Quicken Bill Pay Is Not Reliable For Bill Payments

carlj07

I've been a Quicken user since Quicken v1.0 - currently using Quicken Premier paid subscription on a Windows 11 PC. I also used CheckFree from CheckFree's very beginning and all the way up to Quicken replacing CheckFree with Quick Pay. In all the years of using CheckFree, I never had even one payment issue, including having paper checks sent on time (another issue with Quicken's Check Pay)!

Over the past several months I have been dealing with different issues at one time or another regarding Quicken Bill Pay (Quick Pay). None of these issues are unique to me - there are many posts from Quicken customers experiencing identical/similar issues:

1. Quick Pay payments are stuck in the "Processing" mode with no ability to cancel the Quick Pay payment (so I could submit the payment thru the Biller's website and avoid a duplicate payment). Most recently this was an issue with my ISP (Cox) when I did not receive the usual email from both Cox and Quicken that my online payment was successfully made on the scheduled date. When I checked my Quicken account, it showed "Processing". Since I still had an additional day until the actual Due Date, I waited to see if the transaction would be completed. On the Biller's Due Date, the payment still was not completed - I tried to cancel the payment so I could make the payment thru Cox's website and Quicken would not let me cancel the "Processing" payment. I made the payment myself anyway thru Cox's website to avoid being late should the "Processing" payment fail. The next day, the Quick Pay payment to Cox was finally made (now 2 days later than scheduled) and I ended up with a credit on my account since 2 identical payments were now received by Cox.
2. Another Quick Pay payment "Processing" on the scheduled date - this time for my AMEX bill. This payment was scheduled for the day prior to the AMEX due date. Again, I got the "Processing" message in Quicken on the scheduled payment date. The next day (AMEX due date) I still had no email from Quicken or AMEX that the payment was successfully made (verified by checking my online AMEX account). Because of my previous experience with Cox’s Quick Pay payment, I decided to be proactive and I was able to successfully cancel the scheduled Quick Pay payment to AMEX (was it really Processing if I was able to cancel it while in the Processing mode?) and initiate that payment via the AMEX website to avoid a late payment.
3. The "Due in XX Days" for the upcoming Bills defaults to 14 days no matter what you change it to (this has been reported in a separate post and it is taking unusually long to fix, which indicates to many of us that no one at Quicken knows what caused the mysterious change or how to fix it).
4. Biller statements not downloading when they are readily available on the Biller's website. When Quicken's Bills & Income tab updates, very often the correct next amount due and correct due date will update for the individual Online Billers when that information is available on the Biller’s website. However, the Biller's statement (PDF) is not available to view in Quicken, even though it is readily available to view/download on the Biller's website. Sometimes it shows up in Quicken many days later - sometimes it doesn't show up at all. Sometimes I can view it directly in Quicken - sometimes I have to download it to view it. Why?
5. Numerous "Fix-It" issues with Online Billers randomly appear and disappear. While a Biller is in the "Fix-It" mode, you cannot use Quick Pay for that Biller. Now I’m back to using the Biller’s website to schedule the bill payment.
6. Multiple issues with Review & Repair Online Billers and/or Payments. Whenever I have an issue with Quicken Bill Pay, I use the Review & Repair option first to try to correct the problem. Sometimes it does fix the issue, but most of the time it doesn't. I have had several instances when it reports something was out-of-sync with the server - usually a scheduled Quick Pay payment for a future date. What causes this to be an issue? Should we be performing a Review & Repair Online Billers/Payments daily? In my case, I'm guessing the out-of-sync issue is probably the underlying cause of my issues #1 and #2 above. Again, why the random out-of-syncs when Reviewing & Repairing?

My recent experiences with Quick Pay (outlined above), along with the numerous posts by other Quicken customers concerning the same/similar issues leave me no choice but to avoid using Quick Pay altogether, beginning today. I shouldn't need to constantly wonder and check up on Quick Pay to be sure my scheduled payment will make it on time, not to mention dealing with all the other quirks with Quick Pay. Quick Pay is, at the very least, unreliable as a bill-paying service and the Quicken powers-that-be should take this seriously and suspend Quick Pay's use until these issues (and others) can be understood, eliminated, and Quick Pay made bullet-proof reliable (as was CheckFree). After all, paying bills on behalf of Quicken's customers (users) is a serious undertaking and that carries with it responsibilities to the customer which should not be minimized.

Quicken has lost my trust in handling my bill payments. Quicken assumes no responsibility for any headaches they may cause their customer (the user) when Quick Pay hiccups. I’ll come back when Quicken can show me that their Bill Payment system works flawlessly 99.99% of the time with all these other issues corrected.

HJR

I agree 100%.

UKR

The banks and billers making changes to their computer systems "in an attempt to improve security and follow new federal guidelines" is not helping improve things either.

My 2cents' worth, if I may:

I don't use Bill Pay services or Bill Manager at all, neither the one from Quicken nor the one offered by my bank. Since time "B.I." (Before the Internet was invented) I have set up almost all of my recurring payments as Direct Debit, PAC Draft, Autopay, APS, whatever the biller calls it. Using the biller's website, I authorized the biller to electronically debit each payment directly from my checking or credit card account on due date. Now I can sit back, relax and wait for it to happen. Instead of having to arm-wrestle Bill Manager into
making payment on time I let the biller do all the work for me.

When I get notified of a new statement having arrived, usually by email, all I have to do in Quicken is to run a regular scheduled reminder to record the transaction.
Haven't missed a payment in many years.

I recommend you do the same instead of fighting the Bill Manager windmill, missing payments and getting slapped with penalty interest rates or late fees.

carlj07

I have completely adopted UKR's technique for paying bills online and will not be paying bills online using Quicken's Bill Pay service (although I'm still paying for it thru my subscription). Out of curiosity, I will keep my current online billers in Quicken activated and will therefore continue to receive biller statements thru Quicken as they occur, only to evaluate periodically if Quicken may someday fix all of Bill Pay's shortcomings and make Bill Pay as reliable as CheckFree once was (BTW, I already receive biller statements directly via email from my individual billers).

mshiggins

@carlj07 and anyone else reading along, there are two distinct features: Bill Minder which is bill presentment and quick pay/check pay which is bill payment. Problems with both features get reported here fairly often. 

RNALowe

I agree. Quickpay was and still is a great concept, but Quicken has been unable to implement it so that it is reliable. Perhaps that is also the banks' and billers' fault, but the fact remains that as Quicken users billing bills using Quickpay is unreliable and we spend hours and hours trying to make it work. I wish I had $1 for every time I've supervalidated my data file.

It is far more reliable to use the phone apps and/or website payment systems that virtually every credit card, bank, and vendor offers. You get a reliable online payment, and entering the payment manually (or waiting until it shows up in your bank download in Quicken) is faster than trying to troubleshoot the wonky Quickpay system EACH AND EVERY PAY CYCLE.