Bill Pay Tips and Tricks

Signing Up and Adding Payees

To sign up for Bill-Pay, you will click on the Bill-Pay button within your online banking screen. This will prompt you to go through another registration process, which is necessary for our bill payment vendor, Metavante. The information required will be about the same as when you signed up for Internet Banking.

The payments you set up can be one-time or multiple. You may even pay a local person or business as long as you know the receiver’s mailing address. Metavante pays bills both by check and electronically. Which way just depends on the amount of activity. (i.e. A payment going to CitiBank for your credit card payment will be paid automatically since this is a highly used business; a payment going to Traveling Computers will be paid by check since that is not a company used across the country. A lot of the bills you will pay using Bill-Pay will probably be paid by check.)

When wanting to add a new payee (a bill collector), click ‘Add New Payee’. Then always check the payee in the database (where all popular payees are listed, i.e. CitiBank). If the payee is EXACTLY the same in the database as on your paper bill, select that payee (click ‘Select Payee’), and Metavante will credit that business electronically. If the payee is not listed in the database or the payee’s information is not identical to what you have on your paper bill, click ‘Add Payee Manually’ and enter the payee’s name, phone number and mailing information, a ‘nickname’ for the payee (see next paragraph), and your account number with the payee.

The Nickname for a payee will be what you read the payee as when you log into the Bill-Pay screen. It can be the same name as the company (i.e. a payment to AT&T may have the same name for a nickname), or it can be something simple for you to remember (i.e. a payment to Jane Doe may be nicknamed ‘Babysitter’). You are the only one who will see the nickname. Metavante will send payment to the payee as whatever you put in the Name space when you select a payee or create one.

Checks mailed from Metavante will have your name and address information in the top left corner as if the check is from you; however, the check will also list Metavante top-center of the check.

If the payment is going to be a recurring payment, once the payee’s information is entered, you must select ‘Recurring Date’ and fill out the next area Bill-Pay takes you to. For both recurring and single payments, you must fill in the $ amount and always click the ‘Schedule Payment’ button at the bottom of the payee list.

Payment Scheduling

When you enter a payment to be made, it will show whether the payment will be made automatically or by check. You then need to know when the bill is due. For instance, you receive a bill in the mail that says your payment is due 5/17/06. You set the payee up on Bill-Pay and notice Metavante will be sending this company a check for payment. You need to schedule this payment to be processed on or before 5/10/06, FIVE BUSINESS DAYS (remember to not count Holiday’s as business days) before the payment is due. Also, you must be sure the funds will be available by 5/10/06. Metavante doesn’t always withdraw the funds the day you wish a bill to be processed, but they do have that right.

Now, let’s say you set up a payee and notice Metavante will be sending the company their money electronically. You need to schedule this payment to be processed on or before 5/12/06, THREE BUSINESS DAYS before the payment is due. Once again, you must be sure you have available funds in your account by 5/12/06.

So remember, if the bill is:
Payed by Check – Process the payment 5 business days before the due date.
Payed Electronically – Process the payment 3 business days before the due date.

You may change the dollar amount of any recurring payment you have set up as long as you change it before it’s processing date. (For example, you have a recurring payment set up to pay your electric bill. You set it up to be processed every month on the 6th of every month (that way your always at least 5 business days before your payment is due). This month’s payment was $35.90, but next month’s payment is $47.68. All you have to do (before the 6th of the next month) is go into your Payee’s button inside Bill-Pay, select that bill-collector, and change the $ amount of the payment. It will then be changed to that dollar amount until you change it again.)