Windows 11 Pro
Quicken Build 27.1.68.28
Since you want DC Bank Bill Pay, then disregard anything and everything regarding Quicken Bill Manager's Quick Pay and Check Pay. They are 2 totally separate bill payment features.
DC Bank Bill Pay is the superior one of the two in part because you are sending the bill payment command directly to the bank. Quicken never charges you any fee for using this feature. Some banks will charge a monthly fee for using it but most do not…and PNC does not charge consumer accounts anything for DC Bank Bill Pay.
Quicken Bill Manager is a 3rd party payment service so scheduling bill payments is done via the 3rd party provider who then interfaces with the bank to get the payment processed. Depending on your subscription plan there might be some fees charged to you by Quicken for it.
Since you have your PNC Bank checking account set up with Direct Connect (using the PNC Bank - Direct Connect financial institution) you can get Bank Bill Pay for free. But you do need to take some steps to get it set up and functional.
Once Bank Bill Pay is enabled, you will need to set up the Online Payees that you want to send payments to. To do this, go to Tools > Online Payee List > select PNC Bank - Direct Connect from the financial institution drop-down menu > click on New > fill out the fields in the resulting popup.
The next time you run OSU, the Online Payee information will be sent to PNC Bank. NOTE: You will not see this Online Payee in your online PNC Bank account (I always disliked that).
Before or after when the Online Payee is sent to PNC, you can set up a Bank Bill Pay payment. You can do this by going to Tools > Online Center > click on the Payments tab > fill out the fields > click on Update/Send. This will start Update Now which will send the bill pay command transaction to PNC.
Or you can enter the transaction directly into the account register as a new manual transaction and then enter Send into the Check # field followed by OSU or Update Now. The payment command will then be transmitted to PNC.
PNC will acknowledge receipt and scheduling of the Bill Pay command by entering a lightning bolt into the Check # field. I can't remember if they also enter the check number there at this point or if the check number will be downloaded once the bill payment has been posted by PNC. NOTE: You will not see this transaction in your online PNC account until after the payment has posted at PNC (another thing I've disliked).
A few final comments:
Let me know if you have any questions.
#2 Your data is never on an aggregation server. Direct Connect is a connection between your computer and the financial institution. There are no third parties collecting and storing your data for later download by you and your computer.
NOTE: If you use QMobile or QWeb, you will have transactional data in the Quicken Cloud, but that has nothing to do with DC putting it there.
Thanks so much for the help. Can you enlighten me regarding my first question, i.e., do I need to be looking for something other than Quick Pay to use the bill pay feature of a Direct Connect account?
Wow!! So much useful and good information! Thanks so much!
You're welcome.
OK, I followed your instructions, and this is the online services page I get:
There is no Direct Connection line in the Payment Method table. The Online Setup section indicates Direct Connect with Express Web Connect+ as the connection method, which is confusing. I even deactivated/reactivated the account in Quicken. I had to enter my SS# and set up a new PIN when reactivating, which is consistent with Direct Connect. After I first set up DC, I even got two snail mail letters from PNC. One had my customer ID - it has not been requested by PNC or Quicken. The second had a four digit PIN, which I changed when setting up DC in Quicken. The point being I can't figure out what I have done wrong. Every reaction from PNC and, except for this screenshot, Quicken is consistent with setting up DC. Any thoughts? Do I need to disconnect Quicken Bill Manager? I tried but was denied because some payments are pending. Maybe I have to wait until all payments have cleared the system and try again.
Ah, I haven't seen that happen in a while.
In the line directly below the Account Name above and toward the left in the Account Register: What exactly does it say?
Go to Tools > Password Vault > Add or Edit Passwords > scroll to PNC - Direct Connect: In the PW Stored column does it say "Yes" or does it say "Not required"?
Are you using the Quicken Mobile or Quicken Web companion apps?
Answer these questions and I'll try to guide you through the steps that will should help to resolve this need to be taken to resolve this issue.
@wrnoof You may not be doing anything wrong. Just because a financial institution supports Direct Connect (DC) does not mean that they support bill pay thru it.
My CU used to support DC, but I couldn't initiate a payment from Q into their bill pay system, that requires an added feature that they evidently weren't willing to pay for. Sadly, they dropped DC also a couple of years ago.
@splasher - PNC does support DC Bank Bill Pay. I have used it for years until just the last couple of months when I've been changing banks because we moved to a state where PNC does not have a local brick & mortar presence (which we want).
The issues that @wrnoof described are not unheard of with regard to PNC. The questions I asked will help me to determine which resolution approach they should initially take.
The question was not clear to me. Here's the view from the PNC website register:
And here's the view from the Quicken register:
They don't say anything in the line below the account name.
The password vault entry for PNC - Direct Connect says "Not Required" opposite my social security number.
I am not using Quicken Mobile or Web companion apps.
Thanks for you guidance.
The first question I asked was "In the line directly below the Account Name above and toward the left in the Account Register: What exactly does it say?" It was in reference to what is shown in Quicken, not at PNC. This is a picture of what type of information you should see (highlighted in yellow):
The 2nd picture you posted for "Bob's" (I'm assuming that is the name of the account) shows nothing below "Bob's". This is a good indication that your runtime.dat file is corrupted and needs to be replaced…more on this later.
In the Password Vault "Not required" is what should be shown only for EWC and EWC+ connections, never for DC connections. This confirms that Quicken is "confused" by the Online Services tab that you posted earlier showing PNC Bank - Direct Connect as the Financial Institution but the connection method shows Express Web Connect+. The only fix I know of for this is to replace the Password Vault…more on this later.
Why is all this happening to you? IMO this is both a Quicken and a PNC issue.:
During setup of PNC Bank - Direct Connect we are prompted to enter our SS#. That is the correct prompt for people whose PNC accounts were set up directly with PNC. But entering our SS# when our PNC accounts were set up through a bank merger process (like you just went through with FirstBank and I had done a few years ago with BBVA) is the wrong thing to do. It will cause the connection to be an EWC+ connection instead of DC.
On top of this the first time you try to set up DC with PNC you are prompted to create a new PW. That's fine for accounts that were originally set up with PNC. But with acquisition merger accounts, it actually causes an issue in PNC's system that can only be resolved by contacting PNC Tech Support who will need to reset their system back to the original ID and PW that they sent you….more on this later.
So, yes, when you entered your SS# and changed the PIN instead of entering the ID and PIN that PNC originally sent you, it resulted in these issues. But it is not your fault. Quicken and PNC have not fixed the DC setup process to accommodate acquisition mergers (and, yes, they have been requested to do this multiple times).
So, now comes that part about how to get this fixed. How long ago did you try setting up DC with PNC? And do you have a backup file dated from just before that?
For other users who have experienced this issue, following these preceding steps allowed them to get a successful DC setup completed. You will know if it was successful for you because the Online Services tab will look similar to this picture and you can then enable DC Bank Bill Pay.:
For others this process did not work. Let me know if it did not work for you. I can then take you down the next troubleshooting process.
Thank you for putting so much into this. It'll take some time before I can find time to get to this. Stay tuned.
Got this done. Thanks so much. An observation or two:
All is well. Thanks.
Glad to hear that you got DC set up now. I was surprised that your changing the PIN worked for you and did not prevent a good DC connection set up because in the past changing the PIN would invariably cause the setup process to fail. So it seems like Quicken/Intuit/PNC finally got that long-term issue resolved.
Were you able to enable Bank Bill Pay on the Online Services tab of Account Details?
Bank Bill Pay was enabled during the set up. I didn't need to activate it. Thanks for the help.
