Did the new arrangement with Chase eliminate Quick Pay?

Dennis6@

I got an email notice that I could initiate the new Chase arrangement. It was not clear how I was to do that, so I called support. They said deactivate the accounts and then reactivate. I did that and now there is no Quick Pay option. The tech I spoke with did not seem very sure of what the situation with Chase was, so I am asking here. 

Frankx

Hi @Dennis6@

To answer your question - yes, the change in connection methods did eliminate your ability to use Chase as your bill payment facility.  That feature was a function of the direct connect method and is not available through the new Express Web Connect+ method that Chase will use going forward.

You now have the option of using another bank account that still connects via direct connect, or using Quicken's bill payment functionality - Quicken Bill Manager.

Let me know if you have any follow-up questions.

Frankx

Frankx

Hi @Dennis6@,

I agree with your comment that the new "service" is "not as good or as dependable as the old system".  Unfortunately, it appears that a number of financial institutions (and likely more in the future) have decided to change connection methods to a new one (EWC+) that doesn't support "bank bill pay".

The only options at this time are to move to another bank that supports the Direct Connect method, to use your bank's online bill payment feature (which requires you to setup your payees on the banks website and enter payments there every month), or to use Quicken Bill Pay (which as you noted requires a fee).

Frankx 

Frankx

Hi @Dennis6@

To answer your question - yes, the change in connection methods did eliminate your ability to use Chase as your bill payment facility.  That feature was a function of the direct connect method and is not available through the new Express Web Connect+ method that Chase will use going forward.

You now have the option of using another bank account that still connects via direct connect, or using Quicken's bill payment functionality - Quicken Bill Manager.

Let me know if you have any follow-up questions.

Frankx

Dennis6@

Thanks, but I was probably not clear on the issue: I am not using Chase as a bank to pay my bills from. I continue to use the same bank (credit union) I have always used with Bill Manager, and which supports other Quick Pay transactions. I am trying to pay a Chase Visa credit card bill and that no longer appears to allow Quick Pay as an option.

jtkqboston

Same question here: how do I use Quicken's QuickPay to pay my Chase credit card bill, now that I've converted my account over to the new system?

Chris_QPW

From what I understand bill presentment and payment using Quicken Bill Manager hasn't been working for a very long time.  Much longer than when this transition of connection type at Chase started.

As such, I don't think anyone knows when it will be fixed.

Dennis6@

Yes, Bill Manager has had problems from the beginning. I have contacted Quicken support on this numerous times and also discussed some of the problems I have had with this community. On two occasions a Quicken tech responded to my community comment, which I was hoping would happen here. I have had problems with ADT and State Farm as well as Chase (which, sometimes, did work with Quick Pay before the latest change). I have also found several of my billers in the list of Quick Pay participants but discovered they do not really work. My most recent experience with Chase was that I used Quick Pay about a week before Quicken said to stop because they were updating their connection with Chase (they never mentioned Quick Pay would no longer work). Chase did not get the payment even though Quick Pay told me it worked, so I paid Chase another way. Then, later, the Quick Pay payment did go through, so I then had a credit balance. Then I noticed that Bill Manager does not recognize credit balances and shows them as amounts due. I did call support about that, and they went online and looked at it but had no answer. My current thinking is that Bill Manager has potentially better user friendliness than the old Bill Pay system and if Quick Pay would work well and had better coverage of billers, it would be good. Unfortunately, at the moment, I miss the dependability and consistency of the old system. I also miss Repeating Online Payments, which it appears nobody knows when/ if that will return. My reason for using the Quicken system is that I like doing everything in one place and the integration with all my record keeping that gives me. However, I have had enough problems with Bill Manager that I am considering other alternatives (which I would rather not do but Quicken has to improve what has been my experience).

MK Turner

Paying bills from my Chase Checking Account works perfectly. I only have a problem trying to pay Chase Visa and there I am limited to Check Pay. Nuts.

Chris_QPW

MK Turner said:

Paying bills from my Chase Checking Account works perfectly. I only have a problem trying to pay Chase Visa and there I am limited to Check Pay. Nuts.

I have seen several posts on here from the Moderators that confirm that you can't pay your Chase credit card with QuickPay, and that it changed with the change over to Express Web Connect +.

jsen215

Why did they remove the ability to pay Chase directly ? This is just incredibly inconvenient. So I used a Check Pay feature - not sure it was sent, the bank hasn't received it, and quicken apparently has mailed it. This appears to be a MASSIVE CF in progress

Ps56k2

jsen215 said: Why did they remove the ability to pay Chase directly ?

