Bill Pay confuses me

[Purple*Lotus]

I have been holding for a live chat representative forever now. So I thought maybe someone here could answer my question faster

I finally signed up for Bill Pay at my bank. It was free, so I thought, why not try it? I had put in for a check to be printed and mailed to my landlord today, since he can not accept electronic payments. However, it shows the check coming out right now, but how can that be? It is in the mail? What happens when he takes it to his bank if it is already showing as coming out of the account? I am totally lost. Can anyone explain?

[dogmom327]

Bill pay deducts the money from your account when the check is mailed (to keep it from bouncing). The money won't be deducted a second time when he cashes it. I've used bill pay for years and it always works that way. The only time it's a pain is when the landlord loses the check because then you have to stop payment and wait for the money to be redeposited (usually takes 24 hours).

[Purple*Lotus]

Okay, thank you! I was worried for a minute. I like it better this way because it takes him forever and a day to deposit our checks. At least this way the money is out

[Ironica]

It didn't *always* work that way with our bank. ;-) When we first signed up for Bill Pay, they didn't take out the money until the check was cashed. But... you'd put in a payment to be made on Date X, and they'd calculate when they should mail it for it to get there on that date. They'd err on the side of caution, of course, and the check would get there early. And then, even though Date X was on the check, if it was presented for deposit on Date W (which is before Date X), they'd cash it, and take the money out of your account (and charge you oodles of fees if you didn't have it all there yet).

So this way works much better, since you can't issue the check until the money's in your account. (Well, actually, you CAN with our bank... and they'll charge you oodles of fees of course.

[tryingforbaby]

What alot of banks do is send out a check but it is not actuly from your account. They 1st deduct the amount. 2nd a paper check from the bank is written. It will refrence you and it often comes preferated much like a paycheck. To see for sure send a check to yourself. Maybe your budgeted fun money. So what I have learned it that it normally comes out of your account very early. Like if you set up to pay rent on the first of every month it will actully go out of your account about 7 days eariler. Some bank make a gaurantee of on time payments. So if I was paying rent I would budget for it the paycheck before it is due.

[notjustmamie]

Originally Posted by Ironica

So this way works much better, since you can't issue the check until the money's in your account. (Well, actually, you CAN with our bank... and they'll charge you oodles of fees of course.

Actually, I recently moved from a bank that did it the first way to a bank that does it the second and I can't stand the new system! With the old bank, I could set up checks to be sent out at any time and by the time the money was in the account, the check got there.

We have two different bills each month that I now have to write a paper check for because they are due too soon after our paycheck is deposited to use bill pay. :

[Ironica]

Originally Posted by notjustmamie

Actually, I recently moved from a bank that did it the first way to a bank that does it the second and I can't stand the new system! With the old bank, I could set up checks to be sent out at any time and by the time the money was in the account, the check got there.

We have two different bills each month that I now have to write a paper check for because they are due too soon after our paycheck is deposited to use bill pay. :

Oh, we still have total control over when the checks get sent. But the date we set in the bill pay interface is the date they will be mailed and deducted from our account, so for example, if our mortgage is due on the 15th, we'd set it up for the 5th (to make darned sure it gets there before the due date).