Is someone stealing my money?? Long

[cassie]

I've been paying my bills online with my bank for over 4 years now and never had a problem until last month. I had scheduled 2 credit card payments to be paid. I didn't realize they weren't paid until I got late notices. I checked the history and found no record. Hmmm, I was upset and emailed the bank to see if they could find my entries. Nope, nothing there.

Today I reconciled my check book and if I "forgot" to post the payments, (possibile), I should have extra money in my account. But the bank statement agreed with my ending balance in my check book.

Now, last week I posted 3 bills to be paid on Sept 12. Today I look and they weren't paid. Now I'm really getting sick. One was for a car payment. I can't repost the payments as I'm not sure the money is still there. The bank uses a national company "CheckFree" to send the payments out. It's a fairly new service the bank has been using.

How do I find out what happened? Everything is electronic. I dread going up against the bank. I've never been late on any of my bills. Not ever, unless a statement didn't come in. It just seems my posting disappears, and so does my money. As much as I hate to use checks, I'm going to have to go back to that for a while.

One payment did go thru...my mortage, thank God. Anyone, have online bill paying and had any problems? This is gonna kill my credit rating.

 

[Ricola]

OMG!!!

I live in fear of this!

I would be on the phone ASAP! I don't know too much about this sort of thing, BUT the money has to be going somewhere, right?

 

[janette]

I used Check Free a long time ago and had problems. I'll never use another payment service.

I had my mortgage set up to be paid every month, I didn't have to do anything it was automatic. It was late and when I called them they said oh well, it must have gotten lost in the mail. I didn't want to send another check without stopping payment on the first one since I couldn't cover 2 payments. I got it taken care of and the mortgage company didn't charge me a late fee but it took me more than 6 months to get the other fees it cost back from Check Free. In conversations with them I realized that they have themselves covered pretty good, they just said it must have been lost in the mail so they weren't responsible.

I do make payments on-line. Almost all of them but I do it with each company not a third party. I have things like the mortgage automatically taken from my checking account. It's just as easy as using a payment service and it's free.

edited to add: Your statement should show the amounts taken from your account and when. If it didn't make it to the credit companies than go to the bank with all the statements and make them tell you where the money is.

 

[chell]

Your bank should be able to tell you where the money went. Just this past week I had a charge on my checking account that seemed out of place. I called my bank to check on it and they told me exactly what it was and when the money was paid. Turns out it was a check that was submitted electronically. But, when money is taken out of your account electronically the bank should tell you where the money went.

As far as your credit rating, I would contact the companies that did not receive your payments and inform them of your situation ASAP. When you get info from the bank relay this to those companies. Most are willing to work with you, especially if you have a good history with them.

Good luck on getting this solved quickly!

 

[cassie]

I hate this being on the weekend. I can't do anything. I did email checkfree and my bank with my problem. Luckily I get out of work at 3pm, so I can go to the bank on Monday and talk with a live person. I just wonder where my money went and if it can be found.

 

[Jeff in BigD]

Just for future reference, what's the company?

 

[Tiggerlover91]

My bank has told me the moment I swipe my debit card as that or a credit it can tell me the time and place of the transaction. So for the bank to not know where the money went is poo-poo!! They can also tell me at 2:00pm on the 17th of every month my debt consolidators take $170 out of my account. I don't do the 3rd party thing either. It's either directly from my account or a check through me.

Good luck to you,

Denise

Keep us posted will ya....missing money from your bank is NOT a good thing, a lot harder to recover than credit card stuff.

 

[Serena]

Goodluck cassie. And as for your credit report, you can get that straightened out with no problem. Usually just send in an explanation of what happened.
Or that's what I've been told.

 

[mrsapalm]

Ack! I pay my bills online through my bank's website - I would love to know which bank you are talking about! Should I start printing out my bill-pay confirmations? I check my account every other day, so I know immediately if something hasn't been paid or if something doesn't look right. Thanks for the heads-up!
-MrsAPalm

 

[kinlaw6450]

I have run into the same problems with checkfree. Seems they make payments way late or not at all. I stopped using them after 2 months of panic stricken balancing and MANY calls to the bank.

 

[cassie]

My bank is Liberty, in Ct. They have recently started using CheckFree to pay the bills. In over 4 years, I never had one problem with the bank. Since they're using CF, I had 2 instances of bill payment "disappearing".

Yes mrsapalm, it's a good idea to keep a check on it. I got slack since I never had trouble. I'm printing out every confirmation now. I reposted the bills that weren't paid last week...hope I don't get into more trouble.

 

[Serena]

If this company is having so many problems then they need to be out of business. It sounds like they are stealing your money.

Did you contact the BBB in your area about this?

 

[cassie]

Serena, I'm still going through my statements to make sure I have all the info right. The bank is sending me more statements to check. So far, the bank thinks I goofed, clicked a wrong button or something. I just hope my reposts today don't throw my account off the rocker.

 

[cassie]

Serena, I'm still going through my statements to make sure I have all the info right. The bank is sending me more statements to check. So far, the bank thinks I goofed, clicked a wrong button or something. I just hope my reposts today don't throw my account off the rocker. I'm just glad my bank is trying to help, and I don't have to deal with check free directly.