Personal Finance

Z Man · Guest

I have been a Quicken user since 1995, and am currently running 2006 H&B. I
have made many thousands of payments through Citibank's online system, but I
have in the past always logged onto Citibank's web site to make the payment,
which is later downloaded with all my other accounts. Today I made my first
payment from within Quicken, for my Chase credit card. I set up the payee,
address, account number, etc., and designated it for payment through
Citibank. This saved me the hassle of actually visiting citibank.com to set
up my payment. Question: how does Quicken process that payment? Is it
actually processed by Quicken, or by Citibank? I know that Citibank pays all
credit card bills electronically. Since I set up this payment in Quicken,
will they actually mail a check to Chase? If so, it would be rather
inefficient, I would think.

I suppose what I am trying to figure out is whether this transaction would
more similar to me writing out a check myself, and stuffing it an envelope,
as compared to Citibank processing the payment. Does anyone make payments
through Quicken? How does it work?

ob · Guest

Did you sign up for the service with Citibank or Quicken Bill pay that
will make a differnce on how you payments get processed.

Citibank support Quicken Intergration and Citibank charges $9.99 a
month unless you meet balance requirements in which cause they waive
the fee. In most states that balance requirement is $10K+. If you
signed up with Citibank then they will either pay the bill by ETF or
Bank check.

If you signed up with Quicken Bill pay they also charge $9.99 and lets
you use the service with all bank accounts you give them. They will pay
the payee 1 of the 3 ways. ETF, Bank Check or a Check drawn against you
account. Benfit of having a check drawn against your account is that
the funds will not be deducted till the check clears so you know when
the payee recieved the check and it was cashed.

I personally use Citibank because they waive the fee. I personaly dont
like the fact they always send a bank check out to payee that dont
accept EFT because then I dont know if the payee recieved the check
ever or not till I get my new month bill. Before Citibank used to waive
the fee I always used the service direct from Quicken and I really
liked the fact they almost always sent out checks drawn on my account
so I know when the checks cleared. Also the float on the interest even
tho it was minor was nice added bonus too.

Arnie Goetchius · Guest

ob wrote:
==snipped==

Z Man · Guest

"ob" <ob995@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1129276559.435651.61680@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

Stubby · Guest

ob wrote:

ob · Guest

No, I think you misunderstood me.

Quicken Bill Pay Via Citibank debits the money from your account on the
due date no matter what. I pay my doctors bills who dont accept EFT So
Citibank mails out a bank check and will debit the money on the due
date even if the doctor did not cash the bank check or recieve it yet.

With Quicken Bill Pay from inuit they used to mail out checks drawn on
my account so until the doctor cashed the check they did not remove the
money from my account. That way I know that doctor got the check and
when they cashed it.

In 3 years I have been with using Quicken Via Citibank only 1X a mail
check got lost. That was to my pool man. I did not know the pool man
did not get the check till the next month when I got his new bill
because I always paid him on the 8th of each month and Citibank took
out the money on the 8th of the month.

If I would have still been using Inuit bill pay I would have know
before the next bill came that the check got lost because it would have
never been cashed or debited from my bank account. Also CItibank did
return all the check inuit wrote on my account because they where drawn
on my account but they do not return bank checks with your statement.
The reason I was told they do not return bank checks is because the way
there system process the payment is cash is debited from you account
and cashier check is purchased as opposed to way Inuit did it was write
a check drawn on you account. So when a problem comes up you need to
let Citibank know there is a problem and you are 100% powerless. If
someone claimed they did not recieve a payment from whom Inuit mailed a
check to all you have to do was fax the inclosed check to them as you
have the orginal check returned to you.

Now I used Inuit bill pay for 2 years never had a problem. I been using
Quicken Via Citibank for 3 years. 1 time a check got lost to my pool
man. I did not find out about it till the next month when my pool man
gave me an over due bill because Citibank debited the month on the 8th
like they always do. When I called Citibank to report the payment was
lost I had to call like 10X and send emails to Citibank from inside of
Quicken like 10X before they voided out the check and issued the poor
pool man a new check. They keep wanting to wait 90 days just incase the
check had be cleared. Not sure how Inuit would have handled it but I
think it is much easier to cancel a check drawn on my account vs a
cashier check which might have been the reason Citibank wanted to wait.

Han · Guest

"ob" <ob995@hotmail.com> wrote in news:1129358872.274070.101830
@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

I have been banking with Citibank since the late 70's (NYC first, now NJ,
but I still work in Manhattan). When they first came out with Direct
Access, I used that. Hardly any problems, except a few times with
Jamaica Water Co, who claimed I was late, but that got rectified every
time by Citibank.

When Quicken started having billpay, I switched because entering the
payment once was better. I now have the free plan whereby Quicken
(Checkfree?) sends the drafts out whether by canoe, bicycle or EFT. I
obey the lead times for timely payment, and have not had any problems
whatsoever, except that I don't like having to keep 20K in all accounts
(I think it is 10K if you don't have brokerage). My citibank checking is
an "everything counts" account. I pay no fees, and the payments only get
deducted from my balance after the payee cashed the check (or whatever).

