I hate Bank of Devils, aka BOA, but one thing I liked was their BillPay system. I have considered reopening an account w/ them just to utilize BillPay and the 6:00pm ATM deposit services. But before I have to jump into the swamp, is there any other alternative to consider?

I thought they were all pretty much the same now adays.

I was under the impression, and please correct me if I am wrong, that BOA pay times for electronic payments was quickest compared to competitors and their vendor list was largest.

You can pay whoever you want with online bill pay. Sometimes its a check sometimes its an ACH. I'm not sure about the vendor lists though. But I've never had a problem with payments.

I've used...

NetBank
Peoples bank
Fleet Bank
Wachovia
USAA (using currently payments show up on vendor side before being taken out of account)
Commerce bank
ING

There might be more. I'm not sure.

I am pretty happy with US BANK .. less so with WAMU...........

seems WAMU cuts a LOT of checks and not much EFT ...


~ cactus

BoAs billpay is hands down the best

unfortunately

I agree with Tee - BofA is really the best with BillPay, but I'd say Chase is a very close second. I don't like their interface as well, but it is still very good.

Ive used CHASE, it was good but you had to pay a monthly fee

My CU has the best bill pay thats 100% free......

They mail checks and also electronic transfer to many.....

But 100% free.......

Tee and Tx, unfortunately, I figured this was the case.

I was considering to pay for Quicken's service, but it just seems like a waste of money and I didn't find much information in regards to the transfer times via Google for them.

I guess I will go back and reopen. I probably should have never closed them and instead kept $1 in each account. I hate to even think I have to deal w/ them agai. However, their vendor list for EFT is one of the largest I believe and that is what most important for me right now.

USAA

Actually my favorite bill pay is PNC bank. I do not use any other bill pay besides this. I bank with every big bank except Chase. My least favorite bill pay would be TD north.

I like Commerce Bank's bill pay, but that depends on geography...

I've never paid a fee for Chase's bill pay. Ever.

I hate bofa also, and have been trying alternatives to the billpay so i could leave them

right now i'm trying usaa. if it's as good, i'll say screw bofa

USAA is great. They only pay two of my bills by check. One is to a family member and the other is to merrick so I just pay that one on their website.

I recently opened a B of A account when we moved to NC. Prior to that, I banked with Charter One.

LOVE the billpay features with BoA. Love the fact that the website is pretty much real time so I don't have to balance my checkbook. Charter One's website, when it was actually working, was a joke.

I've only had one minor blip so far. My husband's car insurance is with Allstate- who I was surprised to see wasn't set up to take EFT payments from BoA. Set up his monthly premium to come out on the 29th and they mailed a check on the 26th. On the 28th the check cleared

Thankfully, I had money in the account but I'm curious how they would have handled that if there wasn't. Had I been charged a fee I would have moved on to the credit union I could join through work.

Hmm...I can't fairly compare but isn't BofA's done thru Checkfree? If so, there are many banks who also use checkfree for their billpay service. I use Wachovia and am very happy with their service (thru checkfree).

BofA Bill Pay also has a line or small blurb letting you know while you are setting up Payees if they can get NEXT day payment or not.
So you could hold your funds until the day before and still pay.
Just depends on your preference.

I forgot about checkfree. I can't remember whether or not USAA uses them or not but I think they might.

USAA is on their list of banks using checkfree.

http://www.checkfreecorp.com/cda/corp/spon...Id=0&type=1

I pretty much keep just enough cash in my BofA account to pay bills via BillPay. The interface is clean, understandable, and some payments arrive quicker than my USAA service.

I do wish another bank would offer the exact same BillPay...interface and all.


*disclaimer* BofA's outstanding BillPay product in no way diminishes my loathing of the company in general.

The only reason I ever opened a BofA account is a) they gave me $100 to do it and I'm going to Europe this year and wanted to take advantage of their agreements with Barclay's bank in UK and BNP Paribas in Paris for fee free ATM withdrawals.

Otherwise I am perfectly happy with Wachovia.

Bank of America is on the list of banks that use checkfree.

