. The one downside, is the interface to Quicken is Web Connect (Express Web Connect) and not Direct Connect. They do offer Direct Connect for $9.95, but since I prefer to enter the payments online it would not buy me much.

Oilcan

-----Original Message----- From: Ron [mailto: snipped-for-privacy@ronxdot.com] Posted At: Wednesday, September 03, 2008 4:45 PM Posted To: alt.comp.software.financial.quicken Conversation: Quicken Bill Pay Subject: Quicken Bill Pay

How many of you use the Quicken Bill Pay service at $9.95 per month over

other alternatives such as your banks free bill pay? Does it give you any advantages other than a single interface without having to worry about keying bills paid?

Thanks

I don't use Quicken BillPay, but I think there is one capability you can get with QBP that is not available ffrom many fi's directly.

I believe you can use Quicken BillPay to effectively "transfer" funds between financial institutions. I think it's basically an EFT between your account at one fi and your account at another fi.

Some fi's will let you do this for free (USAA, for one), some will charge you to do this (BofA, for one - on transfers TO another bank's account), and I think some don't offer service this at all.

As I recall, QBP offers transfer service both ways between every financial institution you have setup with them.

Have you verified that you can transmit billpay instructions to BofA from Quicken using Express Web Connect? It's my understanding that you can't.

[You can also probably get "free" Direct Connect from BofA if you get an "Advantage" account: basically, you keep a minimum balance in a combination of checking, savings, and CD accounts.]

I've used Checkfree/Quicken Bill Pay for 5+ years. Did an analysis at the beginning that showed the cost to mail checks was more than the $9.95/month. At the time my bank didn't have online bill pay. It's quick, easy, ties seamlessly to Quicken and I've never had any issues with late/lost payments. My bank now has online banking but it doesn't interface directly with Quicken.

Bill Pay will hit you with extra fees if you go over 20 checks/month. I manually record and pay a couple of bills through my bank's free online banking in heavy months to avoid the surcharges (and my wife calls me cheap). One other side benefit -- Bill Pay mailed me a free copy of Quicken Premier 05 in 2005. When Quicken stopped supporting 05 last April, I expressed concern to the Bill Pay tech support and he sent me a free download code for Premier 08. Guess I've gotten my money's worth from the relationship.

slb

BofA from Quicken using Express Web Connect? It's my understanding that you can't.

Sorry if I mislead you. Express Web Connect is one way. What I was trying to say, since I prefer to enter my bill payments online, a direct connect does not add any value to me as I can get the same information (one way-download) without any cost.

you get an "Advantage" account: basically, you keep a minimum balance in a combination of checking, savings, and CD accounts.]

Bank of America also holds my Mortgage (Countrywide) and Brokerage and I will be looking at them to see what they can do in getting Direct Connect for free. I have one more Brokerage Account that I will be transferring to them. I am seeing how smooth this goes before I initiate this. There seems to be issues with my old broker who still has $0.03 left in the account. Otherwise, everything is been smooth so far.

-----Orig> The one downside, is the interface to Quicken is Web Connect

Have you verified that you can transmit billpay instructions to BofA from Quicken using Express Web Connect? It's my understanding that you can't.

[You can also probably get "free" Direct Connect from BofA if you get an "Advantage" account: basically, you keep a minimum balance in a combination of checking, savings, and CD accounts.]