Bill Pay with Schwab Bank

eateryte

Hello,

I received notification that I "need" to upgrade to the cloud version shortly. In reading about this I have a few questions that I can't seem to get straight. Today I do no bill pay in Quicken 2017, but all of my accounts are connected and download without a problem. When I do pay a bill online, I sign into my Schwab account to set those up. I get eBills to my Schwab account from American Express, my local energy company, and my local water company.

1) If I upgrade to the Premier version, will I be able to use Bill Pay from my Schwab account to American Express, Chase, mortgage (a mailed check), etc? Will this Bill Pay be strictly within Quicken, so that I do not need to access Bill Pay on the Schwab site?

2) If I upgrade, will I be able to get eBills into Quicken? This is something I use with Schwab today. I get an email from Schwab, I click a button, log in, and I'm able to view PDF of my statement. I can click one button to setup the payment of the full amount and the due date pulls through. Is this possible in Quicken?

Thanks!

Quicken_Natalie

Hello @eateryte,

Thank you for providing the details of your inquiry to the Community, although I apologize that you have not yet received a response.

To clarify, the use of Direct Connect Bill Pay in Quicken is something that is determined by the financial institution. Therefore, you would want to inquire to Schwab directly to determine if that is something that is supported by them. 

Please see the information available here for more details on Connection Types in Quicken. 

Additionally, Quicken offers an Online Bill Center that allows you to link to Online Billers, such as what you described above that you have set up with Schwab currently. However, the Online Bill Center is managed from within Quicken, as opposed to an email format. 

Please see the information outlined here and here for more details. 

Hope this helps!

-Quicken Natalie

eateryte

Thanks for the response!

Is "Direct Connect Bill Pay" different than Direct Connect? In my current Quicken, the Schwab account shows as Direct Connect, but has a red dot on the Bill Pay section and says "Not Available." Does that indicate it's not supported, or that I simply haven't purchased something else?

I've read through the FAQ you linked and it was quite helpful.

Thanks!

Quicken_Natalie

Hello @eateryte,

I'm happy to hear that the Support Articles were helpful for you! 

Direct Connect Bill Pay requires a Direct Connect link to the financial institution. Therefore, it's the same Connection Type used in Quicken; it's just a matter of whether your financial institution(s) support the Bill Pay option in addition to automatically downloading your transactions. 

If the Bill Pay section shows "Not Available", it is safe to assume that Schwab does not support Direct Connect Bill Pay.

However, to be certain, you may consider reaching out to them directly to confirm this.

Thank you,

Quicken Natalie

eateryte

Thanks @Quicken_Natalie !

To provide information for anyone else who finds this in a search:

I called Schwab bank, and they said they do not support 3rd party Bill Pay. According to the links Natalie provided above, I assume that means I would not be able to make payments via Quicken from (or via) a Charles Schwab Bank account.

eateryte

Hi @Quicken_Natalie - I have a follow up question to clear some last confusion in my head. Do I need my bank to support Direct Connect Bill Pay to use Bill Pay within Quicken? Does using the Online Bill Center still fill information into my Quicken software?

In other words, can I pay a bill in Quicken without communicating to my bank via a Bill Pay type interface? It seems this would be possible because Quicken would have knowledge of my account information that is typically on the bottom of a check anyway.

I like the idea of managing this all within one location, but changing from Schwab to a bank that supports Direct Connect Bill Pay is not an option I'd consider.

Thanks!

Quicken_Natalie

Hello @eateryte,

Thank you for the inquiry!

To clarify, the Online Bill Center allows you to view and track your bills from within Quicken. Please reference this FAQ once more for more details. This feature is separate from paying bills in Quicken.

Paying bills from within Quicken requires a Bill Pay Service. We talked previously about Direct Connect Bill Pay, which utilizes a Direct Connect link to your financial institution and allows you to send payment instructions from within Quicken that upload to the bank and the bank pays the bill.

In lieu of Direct Connect Bill Pay, Quicken offers a Bill Pay Service called Quicken Bill Pay. You may review this Support Article for more details regarding this Service. 

Please let me know if you have any more questions regarding this!

-Quicken Natalie

eateryte

I took the last post by @Quicken_Natalie to mean that I could use Quicken Bill Pay even if my bank account doesn't support Direct Connect Bill Pay, so I signed up for that. Nearly a month later, I received this email:

This email is to inform you that we have received your request to add your payment method. Unfortunately, we do not allow Charles Schwab as a new funding account. For this reason, we are unable to move forward with adding this account to your bill pay.

So to actually make it very clear. You cannot use Quicken to pay anything with Charles Schwab, though I have no idea why.

mike@

This is exactly what I want to do. I currently use Wells Fargo which has this functionality. Come on Quicken! Set up a "relationship" with Schwab for Quicken Bill Pay. Thanks.

desplin

Schwab investor checking works fine with quicken bill pay. I've been using it for years.

I'd like quicken to work with Schwab Bill pay, but that apparently doesn't work.

Chris_QPW

mike@ said:

This is exactly what I want to do. I currently use Wells Fargo which has this functionality. Come on Quicken! Set up a "relationship" with Schwab for Quicken Bill Pay. Thanks.

I think you have things a bit backwards.  The general flow of getting such a thing setup is the Charles Schwab customers as for them to provide the service.   If they get enough requests they reach out to Quicken Inc (actually probably Intuit since Quicken Inc pays them to manage the service) to setup a contract on it.

But this is far from trivial just "asking".

First off all the following have to be in place.

1. Charles Schwab must be using Direct Connect for the account(s) that will be paying the bills.
2. Charles Schwab must have an online bill service.
3. Charles Schwab must put in software that interfaces between the OFX (Direct Connect) protocol and their online bill service.
4. Charles Schwab must sign a contract with Quicken Inc/Intuit for the service.