Does Quick Pay support paying bills by credit card?

drjackbo

From looking at the setup instructions page for Quick Pay, it appears to me that it doesn't support paying bills by credit card. I'd be happy to be proven wrong. The lack of this feature would make Quick Pay a non-starter for me.

Chris_QPW

None of the bill pay services allow paying by credit card.

Chris_QPW

None of the bill pay services allow paying by credit card.

drjackbo

Too bad. I pay almost no bills out of my bank account. I use the credit card for travel points. If anyone at Quicken is reading this, I'd very much like this feature.

pmrussell892

prism bill pay does allow credit cards but only if the biller allows them

UKR

Just simply contact the biller (utility company, phone company, etc.) and set up whatever they call it, direct debit, auto-pay or similar, so that the monthly amount due is direct debited from your credit card.

In Quicken you don't need a bill pay service for that. A regular scheduled reminder that records the monthly utility bill will do nicely. When you receive notification from the biller that the next statement is now available, record the amount due in Quicken. Done.

I've been paying most of my bills that way, since time B.I. (Before the Internet was invented). No problems, no Bill Pay needed, no missed payments. And, yes, I get my cash back percentage points, too.

Chris_QPW

drjackbo said:

Too bad. I pay almost no bills out of my bank account. I use the credit card for travel points. If anyone at Quicken is reading this, I'd very much like this feature.

I use my credit card for cash back.  I do what @UKR suggests and have been for over 20 years without a problem.  I think I have about two bills that come directly out of my checking account not counting the credit card payments, which are also automatically withdraw.  Very easy on the cash flow since I have 20 or more days after the credit cards come in to make sure the cash to pay them is in the checking account.

You couldn't get me to use a bill pay system at this point.

drjackbo

Thanks all. I already pay most of my bills by credit card online using auto-pay features, so that’s not the issue. The reason I was hoping Quick Pay supported credit cards is that I’ve recently had to go through all my auto-pay accounts twice to update the credit card — once for changing banks and a second time because of fraud. That’s painful when you have 20+ auto-pay accounts. I was hoping Quick Pay would enable me to enter my credit card in one place that was accessed by all my auto-pay accounts. Then updating the credit card would be drop-dead simple.

GeoffG

What you are looking for is not available for Quick Pay. Since you already use CC auto pay, I would assume you have more than a few credit cards. Have you considered spreading the auto pays to all the various CCs? This would lessen the concern for fraud to just one or a few updates.

jacobs

GeoffG said:

Have you considered spreading the auto pays to all the various CCs? This would lessen the concern for fraud to just one or a few updates.

But if I primarily use one credit card because I've chosen its point rewards as best for my needs, then I don't want to spread my purchases across my multiple credit cards just in case one of the cards is compromised. Or, to a lesser extent, because the expiration date or security code changed. (I've had to go through the update-my-credit-card-with-all-my-payees drill a few times, and it is annoying and time-consuming -- but I still choose to do most of my purchasing on one primary card because of the points.)

I think @drjackbo's idea is a good one for this reason, but as you noted, that's just not what Quicken bill payment -- past or present -- is set up to do. 

Chris_QPW

drjackbo said:

Thanks all. I already pay most of my bills by credit card online using auto-pay features, so that’s not the issue. The reason I was hoping Quick Pay supported credit cards is that I’ve recently had to go through all my auto-pay accounts twice to update the credit card — once for changing banks and a second time because of fraud. That’s painful when you have 20+ auto-pay accounts. I was hoping Quick Pay would enable me to enter my credit card in one place that was accessed by all my auto-pay accounts. Then updating the credit card would be drop-dead simple.

Yeah I have to go through that pain too.  One thing that I do it I have two credit cards that are identical in features (cash back) and one is only used for online/auto payments and the other for carrying in my and my wife's wallet.  The reason for that is because my wife lost her wallet for a time, and we thought we would have to cancel it, and I was using the one for everything.  Turns out we got it back, but it did make me worry about that situation so that I separated them.  Being cash back it really doesn't matter which is used.  I don't need the "points" to be all in one account.

GeoffG

jacobs said:

But if I primarily use one credit card because I've chosen its point rewards as best for my needs, then I don't want to spread my purchases across my multiple credit cards just in case one of the cards is compromised.

Are alternative viewpoints still welcome here? If someone has multiple credit card accounts, using them for auto-pay is a simple means of keeping the accounts active. Many banks will close inactive accounts which will adversely affect your credit score.

jacobs

@GeoffG  I was only meaning to note that that we all have different strategies with our credit cards.

You suggested splitting payments among multiple credit cards for fraud mitigation reasons, and I said that some people might want most spending on one card for the points/cash back benefits. In my case, I have one primary card my wife and I use for most purchases, and most of my automated payments are on that card because we choose to concentrate our travel points (cash back) on that card. But we have several other cards, which we use for specific loyalty benefits or cash back, and to keep them active. So you, Chris and I have slightly different approaches to using our credit cards, none "right" or "wrong".

drjackbo

Yep, this is not a one-size-fits-all situation. We use one credit card for everything possible to get points for travel. We have 2 back-up cards that we keep alive for use (for the 5 or so days it takes to get the new card) in case the main card gets compromised. I'd just love to have one place where all my auto-pay accounts could go for my CC info, but Quick Pay isn't it. For now anyway.

Chris_QPW

I'm wondering if having it in Quicken bill pay would be that much better.  I haven't used bill pay in lots of years, and when I did it was through Wells Fargo, and that was just out of my checking account.

But it seems to me that if you had to change the account because of fraud you would still have to go through all the bills and change them to the new account.  It would be better than going to all the websites, but not by that much.  I don't think it would be like flipping one setting somewhere in Quicken.  Then again I might completely wrong about that.

drjackbo

@Chris_QPW, good point. But without the feature, it's hard to know how it would work. Ideally, you could just replace the card in Quick Pay and that would be it.