Quick Pay versus Check Pay

thomasmartick

I have been using check pay, and it is pretty good. But what are the advantages of Quick Pay vs check pay? Also, I wish to setup a recurring payment (monthly) - is this possible with either of the two offerings?

UKR

The bank which runs your checking account … does Quicken connect to it using Direct Connect as the transaction download protocol?
You can find out by looking at the account register's Edit Account Details dialog, Online Services tab.
Quick Pay is not supported when the bank is not using Direct Connect.

If you want to replace Check Pay with an alternative method, please consider this:

1. 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.
2. Bypass Bill Manager. Let the biller's (or credit card company'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.
3. 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.

For me, method #2 has been working extremely well. Haven't missed a payment for decades.

Chris_QPW

To answer the original question, Quick Pay can only be used when a ACH transfer can be made. And maybe also limited by which billers they have on their list. Check pay on the other hand is sending out a check. So, Quick Pay is generally faster and all electronic.

https://www.quicken.com/support/quicken-bill-manager-how-make-payments-using-quick-pay-and-check-pay

thomasmartick

My bank is USBank - and I am using Express Web Connect.

The status is enabled for both Check Pay and Quick Pay.

Chris_QPW

I'm not sure, but isn't Quick Pay unlimited/free and for Check Pay after a certain amount you have to pay for more?

If that is correct, that is another difference. For sure, I would use Quick Pay over Check Pay if given the chance.

Chris_QPW

It seems I was wrong about Quick Pay using ACH. So, it seems it isn't as reliable as I thought.

They are going to implement using ACH and they are asking for feedback on it:

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7941360/please-give-us-your-feedback-increased-quick-pay-reliability

Boatnmaniac

@UKR said -

Quick Pay is not supported when the bank is not using Direct Connect.

I had always thought it works with DC and EWC but not with EWC+, not because of the bank but because of the 3rd party Quick Pay service provider. Am I mistaken about that?

Chris_QPW

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20390879#Comment_20390879

The terms are confusing, and that is what is more of the problem to understand what is going on.

And I even forgot that I had already figured out what QuickPay is doing, and it at least until recently wasn't using ACH.

Here is my explanation on how each of these work.

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

When using Direct Connect, and the financial institution supports bill pay through it you have one kind of a bill payment system. In Quicken this is simply referred to as "Bill Pay" (Not QuickPay)

QuickPay/Check Pay are the terms used for the Quicken Bill Manager (third party) service.

This service can be used with any connection type.

So, in a nutshell QuickPay is the third-party service trying to log into the biller's (note not your checking account financial institution) website and schedule a payment. Once scheduled it is most likely that the biller would actually create a ACH transfer (checking account used) or debit from your credit card if that is the payment source.

With this last announced change where ACH is going to be "directly used" (from what I can gather from the announcement) at least for some billers be using ACH.

What does that even mean?

My best guess would be that the third-party service now has a system like the old Quicken Bill Pay system that you can read about in my posted URL. Basically, the third-party service creates an ACH transfer from your checking account to the biller, bypassing their (the biller's) payment system.

Boatnmaniac

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20390922#Comment_20390922

Thanks. This is more in line with my understanding.