How does Quicken "Bank Pay" differ from paying on a bank's website?

Lysander Spooner

"Bank Pay" initiates a direct connect transaction to my bank but generates a different kind of transaction number than if I go directly to my bank's website and initiate the payment there.

I also notice the in my case (Wells Fargo) the Bank Pay transaction does not show up under "Scheduled Transactions" as it does when I initiate the payment on the website.

Is there any practical difference between the two methods?

Jim_Harman

To be clear, you are talking about payments directly via your bank, and not using Quicken Bill Manager, right?

It appears that whether or not these bank bill pay transactions show up on the scheduled list on the bank's website depends on the bank. At Bank of America, they DO show up on the website. 

As far as I can tell the mechanism is exactly the same as if you set the payment up on the bank's website, except of course if you set it up on the website it will not be recorded in Quicken's register until the bill is actually paid.

Lysander Spooner

After talking with Wells Fargo Quicken support I learned that Wells Fargo uses a seperate payment processor for "Bank Pay" transactions compared to the way it processess transaction entered directly on their Bill Pay website interface. That is why the "Bank Pay" transactions do not show up as Scheduled transactions on the website.

Jim_Harman

To be clear, you are talking about payments directly via your bank, and not using Quicken Bill Manager, right?

It appears that whether or not these bank bill pay transactions show up on the scheduled list on the bank's website depends on the bank. At Bank of America, they DO show up on the website. 

As far as I can tell the mechanism is exactly the same as if you set the payment up on the bank's website, except of course if you set it up on the website it will not be recorded in Quicken's register until the bill is actually paid.

Ps56k2

Lysander Spooner said: "Bank Pay" initiates a direct connect transaction to my bank but generates a different kind of transaction number than if I go directly to my bank's website and initiate the payment there.

just to clarify - what do you mean exactly by Quicken "Bank Pay" ?
Only really know about 2 options within Quicken -
A - using the Quicken proxy service called "Bill Manager"
... Use Quick Pay with more than 11,500 digital network billers.
... Use Check Pay to send physical checks to anyone in the US.
B - using Quicken and your own bank's bill payment feature together - no proxy
... sends payment transactions via Quicken One Step Update and they appear in your bank's online bill payment area, as if you had entered them from the bank's online website.

Lysander Spooner

Ps56k2 said:

just to clarify - what do you mean exactly by Quicken "Bank Pay" ?
Only really know about 2 options within Quicken -
A - using the Quicken proxy service called "Bill Manager"
... Use Quick Pay with more than 11,500 digital network billers.
... Use Check Pay to send physical checks to anyone in the US.
B - using Quicken and your own bank's bill payment feature together - no proxy
... sends payment transactions via Quicken One Step Update and they appear in your bank's online bill payment area, as if you had entered them from the bank's online website.

I am talking about option "B" - In my case it seems that Wells Fargo handles Direct Connect initated payments slightly differently than those entered directly on the website. So I will contact them directly for an explanation.

Just FYI for anyone else curious about this:
1. Bill Pay tranactions entered directly on their website generate an 8 Digit alpha-numeric transaction "check" number that I can record manually in my Quicken register.
2. If I generate a "Bank Pay" transaction from within my Quicken register when I connect to my FI it generates a 4 digit check number. In the case of Wells Fargo the bill pay transaction does not appear in the "Scheduled Payments" section of the website Bill Pay page along with the website generated payments. 

Lysander Spooner

After talking with Wells Fargo Quicken support I learned that Wells Fargo uses a seperate payment processor for "Bank Pay" transactions compared to the way it processess transaction entered directly on their Bill Pay website interface. That is why the "Bank Pay" transactions do not show up as Scheduled transactions on the website.