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Now that I'm forced to use Express Web Connect, how do I send a check to a one time biller?

JimC52

Using Direct Connect, I simply selected "Send Payment" in the check register and entered all the necessary information. That option no longer exists AFAIK because I had to "deactivate" and "reactivate" my online access to my financial institution. The only option now appears to be using Express Web Connect, but it certainly isn't INTUITive (pun intended).

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UKR

If you absolutely do not want to write or print and mail a paper check from your checkbook to this one time biller, you can set up and use the Quick Pay and Check Pay features of Quicken Bill Manager:

Quicken Bill Manager: How To Set Up Quick Pay and Check Pay | Quicken

Boatnmaniac

You didn't say who your bank is so we cannot determine if the bank still supports DC and you were migrated to EWC or EWC+ in error or if the bank actually dropped their support for DC. If you tell us who the bank is we can take a look into that for you and advise, if applicable, how you can perhaps restore DC with that bank.

If, indeed, your bank did migrate to EWC or EWC+ because they actually did drop support for DC then you have the options mentioned by @UKR or you can do one of the following:

Log into your online bank account and set up the bill payment there. For most most consumers at most banks this is a free service.
If the biller has a website where you can make payment there: Set up the payment there using your checking account or credit card account. The biller can then debit your payment account via an ACH transaction, often at no cost to you.

JimC52

The bank is First Security Bank and is based in Searcy, Arkansas. BTW - I only had to deactivate/reactivate to clear up an error in the Mobile App not recognizing or accessing the accounts.

JimC52

So I will need to create an online biller for anyone that sends me an invoice to who I would have normally had my bank send a check. And then pay Quicken a subscription fee to do what my bank does for free? How is this a winner for anyone but Quicken?

Chris_QPW

I looked up First Security Bank Arkansas, you are correct they have dropped Direct Connect.

Boatnmaniac

OK, then there is no way to be able to set up Bank Bill Pay with them in Quicken. Your options for making bill payments are as is listed above.

There is one other option that should be mentioned: Set up a checking account with a different bank that still supports DC Bank Bill Pay. See this Support Article for a list of banks that do support this. Note that the list has not been updated for 2 years so it is a little out of date but it provides a good starting point to see if there might be a bank that you would find to be acceptable.: List of banks that support Bank Bill Pay in Quicken.

Also, you might find the following Support Article link helpful regarding Quicken Bill Manager's Quick Pay and Check Pay options.: https://www.quicken.com/support/discontinuation-bank-bill-pay/ .

NotACPA

Fidelity Investments, my primary "bank", also dropped Direct Connect a while back … but if I sign into their website, using a browser NOT Q, they still have BillPay for free … which I use frequently for my bills that aren't set up for Direct Debit.

JimC52

Boatnmaniac - to make use of Quick Pay or Check Pay, don't I have to create the biller (probably as a manual bill) first? If that is required, then the list of billers gets quite a bit longer. Since I haven't hand written or printed a check in over 5 years, I've been leveraging the free check delivery service of my bank.

The only other work around I can think of now is to log into the bank website and set up a payment to a biller, then enter the same information into my check register, and finally reconcile the transaction once the bank issues the payment and posts the transaction for download.

@JimC52 ,

Quicken is a great feature-rich program which also means we need to understand that involving the 3rd party bill pay system could lead to one more thing possibly going wrong or spend time to deal with as you experienced.

Purely my personal opinion, that I rather use my bank's bill pay system which also provides the flexibility to manage my bills from anywhere in the world using a browser or mobile device. When the bank's system pays the bill and that payment transaction gets downloaded into Quicken, simply categorize it accordingly.

I have never used Quicken's bill pay or check register.

Boatnmaniac

….to make use of Quick Pay or Check Pay, don't I have to create the biller (probably as a manual bill) first? If that is required, then the list of billers gets quite a bit longer. Since I haven't hand written or printed a check in over 5 years, I've been leveraging the free check delivery service of my bank.

I have never used QBM Quick Pay or Check Pay before so I am not sure but I thing you are correct. It would be kind of similar to what you had to do when you initially set up all of the Online Payees for your previous DC Bank Bill Pay service. Depending on how many billers you have, that could be rather time consuming to set them all up, again, for QBM.

I, too, have pretty much stopped writing and mailing checks maybe 15 yrs ago. (I still write out about 3-4 checks a year so I figure it will take me about 50 yrs before I'll need to order more checks. 😏)

I use DC Bank Bill Pay with my bank but for only 2-3 payments each month.

For most of my other bills I've set up autopay in my online accounts with them for either the agreed upon repeating bill amount or for the full statement amount. So, I rarely have to get involved with my bills getting paid other than setting up the original autopay details. For most of these bills I have also set up recurring Bill Reminders and they get entered into the registers at least a few days before the payments post. Then when the posted transactions download, Quicken usually does a pretty good job of matching them to the Bill Reminder transactions that were previously entered.

The only other work around I can think of now is to log into the bank website and set up a payment to a biller, then enter the same information into my check register, and finally reconcile the transaction once the bank issues the payment and posts the transaction for download.

This is certain an option for your. Some banks will download their bill pay transactions into Quicken when the bill pays are scheduled. If yours does not do this, then, yes, you should manually enter those transactions in Quicken so when the posted transactions download Quicken will be able to match with them.

You can probably save yourself some time with this process by setting up recurring Bill Reminders for some or all of your bills. For the fixed amount bills this will work really well with little additional effort involved in entering the Bill Reminders into the checking register. Most of the effort involved will be in initially setting up the recurring Bill Reminders.

For other bills where the date and/or the amount due varies from month-to-month, you can still use recurring Bill Reminders but will just have to remember to edit those reminders each month when you will be entering the Bill Reminders into the register.

Bottom line: Each option has it's own pros and cons. No matter which way you slice and dice it you will need to make some adjustments that could be rather time consuming up front.