What is Bill Manager?

LWood

I use "Quicken Home, Business & Rental Property." Is "Bill Manager Standard" something different from sending payments from within Quicken?

LWood

OK I found a video on how to set it up, but I'm still confused on how it differs from simply "sending" a payment to someone on my "Online Payee List." Apparently it is a kind of direct connection (like ACH) but is very limited in the number of bills you can pay with it each month without paying through the nose.

Frankx

Hi @LWood

In Quicken, there are basically two ways that you can pay your bills.  One way is to make payments directly from your bank, and the other way is to use Quicken Bill Manager (which is a separate process by a Quicken subcontractor).

To make payments directly from your bank account, the bank must connect with Quicken using the "Direct Connect" method AND it must offer a bill payment program (not all Direct Connect banks have this.  Most banks do not limit the number of payments you can make, while others may have limits.  You need to contact the bank to determine the various details of their programs.

Making payments through Quicken Bill Manager is explained in this Link.  There are two types of payments available and fees are charged.

Let me know if you have any followups.

Frankx

LWood

OK I found a video on how to set it up, but I'm still confused on how it differs from simply "sending" a payment to someone on my "Online Payee List." Apparently it is a kind of direct connection (like ACH) but is very limited in the number of bills you can pay with it each month without paying through the nose.

Frankx

Hi @LWood

In Quicken, there are basically two ways that you can pay your bills.  One way is to make payments directly from your bank, and the other way is to use Quicken Bill Manager (which is a separate process by a Quicken subcontractor).

To make payments directly from your bank account, the bank must connect with Quicken using the "Direct Connect" method AND it must offer a bill payment program (not all Direct Connect banks have this.  Most banks do not limit the number of payments you can make, while others may have limits.  You need to contact the bank to determine the various details of their programs.

Making payments through Quicken Bill Manager is explained in this Link.  There are two types of payments available and fees are charged.

Let me know if you have any followups.

Frankx

Frankx

Hi again @LWood,

So yes, Bill Manager (the second payment method I mentioned above - and the video you reviewed) requires that you pay a fee each month and the number of payments is limited. 

The first method I originally mentioned - Quicken Bill Pay using your bank - is free with Quicken versions "Premier" and "Home & Business" but there is a $9.95 fee per month for the "Deluxe" method.  And my understanding is that there is no limit on the number of payments you can make.

Frankx

Chris_QPW

LWood said:

Apparently it is a kind of direct connection (like ACH) but is very limited in the number of bills you can pay with it each month without paying through the nose.

I want to state that Quicken Bill Manager is never ACH from what I have seen.  There is Check Pay, which is exactly what it sounds like where the third-party service sends a physical check.  And then there is "bill pay" which is where the third-party service logs into the biller's website and tries to schedule a payment through their bill payment system.

P.S. Clearly the biller's website can be using ACH to do the actual payment and so it will show up as an ACH transfer, but it isn't the third-party bill payment service that Quicken uses that is initiating the ACH transfer.