Where is the check that was supposedly sent to pay a bill??

BillABC

I used the "new" Quicken pay to pay a credit card - it made me use "Check Pay" where in the past I was sending an electronic payment. The payment was due Dec 5 and the check supposedly sent Nov 23. I'm being charged a late fee because NO check was received. In Quicken it shows the correct payee, address, amount and credit card account number the payment was for. So where is the check??? And what can I do about it?

Chris_QPW

This is why I would never use this feature.  About the only thing you can do about it is contact Quicken Support since there is no way for you to contact the third-party service that actually sends out the check.
Official Quicken® Support - Phone, Chat, or Community

BillABC

Well, before everything changed the other month, I paid bills via Quicken and never had a problem. This "new" way is the problem.

Chris_QPW

Well, bill pay through the financial institution and Quicken Bill Manager/Third-party service are quite different.  Not only in the way "Quick pay/electronic transfer" works, but also because it has been reported several times on here that people have had check from "Check Pay" go missing or have long delays in getting there.  Last year they blamed it on the Pandemic/holidays even though that seemed to be the only mail being lost in the US.

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7922729/my-explanation-of-the-security-of-the-different-connection-types

BillABC

I was having Quicken initiate the payment BY my bank (Chase) until Chase decided to no longer accept such instructions - they would pay vendors electronically mostly but Chase would mail checks if they had to - never a problem there. It's Quicken's "check pay" that's the problem not that it's my option without the Chase connection. If I can't do a "quick pay" I'm going to mail the check myself or log into Chase & have them do it. BTW, Intuit ruined this with Quickbooks too - which I use for my business - it can't even connect to Chase to download balances and accepted payments & deposits - and their "support" is completely useless - not a clue.

UKR

Be sure to avoid late fees and penalty interest rates

Are you about to be late with making your bill payment due to problems or unexpected delays in Quicken Bill Manager (Quick Pay or Check Pay) that cannot be resolved in a timely fashion?

Due to the complexity of the matter it can take apparently forever to identify and fix a problem. While you're fighting the Bill Manager windmill, waiting for the problems to be resolved, to avoid missed or late payments I recommend you logon directly to the biller's website and authorize them to direct debit (aka PAC Draft, Autopay, APS, etc.) the next and all future payments from your checking account or a credit card. The biller will do all the work for you and make an electronic debit on the due date and you don't have to worry about being late.

In Quicken unlink the bill and just record a scheduled reminder which does not execute as an online payment into your account register on or before the Due Date and before you download transactions from the bank or credit card containing the payment transaction. That will allow Quicken to match your register transaction to the downloaded data and not cause any further issues.

BillABC

Yes, thanks, I already went directly to the biller (a credit card), paid by phone & had them reverse the late charge - that's how I discovered the missing payment, I saw the late charge. I've removed the biller from Bill Manager so it won't happen again - I just don't know where this check they supposedly mailed Nov 23rd is - but my bank says if it's cashed and I report a duplicate payment they'll credit me. Never had this issue when I could post payments to my bank (Chase) directly via Quicken. Sad.

Chris_QPW

Make sure this is all clear.  There isn't anything stopping you from using Chase's bill payment system, which would have sent the payment by electronic transfer or by check if need be.  This part hasn't changed.

Direct Connect has the ability to "sync bill payments/transfers".  Whether you were submitting it in Quicken or on the Chase website the same thing was happening, it was Chase's bill payment system being used.  Quicken was just being used like a second GUI to that system.  This of course had that secondary effect of allowing the bill to be in Quicken and its status updated even before it cleared the financial institution.

That brings us to Express Web Connect (+) that doesn't have this syncing feature for bill payments and transfers.  Once Chase dropped Direct Connect that means that the old method of doing the syncing is gone.  You can still use Chase's reliable bill payment system, but no longer can track it in Quicken, and for "predicting" you have to enter a manual transaction or a reminder.

Quicken Bill Manager allows for paying bills and that can somewhat be tracked in Quicken (on the Bills tab), but it isn't the same system at all, and as far as I'm concerned doesn't qualify as a good system.  You can't have a bill system that is 99% right.  That would mean that 1 out of 100 bills would have a problem.

I'm absolutely sure that the reported cases of problems here are the minority.  But the fact is I never want to be part of that minority.

Chris_QPW

BillABC said:

Yes, thanks, I already went directly to the biller (a credit card), paid by phone & had them reverse the late charge - that's how I discovered the missing payment, I saw the late charge. I've removed the biller from Bill Manager so it won't happen again - I just don't know where this check they supposedly mailed Nov 23rd is - but my bank says if it's cashed and I report a duplicate payment they'll credit me. Never had this issue when I could post payments to my bank (Chase) directly via Quicken. Sad.

For what it is worth, based on the reports here, the checks do eventually show up, just way delayed.

BillABC

Yes, I know all that. And with Quickbooks Intuit can no longer make Express Web Connect work to get my balances, etc., telling me I need to manually download a Web Connect file from the bank for EACH account, then import each separately into QB. Meanwhile Quicken gets the balances no problem - with both I'll now have to go directly to Chase to make payments. Just trying to find this missing check sent out via Quicken Bill Pay.

Chris_QPW

Is the problem with QuickBooks "universal"?

I'm guessing it is like here in Quicken where it works for some people and not for others.
One has to wonder if they did any tests at all before turning this on.

BillABC

No, not everyone, but those of us who have it are pretty much stuck. Some have found "solutions" - like completely uninstalling & reinstalling QB, but that doesn't work for others. QB supposedly has an "investigation" underway - whatever that means. I'm now on QB2023 and have the same errors as QB2022. They say Chase made a change (but why is every Chase customer not affected?) and Chase says it's a QB issue.

Chris_QPW

Yeah, same story as here in Quicken, no real surprise there.  At least with QuickBooks you are only dealing with two parties Intuit and Chase.  With Quicken you have them stuck in the middle.

You would think they could just look at the logs of the people having the problems and figure it out, but it seems not to be the case.