Wells Fargo Bill; Quicken

denmarfl

After BofA terminated DirectConnect...I researched other Banks offering Quicken DC.  I Opened an Acct at Wells Fargo, they offer Quicken DC free of Charge to include Bill Pay.

This is what is somewhat a mystery to me.  At Wells Fargo you must create the same Payees at thier Online Banking Site...and..in Quicken if you want to Pay Bills at thier Online banking site or thru Quicken.  At my prior bank you could only create a Payee at the banks site and it downloaded into Quicken.  So my 1st surprise was, creating same Payee Twice..at Online site and Quicken.  

2nd surprise...I created a Payee that is Paid Electronically...a well established MasterCard Payee, old Bank Paid next day.  At Wells Fargo, if I enter Payment for this same payee at thier Online Banking site...it takes 2 Business days.  If I enter the same Payee in Quicken...it takes 4 Business days.  At the prior bank Payments were exact whether I used the Website or Quicken.

Speaking with Wells Fargo, who by the way have a decicated QUICKEN unit, what a Pleasant surprise...and the agents know Quicken....it sounds to me that when I enter a payment at Wells Fargo Online banking site, WF processes the Payment.  When I enter the same payment in Quicken ...the Payment is processed by Check Free-Fizer; a 3rd party Vendor.  Is Check Free Fizer the same company that processes Quicken Bill Pay and the reason Wells Fargo Bill Pay Lead time is twice the Number of Business days compared to Entering the Bill at Wells Fargo Online Banking Site.  Is Wells Fargo using Check Free Fizer (3rd Party) to handle the Bills sent to Wells Fargo via Direct Connect using Quicken?

My disappointments, at Wells Fargo...using Quicken DC the Bill Lead time for payments is twice the number of Business Days as compared if I entered the Payment at Wells Fargo Online site...so the Bills are defintely being processed differently if you enter at Online Banking or use Quicken.   

   

Boatnmaniac

I have a Wells Fargo checking account set up with Direct Connect Bank Bill Pay and some of what you posted is very foreign to me. 

• There should be absolutely no need to concurrently enter the Payee in both the Wells Fargo website and in Quicken.  I have only ever set up the Online Payee in Quicken.  The Bill Pay process in Quicken will send the Payee information to the WF website and set it up there.  I suppose it is possible that if you want to be able to alternate paying bills between from within Quicken and from your online account at WF that you might need to do two separate setups but if you stick with paying from within Quicken there should be no need to also set up the payee online.

• 3rd party Check Free-Fizer?  Never heard of them.  The closest thing I could come up with in a Google search is CheckFreePay from Fiserv.  They claim to be the "largest processor of walk-in bill payments in the United States."  I suppose WF might have contracted out their check processing business to them.  If they have done that, I would imagine that they do that for all bill payments by checks whether scheduled via Quicken or via the online account.  It is also my understanding that this is not Quicken's CheckPay partner.

Regarding lead-times: 

• Generally, ACH lead-times to completely process a transaction take 1-3 business days, depends on what level of ACH service they have contracted for with the clearing house.  And it often makes a difference depending on the time of day that the bill pay was scheduled.
  

• Generally, mailed paper checks get delivered in 3-5 business days depending on the proximity of the payee to the mailing center (it's a USPS delivery lead-time thing).

• I think Quicken defaults to 4 days because it assumes that the bill pay will be paid by mail.  (This should probably be extended to 5 days based upon the new posted USPS standard lead-times.)  But once the Payee in Quicken is linked with WF then WF should be redefining the lead-time required for that Payee based upon what their system dictates the lead-time will be.  The bank will determine how the bill will be paid (ACH vs check) and we do not have a choice in that matter...at least not when it comes to the standard bill pay process.  Future bill payments scheduled for that Payee should reflect the WF lead-time and not default to the Quicken "4 days". 

• The important thing to keep in mind is that when setting up a bill pay in Quicken for WF (and for most other banks) we enter the date we want the payment to be delivered, not when we want it to be processed.  The bank will then define when they will need to start processing the payment.  With my banks (I can't say for all banks), the funds will not be withdrawn from the account until after the payment has been fully transacted and posted.
  

denmarfl

Thank you for your time and detailed response.

