danj1@ihlpz.att.com (Daniel Jacobson) (02/18/91)
On 18 Feb 91 04:57:16 GMT, danj1@ihlpz.att.com (Daniel Jacobson) said: Dan> Here in Illinois Bell territory I can charge it with my major credit Dan> card. On my monthly call I pester my Illinois Bell representative Dan> about somehow making this automatic. PAT> can pay many of your bills by phone each month with a single phone PAT> call to 'BILL' as I do. They are in Arlington Heights, IL, and tied in PAT> with all the banks to do automatic debits, etc. PAT] Yeah but, being a person so stingy as to not order touch tone, I am bracing myself for the shock when you will hopefully reveal the costs of this service below. Dan_Jacobson@ATT.COM Naperville IL USA +1 708-979-6364 [Moderator's Note: I think they charge $10 per merchant/year. There is no transaction fee, or if there is, the merchants pay it. You can set up automatic payments each month if you want, but I just call once a month and pay several merchants. The transfer is done the same day. I've found I can wait until a day past the cutoff date for IBT and still get the payment in on time via BILL. In addition to telco, I pay Edison (electric), People's Gas, the Chicago Water Works, Ameritech Mobile and Cellular One, Centel Voicemail and others. It takes me five minutes to flip through my bills and punch the buttons on the phone. They all have the payment credited on my account the next business day provided I input the transaction by 2:00 AM. The payments go direct to the merchant's computer with a corresponding debit to my bank account. You select and change your own password at will. Other features include a way to review past payments, review the directory of merchants and add/delete automatic payments, etc. I've used BILL for about three years now, and there has never been an error. PAT]
johns@scroff.uk (John Slater) (02/20/91)
The National Westminster Bank here in the UK has a similar service. It's called Actionline. Here's how it works: There are several access numbers throughout the UK, so it's a local call for maybe half of the population. Voice prompts guide the customer through the process, but experienced users can interrupt these. I dial in my account number and PIN (not user-selectable, but 5 digits rather than the usual 4), and then select the options which are printed on the flimsy plastic card they gave me to carry around in my wallet : List of services : 01 for bill payments 02 for inter-account transfers (to and from savings, and the like) 03 for a mini statement (audio - last 5 transactions) 04 to order a statement (printed, by mail) 05 to order a cheque book 06 to order a paying-in book 07 for balance(s) (savings accounts as well as checking) 00 to end call On the reverse of the card are my personal two-digit codes for bill payments and transfers which I have set up (I get a supply of forms to do this). I have arranged for all my regular bills to be paid this way, including utilities and credit cards. Payment can be initiated immediately or up to one month in advance. This is very useful, particularly for credit card bills which I delay as long as possible to get the maximum interest-free period. I arrange the payment as soon as I get the bill, ensuring I don't forget to do it later. The system works either from a touch-tone phone or by voice recognition. They recommend the touch-tone method, and I normally use that. Out of curiosity I just tried the voice method, and it works very well indeed. It recognises digits 0-9 (including both "oh" and "zero"), and the words "yes", "no" and "stop" (to terminate a monetary amount). I get confirmation by mail of each transaction. I've been using it happily for about a year and like you, Pat, I've never had to deal with an error. The best thing about it is the cost. It started out at #3.50/quarter, but after six months they dropped the charge and it's now free. They even give out a free pocket touch-tone bleeper when you start the service, and I use this for my answering machine as well as the banking service. Disclaimer : I have no connection with NatWest other than as a satisfied customer. John Slater Sun Microsystems UK, Gatwick Office
johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) (02/21/91)
In article <telecom11.138.4@eecs.nwu.edu> is written: > The National Westminster Bank here in the UK has a similar service. > It's called Actionline. Nat West has two subsidiaries in the U.S.: NatWest USA and NatWest New Jersey. (It takes a special kind of person to live in New Jersey.) I have an account at NatWest NJ which also has telephone payments, which I use for all regular payments related to my beach cottage in New Jersey. It's a great deal, you can pay anyone you want for 20 cents/payment, far less than the 29 cents it would otherwise cost for a stamp, and payments to a NatWest credit card account are free. You tell them who your payees are, what account number should go with the payment, and a three digit number you use when making the payment. To pay someone, you call up, enter a long account number unrelated to your bank account number, and then enter payee codes, amounts, and optionally the date to pay. There are also the usual other services such as balance inquiry, recent cleared checks inquiry, and transfers from one account to another. You can have multiple checking and savings accounts tied to the same phone payment account; it's quite flexible. This service actually dates from long before NatWest bought the bank, but I'm glad that NatWest had the sense to keep it. If I didn't live in Massachusetts eleven months of the year, I'd use it for all my bills. There used to be a few banks here in Massachusetts that offered pay by phone, but it never caught on here for some reason. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl
