Apparently Electricity Ain't So Fast....

Bill VA

Well-known Member
We've been giving online bill pay a try - all good so far, much easier than writing a check and mailing it.

But....

It's interesting (and a bit disturbing) that we'll pay a bill, after midnight that day the money is drawn out of our account and the balance reduced, however, the online statement says "pending" and a few days later "posted". Makes me think the bank is taking out our money from the account, holding it in theirs (which probably makes them some interest money) and making the payment when it suits them.

Bill
 
It happens with Non-Interest accounts also. Not only does it happen when you make a payment but it happens also when you receive money by direct deposit or more so with a money transfer such as paypal.
 
My electric co is same way, by far the slowest transactions indeed are the payments to them.
 
The funny part is the electrons seem to move faster always in one direction than the other....... Wonder how that can be eh?

Paul
 
At least it isn't like that screwy system paypal came up with. They suddenly started waiting two weeks to charge my account when I made a purchase. The idea was they would wait two weeks until the item was delivered before I had to pay. It just created a bookkeeping nightmare having all these outstanding charges on my account. Since they have the worst customer service in the world it took me about six weeks to get them to turn it off and charge immediately like they used to.
 
Are you paying through your elect company or on line banking. I filled out the forms at my local elect company and they withdraw the money each month like clock work. Did the same thing with the water company and my phone/internet bill. i also filled out the paper work at my bank and they auto pay my visa bill. I didn't go through the internet. i went directly through them. Some times on the internet when people do things like that your actually going through a 3rd party. don't know if that's your case or not. the motel business is really bad about that. Companys don't want to hire the extra people to take care of the phone calls so they hire these firms to do it for them pay them a small fee. It is confusing some times when you read the internet that some times when you look at at some thing and it look real but is actually some one else.
 
I do not use the bill pay that my bank provides. Instead, I go to each creditor and pay online at my convenience (and sometimes out of necessity) at certain times of the month. It's interesting how some post almost immediately, and some take as long as 5 or 6 days. It's the same as going to the grocery store where they have you give them a check, only to have them give it back to you. My mother is still irritated about that. She is 89 years old and thinks everything should still be done on paper.

Anyway, you go home and the amount is already out of the bank account. Where I work we take credit and debit and checks, but no electronic transfer on the checks. There is a "dump" during the night where all the transactions go into our account. However, the person using the debit card sees it drained out right then.

I do believe there is a little time lag built in here and there where interest money piles up in little increments for someone along the way. Nothing is free.
 
No, All I ever click is confirm and pay. They didn't ask me if I wanted this service, they just applied it to my account without notifying me. It wasn't just one purchase, there was a half dozen before I discovered it.
 
There are only two bills I pay by snail mail, our house payment and one credit card.

The home mortgage people see fit to charge a $12 fee for online payments, and that credit card's website is a nightmare.

I've never noticed a problem with online payments.
 
Float is the name for it. They do not all do it but it is common. I believe it should be illegal. We had a class action in California against a nationally recognized bank for float. We won, but not radical amounts each. Nasty practice. Go after them if you can. Jim
 
My wife does all her bill pay online through our bank. The bigger companies get electronic transfers (utilities, etc), the smaller ones are paid by check mailed to them by our bank. This is no hassle, no extra fee. Works great.

She was going to use the utilities online payment system for a second house we own until she found out there was a service charge for it ($3 IIRC).

Occasionally, a payment will not be made (lost check, whatever) and we'll get a bill with a "past due" amount and a late fee. One call to the bank and they take care of it with the company: no late fee, no hit to our credit report.

In fact, one of our daughters pays us back a loan this way. She does all HER banking online. It's kind of weird when she was standing in our kitchen and I opened a letter with a check from her bank in Virginia. She was interested to see what it looked like. :lol:
 
I pay everything except our sup.health ins. with check,that way I can see what mistakes have been made and I have found some with the phone co.trying to overcharge.
 
Our small store has a POS system that batches all credit card sales every night to the merchant service, customers accounts are charged immediately, money doesn't show up in our account for 5 days!!!
 
I can go to walmart,cash a check instantly and they hand me back the cancelled check. The bank however takes up to two weeks to clear a check.
 

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