ETA on online payments is too slow

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-12-2005
ETA on online payments is too slow
4
Thu, 01-26-2006 - 6:22pm

I do not understand why the online bill payments take up to 5 days. In my mind I feel like if I go to my computer type in an amount to be paid and tell them the date that I want that money withdrawn that it should be done. But with my bank and even when I pay directly from the bill site it still takes two or more days. I just feel like this is a scam. I might as well mail the bill. I even got a late charge because one of my bills arrived later than the due date.

I see no reason for these bills to take so long. When I pay over the phone it's instantly taken from my account (well not that quickly but faster than online). I am usually afraid to schedule the bills earlier because if the bank tries to withdraw the money say like 3 hours before my check shows up in the account then where would I be. Late charges, overdraft.....

Is there a valid reasons that the banks take so long to process a payment that I'm not aware of? If so would someone please tell me about it.

Avatar for endomagazine
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-09-2004
Fri, 01-27-2006 - 12:58am

Hello,

The reason that some online bill payments often take several days is because your online billpay is really *mailing* a check to the location you are paying. It requires a little advance planning to use online bill pay.

My online bill pay is through my credit union. If I schedule a payment to occur on a certain date and the payment does not arrive on that date and I'm then charged a late fee, my bank will reimburse me for the charge as soon as I notify them of it. They already have the account information and contact # for the vendor, so it's not hard for them to verify the late charge.

However, if I couldn't "schedule" it early enough to make the due date because I failed to plan ahead, well, that's my fault and the bank won't reimburse me for late charges in that case.

I once sent a payment to myself to see how the process worked. I scheduled it, set up "account number" and put in my address. Lo and behold, a check arrived in the mail on the scheduled date. Since it was made out to me, I simply re-deposited it, but I did that as a test to see how the system works.

Sincerely,
Lindsey Schocke

Sincerely,
Lindsey Schocke

Geeks on Tap: Mission Accomplished

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-05-2004
Fri, 01-27-2006 - 6:46am

Sometimes they are actually mailing a check. I know our mortgage company does this. I pay right from our Mortgage lender's site, and they have a little notice there, on the billpay screen, that says that they are sending an actual check to my bank, so they need to know what day to send it, and they say to allow at least two days between the date of payment and the date the payment is due (the 1st of the month in this case). When I set up the online billpay, I had to tell them what number to use for the 'checks' they would be sending to my bank each month. I told them to start at 9000 since I am only in the 2000's in my normal checkbook.

Pat

Avatar for cl_phocid
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 01-27-2006 - 7:03am

There are a couple of reasons, I think.

All my best,
Danni

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-12-2005
Fri, 01-27-2006 - 5:37pm

I would like to thank you all for your help. I will simply have to get a bigger savings. DH and I are living paycheck to paycheck so I am a little concerned about scheduling too far in advance. But if I have extra cash in the bank it won't be a problem.

Thank again.