In 2006, Chase Bank's service has passed them by but I still use them....a little
Written: Apr 13 '06 (Updated Feb 13 '07)
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Pros: For some vendors, they can obtain the bill, notify you, and pay within a day
Cons: For others, they can't obtain the bills. For those vendors, you need an alternative.
The Bottom Line: Use them for the vendors they have and use another bill pay service, from a bank, for example, for the rest.
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| Saxguy's Full Review: CheckFree |
MyCheckfree.com is a service where they pay bills electronically on your behalf.
It's very simple, really. You register at the site, providing your banking information. They guarantee security using SSL. You then select a payee from their list of hundreds. Once you enter the account number information, they handle the registration with the biller.
Then, when a bill arrives, they email the notice. Using myself as an example, I log in to the service. I select the bill, enter the amount to be paid, they date to be paid and it gets done. Usually, payments post to the vendor within a day of being sent, and the guaranteed payment day is shown when you set up the payment. The amount is charged to my bank account, with a description of the transaction. They guarantee payments will be received by the vendor on time.
They have the ability to file for you a bill instead (choose not to pay, usually if paid elsewhere) and to display past history.
My experience with them is that their dates and payments are dependable.
Good points of the service
Capturing the bills is what's most important to me. I have a lot of bills and some weren't getting paid once in a while because I would forget about them. This is why I selected bill payment services several years ago, and Mycheckfree in particular. They have done a great job with capturing and paying bills.
When I was first dealing with services 5 or 6 years ago, I used Paytrust and nearly had my gas turned off because Paytrust changed their address for receiving vendor bills by mail. Even then, Mycheckfree was able to obtain the bills electronically for the vendors they have.
Reliable and fast payments Over the past few years, the time for a payment to arrive has decline to 1 day for the vendors on the service I use.
It's free, and not only that, the amount of saved postage can add up.
That having been said, I'm not using them much, and, while I plan to keep using them, I don't intend to use them for much more than what I'm doing.
What I dislike about the service
Chase, my current banker, has a great, free bill pay service That's really the biggest reason. Sure, Chase's float period is 2 (a few) to 5 days on non-Chase payees, but they will let me pay any vendor with a US address. They have very solid capabilities (actually BETTER than Bank One, who they acquired) for recurring payments and, like bill payment for many banks, it's free.
More vendors are allowing automatic payment I'm now doing it with all my utilities. I'm going to pay them anyway, and it's much easier. So, I really don't need notification on most vendors.
MyCheckFree has relatively few vendors The one vendor I could use notification on is US Cellular, my cell phone vendor. It's not an available vendor. A US Cellular person told me that they considered Mycheckfree, but the discount(processing) fee was too much.
They do have Citibank, so I'm paying my 5% rebate card through them. I still have my NICOR (natural gas) bill visible, even though I am paying that through direct charge to my Chase account.
Lastly, and it's minor,
the payment defaults to the minimum Maybe that's not a problem for people making minimum credit card payments, but I pay my credit card bills in full every month. If you cannot, then you should rethink your spending practices. Once in a while, in a hurry, I've set up the minimum payment, instead of the full payment I want. I've caught it, and now I'm wise to it, but it's a minor annoyance.
So, on balance, they are what they are. They do a good job of reporting bills, and they pay them quickly and reliably. The problem is, they don't have enough vendors to be a one-stop bill payment source. You should check with your bank to see if their bill payment service meets your needs. Use Mycheckfree.com for those vendors they have whose bills change, and your main payment service for the rest.
Thanks for reading. God bless!
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Recommended:
Yes
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