YUP - it's all the financial institutions moving to a new protocol that is more of "1-way" only for downloading transactions.
I've reverted back to my overall 2-step process...
1 - Having all my Quicken Reminders already setup - I merely wait for a bill - and then ENTER it into the Register.
2 - Next, log into the CHASE website, go to my Bill Payment feature, and create the PAY transactions for the PAYEE.

Dennis6@

So now the issue I have is that I was not paying a monthly charge for the bill payment service when I was using the old system (maybe because of the level of subscription I have). Now, with the new Bill Manager system, I pay $9.95 a month and even with that, there is an additional charge if I go over a certain number of check-pay transactions. I have already had to pay additional charges because I had to use check-pay when quick-pay should have worked. With the decreasing availability of quick pay and the fact that we also lost repeating online payments, it appears I am paying for a service that is not as good or as dependable as the old system that was free in my situation.   

Frankx

Hi @Dennis6@,

I agree with your comment that the new "service" is "not as good or as dependable as the old system".  Unfortunately, it appears that a number of financial institutions (and likely more in the future) have decided to change connection methods to a new one (EWC+) that doesn't support "bank bill pay".

The only options at this time are to move to another bank that supports the Direct Connect method, to use your bank's online bill payment feature (which requires you to setup your payees on the banks website and enter payments there every month), or to use Quicken Bill Pay (which as you noted requires a fee).

Frankx 

Dennis6@

Thanks Frank. I don't think it is worth moving my credit cards to a new bank but using a non-Quicken payment system is now part of my thinking. The thing that is preventing me from doing that immediately is that I like the fact that if I do the transactions in Quicken, they post to all my records automatically. If I use an outside source, I have extra work. I remain aggravated that I now pay a fee for a service that is not better (other than aesthetics) than the old system I got for free.

If any Quicken staff are reading this, it would be nice if you guys posted a recommendation of how to optimize this process within Quicken given the difficulties that have been described in this discussion over the last several months.

Inman Lanier

[Removed - Disruptive] 

To one comment above (how to pay the Chase Credit cards as a Quick Pay) - I had to work with Quicken Tech Support a few weeks ago to enable some of my payment accounts as Quick Pay (vs. Check Pay). It worked, then didn't, then did - but now a new bug on scheduling future Quick Pay checks (I just started a new post - 'EWC+ and Quicken Bill Manager bug?'.

To the comment on Check Pay - caution here - if you use that feature, after 24 - 48 hours that process is irreversible because they actually cut a check and stick it in an envelope.

Chase is our main bank. We don't to change because it's a close by brick and mortar to us and we have a great rapport with the staff. I've wondered about finding another bank (even without storefronts) that still uses direct connect and then we'll only manage payments from that account. Has anyone thought of this approach? That way I can use Zelle to immediately transfer funds to said account (whenever desired), and schedule all payments easily through Quicken like before. Anyone thought of this or have a suggestion of such a financial institution (other than Wells Fargo!)?

Frankx

Hi @Inman Lanier

There are still quite a few banks that still use Direct Connect - such as PNC, Fifth Third, Republic Bank, SunTrust, TD Bank, and US Bank.  However I believe that it is only a matter of time until most - if not all - banks will move from Direct Connect to the new EWC+ platform.  I hope I am wrong about that.

Frankx

Dennis6@

Inman -
In my case, Chase is not my bank. I use a credit union as my bank and have no problem paying some other of my billers using Quick Pay. My issue is that Chase is the provider of one of our credit cards and I can no longer pay their bill with Quick Pay. I can still pay AMX and a few others. I should also say that several other billers, in addition to Chase, have become problematic and some that are on the Quick Pay list really should not be. I would expect that Frank is probably right that direct connect may not exist over the long haul although I would hope something like it becomes available because I do like the service if it worked. My hope would be that Quicken would find an answer to this because I like the integration with my related accounting.
Dennis

Inman Lanier

Dennis6 - thanks for the explanation. What a shame - I was unaware they don't provide their cards as a 'Direct Pay' merchant opportunity. Thanks for the clarification. On a different but similar note - data download reliability of the Citi Bank cards has been an issue of ours in the last several months. The latest was a slew of transactions I had to manually enter (they would not download). They are untimely in their postings (available transaction downloads) on a regular basis.

Grandpart

I've had a collection of credit cards over the years. The cards that seem to work best for downloading transactions and using Quick Pay are American Express cards. I gave up on Capital One and Chase. If Quicken can ever get them working with Quick Pay again, I'll start using the cards again.