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PNC Bank Bill pay dates

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buffo

12 Aug, 2015 01:02 PM

Hi

I have a question about how PNC Bank uses dates to schedule payments. On Thursday afternoon (Aug 6th) I used MD to pay my electric bill on Aug 11th. I got a message that the earliest date I could use was Aug 12th. I knew my electric bill has always been paid using ACH and not using a check. I'm fairly new to MD and the background bill pay feature, but I questioned why I could make this payment sooner. A call to PNC yielded nothing but frustation. They insisted that it was "Quicken" (I had to pretend that I was using Quicken) that was needing a 4 day delay. Since scheduling the payment for Aug 12th I have been monitoring the progress of the payment. When I logged into my online banking on Aug 12 (today), I see the payment in a "Pending" status.

I DO have the "Observe Online Bill Payment date restrictions" check box CHECKED. If I uncheck this I guess I could have selected a early pay date. Correct? If so, why wouldn't I leave this unchecked? I did so a discussion that a problem coudl occur that I could accidentally schedule a payment on a non-business day. If so, would MD tell me this or would PNC return an error?

Thanks
John

1. 1 Posted by Scott Meehan on 12 Aug, 2015 05:11 PM

   

   Hi John,

   Bill Pay often has a number of restrictions and limitations on an financial institution's server, so it sounds like that's what you're running into. If they require at least 4 business days to process a payment, then submitting the payment to be paid earlier than that won't have any effect, except possibly an error (or, worse, sometimes not). This process should, theoretically, be standardized across financial institutions, however in reality it's not and some financial institutions allow a payment to be scheduled for a day where they knowingly don't process transactions, thereby silently failing. In general, I'd recommend leaving the "Observe Online Bill Payment date restrictions" option checked.

   I would recommend in the future, giving more leeway time when scheduling transactions to be paid through their bill pay service. As for the current transaction, it's early in the day so they may process it later in the day. Once Moneydance submits the payment request, it's basically in the hands of the financial institution to finish the process.

   Scott Meehan
   Infinite Kind Support

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2. 2 Posted by buffo on 12 Aug, 2015 11:34 PM

   

   Hi Scott

   I might try unchecking the option right before I make my next online payment and then double check to see (and calling PNC to check) when the payment is to be processed.

   I know that when I was using PNC's web site to pay bills there wasn't this 4 day restriction.

   Thanks for your help,
   John

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3. 3 Posted by Scott Meehan on 13 Aug, 2015 01:42 PM

   

   Hi John,

   We're happy to help! Please let us know if we can be of further assistance!

   Scott Meehan
   Infinite Kind Support

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4. Scott Meehan closed this discussion on 13 Aug, 2015 01:42 PM.