You are correct...No need to create Payee at WF Website and Quicken,,,I did so as a 1st time user of WF...to see if lead times would be the same for same Payee using WF Site and Quicken...and for my Electronic Payees there is a difference.  OnSite Payment request 2 Days, Quicken 4 Days.  My one Payee that is Mailed a check, onsite 7 Days...in Quicken it defaults to the same 4 days...and I know that is not correct.  I also decided to enter Payee at Website because with BofA you can ONLY create payees at BofA site, after which when you connected with BofA that new payee downloaded into Quicken...as I have learned, this is not so with the WF Process.  You are very likely correct in that the service WF uses to pay all bills (electronic/Mail) is CheckFreePay from Fiserv...I did not ask the WF to spell out the name and spelled it the way I thought I heard it.  I called the Phone number WF gave me for the Bill Payer...and it answers Fiserv Service Mgt support.

So it appears to me, same Electronic Payee, requested at WF Website...2 Business days ...requested thru Q....4 Business days.

So once I start requesting Payments thru Quicken to WF, the 4 day lead times might adjust to 2 Days to Match the WF Lead times for payment...

With BofA when you equested a Bill be paid using Q, as soon as you connected to BofA....the Website immediately dusplayed that Bill as PENDING...so in addition to see Q Onlice Center showing the Bill pay was uplaoded you had visuable confirmation at the banks Website.  I am thinking with WF you have no Website visual confirmation Bill is pending until the Debit for Bill is processed which can be a few days depending on Bill Payment date.  Truist, who I tried out their DC..and Bill Pay, and they use a 3rd party yo process Bill Payments sent via Q....their website displayed nothing until Debit was activated the night before payment.

BofA has been my only experience with Quicken DC and Bill Pay so to begin using a different Bank....your expectations upfront you think is how it works to find out it is different.  

I dislike using BofA EWC+ since they discontinued DC in October, EWC+ is nothing more than a way to download processed Transctions into Quicken....and I need to gain the comfort of another bank's system....its differences to what I have known...to make the switch away from BofA.  

Boatnmaniac

Over the years I have had DC Bank Bill Pay with at least 7 different banks and I can assure you that they all do things a little differently from each other.  What I have done to get a better feel for how the DC Bill Pay Process works with each of them is to test it out...send myself a small payment to see how long it takes to get to me, set up a couple of ACH bill pays early to see how well that process works so if there is a problem there is still time to get the payment made by the due date, etc.  It won't take long before you get a good feel of what to expect. 

From my perspective, DC Bank Bill Pay with every one of the banks was very positive.  Highly reliable both in how the banks work with Quicken and in successful completion of the bill pay process.  There is one exception and that has to do with mailing of paper checks and that is a USPS issue, not a bank issue, so I always give payments to be made by check an extra week to be safe. 

The only bill pay process I find to be more reliable with no risk for missing a due date is to schedule the ACH payments on the billers' websites so they directly debit my checking account or a credit card.  I now have automatic bill payments set up there for most of my bills.  Makes my life a whole lot easier and there is less reliance on a bank to make a payment or for the USPS to deliver on time....and I find I now have much less need for DC Bank Bill Pay.

Jerry Pederson

 Boatnmaniac, Is Bank Bill Pay still working for you at Wells Fargo?  Three weeks ago it worked for me now it is not available. For the past 3 weeks, I did not use or opened Quicken.  I opened Quicken this morning and wanted to pay some bills and could not do so.  My Wells account does not show a Bank Bill Pay option.

Jerry Pederson

My mistake it works.  I forgot Quicken moved the access icon.

Jerry Pederson

 Boatnmaniac, Is Bank Bill Pay still working for you at Wells Fargo?  Three weeks ago it worked for me now it is not available. For the past 3 weeks, I did not use or opened Quicken.  I opened Quicken this morning and wanted to pay some bills and could not do so.  My Wells account does not show a Bank Bill Pay option.