Microsoft Money is not some phony currency like Monopoly money but a rather sophisticated piece of software that has done a decent job of keeping track of our family finances for the past 10 or 12 years. For banks that bought into their system they also provided one of the earliest and most reliable online payment systems. Large payees would get electronic transfers while small payees such as individuals would get actual checks. Now that many companies are setting up their own bill paying systems over the Internet, there are indications that Microsoft Money may be changing.
Trying to get ahead of the curve and automate my bill paying as much as possible, I have attempted over the past 3 months to sign up for automated bill paying with every creditor we routinely pay or at least those who have that as a payment option.
It has been an interesting exercise as some companies want to tie that in with paperless billing while others don't care. Some will accept only bank transfers while others prefer credit cards and others accept only credit cards. Most, recognizing their savings in automated processing, accept autopay with no extra charge while others, notably government entities, want to charge a "convenience fee". And there are still holdouts who haven't figured out Internet transactions yet.
My biggest frustration to date has been with our home lender Wells Fargo. Setting up the automatic payment was fairly simple and straightforward. But once I had set it up there was no indication in my online file that I had done so, no indication of the amount or date of proposed payment. In fact, other than waiting for the payment to be taken out of my bank account, the only way I could tell I had an automatic payment was to try to make a non-automatic payment online. That created a message like "You are already enrolled for periodic payment. If you wish to stop or change this, please call customer service or use our encrypted email system."
On the first of this month I received an automated notice from Wells Fargo telling me my mortgage payment was due. In fact, I received three such notices on the 1st and another one the next day. When the notice of payment hadn't come through by the 4th, I used their "encrypted" email system to ask what was happening. I'm pathologically anxious about paying bills late especially mortgage payments even though our mortgage says that late charges don't apply until the 15th. Finally, on the 5th I received the email message that payment had been posted. Is this going to be worth it?
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