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Can Quicken Premier autopay

craigtb

Everything seems to be about how to set up scheduled REMINDERS. I want MORE than a reminder - I want Quicken to make the payment. I want to schedule a mortgage payment to be made every month until canceled sometime in the future. How do I do that?

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Mark1104

@craigtb - has "everyone" given up on the convenience depends on who you consider 'everyone" and what is defined as 'convenience'.

to me, and just my opinion, the issue is that over 25 years the 'average' customer has changed dramatically. Today, people are quite confortable paying their bills via credit card, debit card, auto-debit, Zelle, etc. So the use of checks (and that would include BillPay, because it is just a form of check) usage is way, way down. I can tell you at BofA, back in around 2006, they touted they processed over 11 million checks each night, In their latest financial reporting, they are stating that is down to just about 1 million per night.

So the market is 'giving up' on Billpay because there are so many other convenient and safe ways to pay bills these days. We didn't have phone apps years ago, so "convenience" today is about doing banking on a iphone or adroid that didn;t exist 25 years ago. what was convenience 25 years ago (billpay) is a dinasour compared to the smartphone apps.

Do you read a number of these posts? ever notice how many state they are 20 and 30 year quicken users? how many state they are new (under 5 year users).... us 20-30 year users (and I am one of them) are not young or any longer the 'average' customer of the Banks. I suspect we are all a dying breed! and that is why the banks really aren't putting money into the Billpay features - it continues to be used less and less.

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Mark1104

question: why wouldn't you use your Bank's billpay tools to do that? (or set up auto-debit with the mortgage company - many times they provide a lower interest rate if you do that)

splasher

@craigtb To do as you want, the checking account making these payments would have to be an account set up for Direct Connect downloads (look at the Account List (tools menu) to see if the account is setup for that download method).

Secondly, the financial institution would have to have implemented the capability to respond to such a transaction (they don't all do it).

There is Quicken Bill Pay which you could look into on the Quicken.com website.

craigtb

The bank account in Quicken is enabled for both QuickPay and CheckPay. And I can make individual payments, but I want to make them be paid automatically every month? Quicken used to do that, do you remember??? A valuable feature that has been missing for quite a while. Why did they remove it? And I have inquired of support on various times and they tell me they're working on it. Really? When??

splasher

craigtb said:

The bank account in Quicken is enabled for both QuickPay and CheckPay. And I can make individual payments, but I want to make them be paid automatically every month? Quicken used to do that, do you remember??? A valuable feature that has been missing for quite a while. Why did they remove it? And I have inquired of support on various times and they tell me they're working on it. Really? When??

The closest thing that I can think of is that Quicken will offer at the end of the reconcile process to create a check for you for the amount owed.

Chris_QPW

If you want a payment to be paid automatically every month you should just setup an automatic payment at the biller's website.

craigtb

Of course I can.
But I used to be able to manage all of these in Quicken. Has everyone given up on this convenience?

Chris_QPW

craigtb said:

Of course I can.
But I used to be able to manage all of these in Quicken. Has everyone given up on this convenience?

The only way to get that "convenience" back is switch to a financial institution that still uses Direct Connect and supports bill pay with it. Note that Chase and Bank of America have already dropped Direct Connect and Quicken Inc says that others will be doing it in the next year, but they haven't provided a list of financial institutions that are going to do it.

Here is a list of the financial institutions that are participating in the committee that is pushing the new FDX standard that Express Web Connect + is using:
https://financialdataexchange.org/FDX/FDX/The-Consortium/Members.aspx

Here is an explanation on the different connection types:
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7916268/my-explanation-of-the-different-term-services-that-quicken-has-provides-and-provided-in-the-past

Quicken Inc is pushing Quicken Bill Pay mostly because that is all they have to offer in my opinion, it isn't a direct replacement for what bill pay through Direct Connect provided. And it has been reported to be unreliable, which isn't surprising given how it works.

Mark1104

craigtb

Thanks Mark1104, your answer gives a logical explanation. I'll have to face up to the fact that I am a dying breed (which you called me) and try to adjust to finding new ways. It just frustrates me that I have to keep a separate spreadsheet to track my bills, to make sure I don't miss one in a particular month, instead of relying on Quicken to keep me uptodate.

Mark1104

@craigtb - as noted, I am part of that 'dying breed' as well (28 years on Quicken! and 66 years old), but I have adopted! I use BillPay (at the BofA website) maybe 3-4 times per year.....and I don't write personal checks.

What I do is pay my bills via credit card at the biller's website (and get my 1.5% cash back!), permit the utilities and mortgage company to auto-debit my bank account each month, use Zelle for small tradesman who don't accept a credit card, etc. Never had a problem and never missed paying a bill. Laws and 'following the process' protect me; never had a hassle on a auto-debit.

for the routine monthly/ quarterly / annual bills, I set up billing reminders in Quicken so that I can see the projected cash balances, so that I don't risk overdrafting.

my credit card number is saved in my browser and iphone so that with just a few clicks I can pay a bill without having to dig out or memorize my credit card number

I can set up payment at a biller's website just as quick as setting it up for Billpay at BofA...but of course I get that 1.5% at the biller website for a credit card payment!

the key is adapting to newer and more convenient technology.

splasher

Mark1104 said:

… permit the utilities and mortgage company to auto-debit my bank account each month, …

You ought to check with your utilities, I have mine charged to a credit card and get the cash rewards, both my electric and phone allow it.

Chris_QPW

splasher said:

Mark1104 said:

… permit the utilities and mortgage company to auto-debit my bank account each month, …

You ought to check with your utilities, I have mine charged to a credit card and get the cash rewards, both my electric and phone allow it.

It really depends on the utility company. My gas & electric take a credit card, my water company doesn't.

It is certainly nicer to have it come out the credit card if possible. It makes cashflow easier and there is always the safety net that you can dispute bad charges (not that I have every had to do that).