I use Wachovia

I am an avid BofA billpay user. I pay <zero> bills by mail. Everything goes through billpay, even the one-time payments of incidental bills I receive in the mail. (I also get all my recurring bills as e-bills).
I noticed, too, that some paper cut checks say they have a delivery time of 4 days, but sometimes arrive at the payee on the 3rd day. However, I have never noticed BofA taking out the money on the 3rd. They have always taken out the money on the date the Billpay interface told me they would (the 4th).

I have BoA and USAA. I find the interfaces to be pretty much the same. USAA pays out slower in most.

From Chase's website:

Free Online Bill Payment excludes Chase Basic CheckingSM, Chase Balance CheckingSM, Chase Checking with InterestSM, and Chase Budget CheckingSM, which will be charged $4.95 per month for Online Bill Payment services.

Well I guess that explains it because I have "Chase Free Checking" ... no fees.

Thinking, I probably shoud haved used "... as efficient" rather than "...extensive" in the thread title.

Anyhow, unforunately, I have had made the decision to reopen my accounts with BOA. The majority of the choice was the billpay options, as I can pay both personal and commerical accounts with them (from the respective depository accounts). The fact that I can get decent rates on the Money Market through an affinity group made the decision somewhat less painstaking.

I have decided to keep just enough funds in non-interest earning accounts to keep them in good standing. I'll likely maintain just the minimum plus monthly bill expenses in the MM, unless the rates are more competitive.

Note *Wach-O-via Customers* Get $10 when you pay two bills by Aug 31 (first time bill-pay users only)

I've found that the only online bill payment systems comparable to B of A's are ones that use the "standard" CheckFree interface (if anyone knows what that is). I've had two credit unions that use it, and I know Wachovia and some other banks do as well. The interface is a bit more awkward, but it has reminders, the most e-bills (Wells Fargo uses CheckFree but has less e-bills available than the others for some reason), and next-day payments set by Payment Date (not sending date).

If you want an example, check out the Redwood Credit Union's bill pay demo, at http://www.redwoodcu.org/.

Having used both, Wachovia's Bill Pay is inferior to BofA's in most respects and really lacks the same sort of functionality.

I have both BofA and USbank, checking accouts and use both of the Bill Pay services. I use Ebill's with both whenever possible. Both do a great job.

I like USbank's much better than BofA's. I'm surprised more people aren't mentioning USbank, I really like them.

My favorite bank item is National City's year end Credit card summary. I learned alot about my spending habits when I got that at the end of the year, their classifications were fantastic!

-NineCount

When did you last use Wachovia's? Over the last year they made major changes (at least in my market) and it is much better now. I think I saw changes back in April or May.

Most bank use checkfree but many larger ones design their own user interface. Many smaller CU use the standard checkfree interface (Redwood CU, Addison Ave - i have accounts with both). It is a little clumsy but it's functionality is actually better than many systems from larger banks. For example Wells Fargo's billpay i consider rather inferior: For many billpayers you need to put in the zip in addition to the account # and it does not have the functionality to pay based on phone #. I do agree that BofA's billpay is the best, atl least of the ones that I came across.

FWIW I found US Banks interface really clumsy and that was one reason we closed that checking account and opened a CU account as well.

Citizens Bank's billpay is really good, I think.

For some reason, they still have to cut a paper check to push a payment to Associated Bank. I think the "problem" is on AB's side.

I found PNC to be MUCH better than BOA. I scheduled a payment on Monday to bill pay and it told me the nearest date it could do it was that Thursday

PNC Checking, the next business day. No Fee. Matter of fact, they had a promotion where they were giving out 15 dollars for you to use the online BillPay

USAA has been awesome for me.

I use my CU, which seems to use a generic Checkfree provided by a company called PSCUFS.com to pay a couple of bills, but mostly I just use FIA BillPay Choice, which is equally fast, but will allow me to pay many bills with my CC as a source.

+1. I love USAA bill pay.

I agree, I have Charter One and I love their bill pay system! I used National Sh**y's before and all they did was cut checks and mail them.