Problem with Check Pay system

Kshap

On May 9, I initiated two Check pay payments in Quicken. As of today, May 23, neither of them has been delivered to the biller. I've used Check Pay in the past and had no problem. It usually takes about 7 days from the day I initiate the payment, to the day the check clears my Bank. But this has been 14 days and no sign that the checks have been delivered. When I called Quicken support, they said the checks were processed properly and delivered to the USPS. The problem is that I have no way of knowing what is going on. Quicken blames the USPS. And the USPS….. well, if anyone out there can figure out how to get the USPS to track a third party letter sent from who knows where, you're better than I am. At this point, I have no choice but to stop using Check Pay. It appears to be unreliable and there's no way to track anything. Any time or money I hoped to save using Check Pay has been completely undone by this situation, which is taking up hours of my time!

Quicken Kristina

Hello @Kshap,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community and telling us about this issue.  I'm sorry to hear you're running into this problem. Unfortunately, once the checks are in the hands of the USPS, we don't have a way to track them.

If you're concerned this will lead to late payments/penalties, most billers do give you the option to pay them directly through their website or over the phone. If you do choose to do this, keep in mind that we do not have the ability to cancel the checks once they have been sent. You would need to contact your financial institution to put a stop payment on them.

I apologize that I could not be of more assistance.

UKR

Are you sure these checks were made out to the correct address which the biller(s) require for delivery of check payments, i.e., the address printed on the invoice or statement as "Make checks payable to …" and not the company's main address?

Instead of using Check Pay may I recommend using one of these alternatives (in no particular order of preference)?

1. See if the biller allows the use of Quick Pay instead of Check Pay. This creates a one-time electronic debit deducting the payment from your checking account (or a credit card) on due date. Make your Quick Pay payment several business days before due date to avoid being late.
2. Logon to the bank's website and schedule your bill pay payments to be executed by the bank from your checking account. In parallel to that, in Quicken use a regular Scheduled Reminder to record your payment. Repeat both actions every time another payment is due.
3. Bypass Bill Manager. Let the biller's computer system do all the work for you. Logon to the biller's website once and set up their Autopay, APS, Direct debit, etc. service to make the current payment and all future payments on Due Date directly from your checking account. In parallel to that, in Quicken, every month, record a regular Scheduled Reminder to keep track of your payments before they come due.
4. Write (or print with Quicken) a paper check and mail it to the biller, making sure to mail payment early enough (at least 10 days before due date) to allow time for delivery and processing.

Randy 415

I am a new user of Check Pay and I am surprised at how many bugs are in the system. Either no one is using it, or no one seems to care that there are flaws all over it. Maybe we are being ignored? I don't know. All I know is, that for a somewhat mature system (3 years?), it still seems to be missing a LOT. Still very immature. Needs a good workout. Anyway, if you encounter errors, I hope we can all use the "Report a Problem" in the app so that developers can start fixing things. These message boards are more about talking about issues, not fixing them. And of course, offering alternative solutions.