What does 'Awaiting next bill' mean

PeterK

What exactly does it mean when it says 'Awaiting next bill'. What about the previous bill that I already have? Isn't that the one that needs to be paid?
For example, it shows me my latest American Express bill, which was issued on 4/26. It's due on 5/21. So why is it saying 'Awaiting next bill'. It has the bill. Why can't it figure out from that how much has to be paid?

Chris_QPW

PeterK said:

Hard to believe that they scrape the pages. Every biller's site is going to look totally different.

I think this really falls into the same kind of category like what goes on with Express Web Connect.  As in I'm sure for some, maybe even most they have some kind of agreement on how to get at the transactions (in this case the bill information) from a given site that isn't pure "scraping", more likely using the REST interface.  But just using the bill presentment for a while I can certainly tell you that there isn't any industry standard that they are all using since you will get completely different results (and different reliability) from different billers.

Note even if they are using "REST" that only describes how program interacts with the website not with what commands would be used.  So one site might have one set of commands and another site another set.

As for comparing the old system to the new.  Well again I will use a comparison to Express Web Connect.  Express Web Connect is Intuit working as the aggregator.  They aren't the only aggregator that does this.  I'm sure each has their strengths and weaknesses.  As in what financial institutions (billers in this case) are supported and which aren't. What kind of information that can get and how reliable they are and such.

So without a real industry standard, yes what one aggregator does for given function might be better than what another does.

Frankly I blame our financial institutions and such for not having the proper standards, but that is of little "use".

And note that from what I understand not only was Quicken Inc going to terminate the contract with the third party that is providing the bill pay system, it was "mutual", as in they are getting out of that business.  So it seems that Quicken Inc has little choice.

Chris_QPW

What it basically means is that they are "scrapping" the "biller's" website for the bill information and have come up with nothing.  Note they don't scan for "previous" bills.

From what I have seen it depends on the "biller's" website is laid out whether the "current bill" can be picked up "after it is posted".  In other words if you have the biller setup and then the bill is posted it "mostly works" right to pick up the bill at that time. But for some sites, if you setup for the bill after the bill is presented it will not pick it up until the next bill.

Also this status can mean just like it says.  Say you have a bill and just paid it.  Then of course they are waiting for the next bill to be posted.

As for any of the past bills the only time any thing like that will show up is if the biller also provides a PDF statement that this service can pick it up.  But even there mostly it doesn't get past history from most of the sites I have seen, it isn't collects the past statements as they are posted.

PeterK

But my point is that it *already* has the previous bill. Why isn't it using that PDF file it already has to get the statement balance and amount due?
See attachments

Chris_QPW

"Reading" a PDF is an extremely hard thing to do.  There is zero chance that anyone would setup a bill system that gets its information from a PDF.

Chris_QPW

P.S. they have a hard enough time (as in not 100% reliable) time just trying to read the billing information off of the non standardized web pages.

PeterK

So by design, this new system is not as accurate, and will never be as accurate, as the old system?
Hard to believe that they scrape the pages. Every biller's site is going to look totally different.

Chris_QPW

PeterK said:

Hard to believe that they scrape the pages. Every biller's site is going to look totally different.

I think this really falls into the same kind of category like what goes on with Express Web Connect.  As in I'm sure for some, maybe even most they have some kind of agreement on how to get at the transactions (in this case the bill information) from a given site that isn't pure "scraping", more likely using the REST interface.  But just using the bill presentment for a while I can certainly tell you that there isn't any industry standard that they are all using since you will get completely different results (and different reliability) from different billers.

Note even if they are using "REST" that only describes how program interacts with the website not with what commands would be used.  So one site might have one set of commands and another site another set.

As for comparing the old system to the new.  Well again I will use a comparison to Express Web Connect.  Express Web Connect is Intuit working as the aggregator.  They aren't the only aggregator that does this.  I'm sure each has their strengths and weaknesses.  As in what financial institutions (billers in this case) are supported and which aren't. What kind of information that can get and how reliable they are and such.

So without a real industry standard, yes what one aggregator does for given function might be better than what another does.

Frankly I blame our financial institutions and such for not having the proper standards, but that is of little "use".

And note that from what I understand not only was Quicken Inc going to terminate the contract with the third party that is providing the bill pay system, it was "mutual", as in they are getting out of that business.  So it seems that Quicken Inc has little choice.