Occasionally I still use Direct Access for payments, but that ius getting
less and less. I have switched many recurring bills to automatic
withdrawal, using recurring transactions in Quicken to auto magically
enter them into the register. Amounts and dates need to be adjusted at
times, but overall it makes life easier as long as you keep enough money
in the account.

It has been my experience that transactions appear in Direct Access
sooner than they do upon downloading into Quicken (onestep update).
Also, Direct Access can scare you since early in the morning they *will*
have deducted that day's checks from the balance, but the actual
withdrawals don't show until after 7 or 8 AM.
--
Best regards
Han
email address is invalid

ob · Guest

Sorry to break it to you. Citibank debits the money on the due date no
matter what. If you want to prove it is just mail yourself a $5 check
and dont cash it. You will get the bank check 1-2 days before the due
you entered into Quicken. Dont cash it and you will see the funds will
be debited on the due date. If you read the terms of service that
Citibank gave you it says very clearly all checks will go out as bank
checks and the funds will be withdrawn from your account on the due
date you enter. Also states all EFT will go out 1 day prior to due date
you enter but the funds will not be withdrawn till the due date.

I know this is really not a big deal as float would really be 1-2 days
but I think the big loss is you dont know when or if a merchant
recieved payment. If a check get losts and no one cashs it the funds
will be debited from your account on the due date.

When I had the service direct with Inuit they always mailed out checks
drawn on your account. So if you mail a check to yourself and dont cash
it the funds wont be taken out of the bank ever.

Now my account is based out of California not sure if New York based
account work different so I guess it could be possible that in New York
Citibank mails out check drawn on your account vs bank checks.

I have the same account as you and I dont get my checks returned nor
can I see the checks online that Citibank send out for me that I
entered into Quicken and I was told because they are bank checks as
opposed to check drawn directly on my account.

Han · Guest

"ob" <ob995@hotmail.com> wrote in news:1129393670.992189.229980
@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

ob · Guest

Correct I used to use the old Dos Direct Access software before then in
the middle used Inuit Bill Pay because I hated typeing the the payments
into the dos program/ web page and then again into Quicken. I just
found Inuit Bill pay service to be more end user friendly as they
really dont want to collect float on your money for 2-3 days till the
check clears the bank but prefer to draw the check against your account
and give you the back up and ability to see when and if a check was
cashed. Remember by drawn the checks on your account they also reduce
the amount of customer service people they need because you as the end
user can tell if a check was lost or not. Remember Citibank is a bank
and they make there money leanding out money so that float adds up.
Inuit is not a bank nor do they lend money so they arent motived to
collect funds before checks are cashed in hopes of collecting the
float.

Only reason I got cheezed and called like 10X and wrote 10X nasty
emails was they wanted me wait 90 days before they would re-issue a new
check to pool man. They offered to pay all late's they pool man charged
me. I did not want the pool man to refuse to clean my pool or have
problems with the pool man for $138.00. Citibank treated that payment
like it was a million dollar check as because it was an offical check
drawn from Citibank there was no way to stop payment on it. Remeber the
problem was not that pool man got the payment late. He never recieved
the check at all. Maybe if the pool man would have recieved the check
late they could have called and sloved the problem nice and fast.

Z Man · Guest

"ob" <ob995@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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ob · Guest

Quicken via Citibank they dont debit the money till the due date you
enter into Quicken as opposed to there webpage they debit the money on
the date they process the payment. So for EFT you get an extra 2 day
float on your money vs making the same payment via there webpage.

I have noticed Quicken Via Citibank uses for same payee list for the
most part as Citibankonline.com uses. So for example American Express
will be paid EFT. If you look in Quicken under you payee list all payee
that require 2 days to process are paid by EFT all payee that require 4
days are paid by check.

The downside to using Quicken via Citibank vs inuit bill pay is when a
check is sent out with Citibank it is sent out via a bank check and
because the money is debited on the due date you have no idea when a
check clears or if it was lost. When i had inuit services they mailed
out checks drawn so basically when you saw the funds debited from you
account you know the check cleared.

Just to make sure you understand you can sign up for Quicken Billpay
from Citibank(I use this service now as Citibank waives the $9.99 fee)
or you can sign up Quicken Billpay from Inuit which is $9.99. Both are
different services and both seem to pay all major companies via EFT the
difference seems to be how they make there check payments.

Z Man · Guest

"ob" <ob995@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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ob · Guest

I am 100% that sure "Chase Manhattan Bank credit card" or "Cardmember
Services" went out via an ETF. Depending on the version of Quicken you
are using will depend if the under payee list it lists "Lead Time"
based on the process time or not.

In Quicken 2005-2006 Payee list will display "Lead Time" for all payee
thus meaning you need to schedule payment 4 days in advance. If you are
using 2004 or before in the payee list it list let you schedule an EFT
2 days prior and check payee require 4 days.

In Quicken 2005-2006 tho you can click on the lighting blot in the
registery it will display a "Process on" and "Due by" date.
If the "Process on" is 1 or 2 days before the "Due By" then it went EFT
if the there is 4 days between the "Process on" and "Due By" then it
went out via check.

Only reason I know Citibank pay Chase eletronic is i have both my
mortgage and a credit with chases and payment always gone eletronic.

Z Man · Guest

"ob" <ob995@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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