GREEN@wilma.wharton.upenn.edu (Scott D. Green) (02/22/91)
It's generally not in my nature to praise banking institutions for their service and value, but Mellon Bank's Bank-by-Phone product seems to be a leader, at least in comparison to other reports recently. First, participation is not limited to a select group of merchants; any merchant or individual that the customer designates can be set up with a Merchant Number for your use. One may designate automatic payments to be made to certain merchants (ie mortgage, loans, cable) while the rest can be on demand. The whole thing, of course, works through your touchtone phone. They assign your sixteen-digit account number, you pick your four-digit PIN. You may pay a merchant "immediately" (next business day), or designate a date up to thirty days in the future to pay a bill, allowing you to deal with all your bills in one session. In addition, you may transfer among accounts, check balances, check whether personal checks have cleared, issue stop payments on personal checks, and reach a live person, 8AM-midnite weekdays, and (I think) until 8PM weekends and holidays. The best part (aside from it being *free* with a minimum balance) is their follow-up service. Once you (correctly) enter a payment request, the bank assumes full responsibility for making sure that the payment is correctly credited with the merchant. A phone call to their live person is all it takes. They then deal with the merchant, and issue a letter to the customer detailing what happened. In cases where a finance charge was levied, it was removed without my having to be involved. I have even received from the bank copies of *their* cancelled checks showing the merchant's endorsement and pay dates. About the only downside that I can see is that I lose the float on my check, because my account is debited the day the check is issued. All in all, its a good product with excellent service behind it. Scott
WARNER%ODNVMS@MPS.OHIO-STATE.EDU (Bill Warner) (02/22/91)
Pat, this is a little off of the telecom subject, but you brought it up! I subscribe to a service by a company CHECKFREE. They allow you to pay bills using a Macintosh or IBM-PC using a hayes compatable modem. You use a front end program that runs on the Mac or PC that is a relatively good checkbook register program. You can set up a list of people to be paid either electronically or manually. You can pay bill weekly, biweekly, monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, twice a year or yearly. You can tell CHECKFREE to pay a bill sometime in the future. One limitation is that it requires at least four business day before the payment date to process the payment. The latest version of QUICKEN (a money management program) for the IBM-PC allows you to use this service with it, but the program they provide is plenty for my purposes. This is all done locally, until you "SEND to CHECKFREE." Then the local program calls CHECKFREE's computer in Westerville, Ohio and sends all the payments. (If it is a regular payment you only send it once and CHECKFREE's computer handles it from then on.) CHECKFREE sends the payment in one of two ways. If possible, they send it via the Federal Reserve Electronic Funds Transfer network. Most companies can deal with payments like this. The local phone company Ohio Bell has no problem with this. If the person/company that is being paid can not receive payments this way, CHECKFREE will print a check and mail it to them. This usually adds a couple of days to the processing of the payment. Two examples I have of this is my Rental Company and the Columbus Dispatch News Carrier (Not many News carriers have connections to the EFT Network!). Since they pay via "Electronic Checks" (Or physical checks) you can use any checking account at any bank (or equivalent.) On my month Checking Account Statement electronic payments show up as a "CHECK or PAYMENT" with a identification code that includes the name of the PAYEE. I have been pleased with their service. I had one problem initially in setting up their software: My name is William Warner, III (With no middle name) and they did not expect a name in this format, so I have to be Mr. Warner, III to them. They have a handly customer service email from their front end that you can send questions to. They do not send the response electonically, but mail you a postcard with the question and answer, but I guess I wouldn't want them calling my computer anyway. The cost is about $35 for the initial software and sign up. From then on there is a $9/month fee for up to twenty transactions. I can not remember the charge for additional transactions but it is in the ballpark of $0.50 each. Of course, they bill the monthly fee electronically. The number for CHECKFREE (From the Columbus OH phone book): (614) 899-7500 William "Bill" Warner, III (N8HJP) WARNER%ODNVMS@MPS.OHIO-STATE.EDU Ohio Data Network WARNER@OHSTPY (Bitnet) 65 E State St, Suite 810 +1 614 466 6683 (Voice) Columbus, OH 43215 +1 614 466-8159 (FAX)