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What is an Online Bill?

Frank Jones

I am confused by the terms "Online Bill" and "Online Bill Reminder". I've use Quicken for a long, long time, but never these options.

So what exactly is an "Online Bill"? Is this a bill that I have already setup for online payment with the Payee's online solution (web-based)?

Secondly, how does the Online Bill Reminder actually work. Do I see some sort of reminder when I start up Quicken?

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Bill Payments

Bill Reminders

Accepted answers

Chris_QPW

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20409483#Comment_20409483

Here is a quick description of the different terms:

Online Bill (bill presentment) → Setup on the Bills tab → Third-party logs into biller's website and gets the bill amount and date, and in some cases the statement in PDF format. This is shown on the Bills tab. Also, this can be linked with a reminder and the reminder's amount and date will be changed by what is retrieved. Note this can be used with or without any bill payment system.

Bill Pay through Direct Connect → Basically Quicken acts like a GUI for your bank's bill payment system. When you send a payment it is your financial institution that is sending the payment.

Quicken Bill Manager bill pay, can be used with any connection method. Basically, it the same third-party service that does the Online Bill/bill presentment. Quick Pay is it trying to schedule a bill on the biller's website. So, unlike the one through your financial institution, the payments are "pulled" to the biller, opposed to "push" sent from the checking account. Check Pay is if a physical check is sent out from the third-party service.

Jim_Harman

I thought that was explained in the Help article I linked above.

Online Bills allow Quicken to automatically populate Reminders with the amount due and due date for large billers like utility companies and credit cards. It does that by using a third party service to access the billers' websites on your behalf and extract the billing information. For some billers, it will also allow you to view a PDF copy of the bill.

I tried it a few years ago and found it to be unreliable. You may have a better experience.

All comments

Jim_Harman

Online bills are one way to view and pay your bills in Quicken.

Please see this Help article

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

Other options are:

Bank bill pay, available if you have an account at a bank that supports the Direct Connect connection method with Bill Pay. This is convenient and reliable, but unfortunately many banks are phasing out this service.
Setting up your billers to pull the payment directly from a bank or credit card account
Paying via your bank's website Bill Pay service
Writing checks the old fashioned way.

With any of these other options, you can set up manual reminders for bills that are due on a regular schedule.

Some users have found Quicken's Online bill service to be unreliable.

Frank Jones

Thanks Jim. I actually already do pay my bills thru Quicken. My question is more in regard to the option that is available in the payment detail window (see attached). What is this feature used for?

Jim_Harman

Online Bill Pay is different from an Online bill. The terminology is certainly confusing.

The checkbox may indicate that Quicken can make payments by communicating directly with your bank - the Bank bill pay option I mentioned above - rather than using Quicken's Bill Manager, which works through a third party service.

What does it say when you click on the little blue question mark next to Use Online Bill Pay?

If you go to Tools > Account list and look up the account, what does it say in the Transaction Download column?

Frank Jones

"What does it say when you click on the little blue question mark next to Use Online Bill Pay?"

If I click the Use Online Bill Pay, I get an option to "Make this a repeating online payment". The help for this states this:

Jim_Harman

… and if you go to Tools > Account list and look up the account, what does it say in the Transaction Download column?

Frank Jones

Hmm… in this Account List I do not see any Payees mentioned. I only see the names of my various banking, investment, etc accounts.

Chris_QPW

You're not looking for payees. You're looking to see what the connection type is. Are you using direct connect?

A screenshot of the account details from the account that you pay your bills from would have what kind of bill pay it is near the bottom.

Chris_QPW

For account details you should be on the online services tab.

Frank Jones

Yes, my Transaction Download type is a "Direct Connect".

Jim_Harman

OK, Direct Connect means you may be able to have Quicken pay your bills directly from your bank account and not via the Bill Manager service. Some banks may charge a monthly fee for this, but it is generally more reliable than Bill Manager.

Check with your bank.

Frank Jones

Okay, thanks, but that doesn't answer my original question. What do they mean by the term "Online Bill". I can't find a description of what this specifically is and what checking that box specifically does.

Chris_QPW

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20409483#Comment_20409483

Here is a quick description of the different terms:

Bill Pay through Direct Connect → Basically Quicken acts like a GUI for your bank's bill payment system. When you send a payment it is your financial institution that is sending the payment.

Jim_Harman

I thought that was explained in the Help article I linked above.

I tried it a few years ago and found it to be unreliable. You may have a better experience.

Frank Jones

Okay, I guess I'll just ignore it then. Thank you for your help!