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Banks offering billpay payment initiation through Quicken

jrich75

I know there is a list of banks that can use Direct Connect to interact with Quicken. However, I understand that not all DC capable banks will allow Quicken to initiate payments using their internal billpay systems. I believe US Bank allows it if you pay their monthly DC fee. Can anyone confirm that? Is there a list of other FIs that offer this capability? It's often hard to determine from general descriptions of the bank's billpay service.

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Sherlock

The list of financial institutions providing online payment services from within Quicken 2020 from March 2020 is attached. You may glean the current financial institutions from the fidir.txt file Quicken maintains within the hidden \ProgramData\Quicken folder.

fidir.pdf

Chris_QPW

If you look at the fidir.txt file you can tell if they offer bill pay through Quicken. But of course you can't tell if they charge for it. For that you have to contact the financial institution.

If you look at PNC's entry you have:

04501 04501 04501 PNC Bank - Direct Connect https://www.pnc.com/ 1-800-762-2035 http://www.pncbank.com/personal_finance/online_banking_center/quicken/0,3810,252,00.html ACTIVE BANKING,PAYMENT,ACCOUNTINFO&DIRECT BANKING,ACCOUNTINFO&EXP-WEB-CONNECT NOT_QBP NA

And Chase:

10898 10898 10898 Chase http://www.chase.com 1-877-242-7372 http://www.chase.com ACTIVE BANKING,PAYMENT,CREDIT,ACCOUNTINFO&DIRECT BANKING,CREDIT&WEB-CONNECT BANKING,CREDIT,ACCOUNTINFO&EXP-WEB-CONNECT NOT_QBP NA

As for US Bank, I'm not even sure which entry is the one you would be using, I guess this might be the one (looks like they support it):

01401 01401 01401 U.S. Bank - PFM Direct Connect http://www.usbank.com/ 1-800-USBANKS http://www.usbank.com/cgi_w/cfm/ubank_online/quicken.cfm ACTIVE BANKING,PAYMENT,CREDIT,ACCOUNTINFO&DIRECT BANKING,ACCOUNTINFO&EXP-WEB-CONNECT NOT_QBP NA

All comments

Sherlock

fidir.pdf

GeoffG

Two banks in particular offer free Quicken bill pay: Chase and PNC. There may be balance requirements that you will need to investigate.

Chris_QPW

And Chase:

As for US Bank, I'm not even sure which entry is the one you would be using, I guess this might be the one (looks like they support it):

jrich75

Thanks to everyone for the information and file link. The US Bank - PFM is the one I've been considering since I already have an account with them. Believe they charge about $4/mo for DC access using it with a personal account. I'll go through the other options using fidir.txt to see what others might work for me.

Chris_QPW

The problem with the PDF version @Sherlock posted is that it doesn't say if the financial institution supports paying bills.

Note that the fidir.txt file is stored in a couple of different directories depending on the version of Quicken, but you should always be able to find it at this path.
C:\ProgramData\Quicken\Inet\Common\Localweb\Banklist\UNZIP

Chris_QPW

BTW $4 sounds about right, I believe that is how much Wells Fargo Charges for Direct Connect and you get bill pay with that too.

Many, many years ago I left Wells Fargo for online financial institutions, because they were always nick and dime me with some kind of fee. But here is something interesting, I don't believe they raised the fees for downloading/bill payment through Quicken in all these years (probably about 20 years ago).

At the same time I also dropped the idea of using bill pay at all. And switched to automatic payments taken from my credit card if possible, and if not a few from my checking account. And the credit card pays me cash back.

Sherlock

Chris_QPW said:

The problem with the PDF version @Sherlock posted is that it doesn't say if the financial institution supports paying bills.

Note that the fidir.txt file is stored in a couple of different directories depending on the version of Quicken, but you should always be able to find it at this path.
C:\ProgramData\Quicken\Inet\Common\Localweb\Banklist\UNZIP

At the time it was generated from the available FIDIR.TXT, each of the financial institutions in the list provided PAYMENT over &DIRECT.

Chris_QPW

Oh, I didn't realize that. Thanks for the information.

Ricardo5000

Both of my banks are showing in the FIDIR.TXT file. How do I initiate a payment from quicken screen/desktop?

NotACPA

That they show in FIDIR.TXT ONLY means that they allow connectivity to Quicken.

Do those respective entries ALSO show "PAYMENT" ... which is the necessary value to have payments initiated by Q go thru them?

See @Chris_QPW's reply of 6/24 for what you need to see in those FIDIR entries.

jrich75

I have not yet done this myself but this is what I understand:
As @NotACPA says, only some of the FIs on FIDR.TXT can do this. I believe they have to show both PAYMENT &DIRECT since Direct Connect is required. You will likely have to contact the bank to set this up with them and agree to their fee if applicable. Direct Connect also can have different ID & password requirements than normal log on to the Bank's web site.
Once you have the info from the bank, you will need to disconnect Quicken Billpay from the payment account in Quicken (Account Details, Online Services). You can then set up Bill Pay again but should be able to select direct payment through the bank system. Once the setup is complete you should be able to initiate payments just as though they were processed through Quicken Billpay. The difference is your Online Payee list will now show the Financial Institution rather than Quicken Billpay at the top.

NotACPA

@jrfaris If it says "PAYMENT", it will also say Direct ... since Direct Connect is required for this billpay function.