On-line banking?

[PlutoPony]

So I use the on-line banking application from my bank's website to pay bills from my checking account.
The general message always comes up to allow 1-3 business days for the transaction to complete.
This leads me to believe that on-line banking transactions are only processed M-F during normal business hours.
WHY? It's on-line, computerized, doesn't require human intervention to process and post transactions - does it?

BUT I can go to the website for my credit cards (different banks from my checking account), log into my CC account and pay the bill on-line AND THE TRANSACTION IS INSTANTANEOUS! It goes through and posts right then and there whether it's noon on Monday or Saturday at 5. Doesn't have to be during normal M-F business hours. The "same" transfer of funds electronically can occur 24/7 if it's initiated at the CC website, not my checking account.

WHY? What am I missing - other than that's the way the bank wants to do it?

 

[LoriKutchey]

Hmmm. Anytime I have paid my credit card online it always states that it takes at LEAST 24 hours to post. This is with American express and Visa. I don't have a MasterCard.

 

[tvguy]

So I use the on-line banking application from my bank's website to pay bills from my checking account.
The general message always comes up to allow 1-3 business days for the transaction to complete.
This leads me to believe that on-line banking transactions are only processed M-F during normal business hours.
WHY? It's on-line, computerized, doesn't require human intervention to process and post transactions - does it?

BUT I can go to the website for my credit cards (different banks from my checking account), log into my CC account and pay the bill on-line AND THE TRANSACTION IS INSTANTANEOUS! It goes through and posts right then and there whether it's noon on Monday or Saturday at 5. Doesn't have to be during normal M-F business hours. The "same" transfer of funds electronically can occur 24/7 if it's initiated at the CC website, not my checking account.

WHY? What am I missing - other than that's the way the bank wants to do it?

Paying bills from your checking account goes through the Federal Reserve system, which is closed on Saturday and Sunday, and Federal Holidays.
So, yes, online banking transactions that go outside your bank are M-F and not done on holidays or weekends.
Paying bills with a credit card is a direct transaction between the company whose bill you are paying and the credit card company.
If you have Direct Deposit at work, and your regular pay day is a Federal Holiday, the deposit will go in the day before pay day, because the Federal Reserve system is closed. Christmas was a pay day for me, my DD went in at 8 am on Christmas Eve.

 

[PlutoPony]

Paying bills with a credit card is a direct transaction between the company whose bill you are paying and the credit card company.

I can pay a CC bill on the CC website by inputting my bank account and routing info 24/7 and the transaction takes effect immediately. Doesn't take any business days to process, it's there within seconds of hitting the enter key - NOT only M-F during business hours. So how is that different than paying using my bank's on-line system which only processes M-F?

 

[tvguy]

I can pay a CC bill on the CC website by inputting my bank account and routing info 24/7 and the transaction takes effect immediately. Doesn't take any business days to process, it's there within seconds of hitting the enter key - NOT only M-F during business hours. So how is that different than paying using my bank's on-line system which only processes M-F?

Mine too. But my Credit Card is issued by my bank. My payment is essentially a transfer between my accounts at the same bank. It does not go through the Federal Reserve system.

 

[PlutoPony]

Mine too. But my Credit Card is issued by my bank. My payment is essentially a transfer between my accounts at the same bank. It does not go through the Federal Reserve system.

My CC's are not through my bank. That's why I don't understand the difference in timing between paying on-line through my checking account and paying on-line through the CC's website.

 

[tvguy]

My CC's are not through my bank. That's why I don't understand the difference in timing between paying on-line through my checking account and paying on-line through the CC's website.

Just a guess....Visa and Mastercard may have their own systems for payment across different banks that all offer the cards. They may not use the Federal Reserve system.

 

[PerfessorZ]

The banks could make your bill pay happen faster if they wanted to. But the way things are set up now, they get an interest-free loan for 24-72 hrs for every bill paid by every customer they have. It helps some banks to offer "free" checking or allows banks that don't to increase their profits.

It's fairly standard industry-wide, in case you were thinking it was just your bank.

 

[afan]

My credit union is the same. I can't set up a payment for the same day and if I don't do it early enough in the day I can't set it up for the next day. When I have paid late due to this and got a call from my mortgage company they could actually see the payment on their end even though it hadn't posted. It's the only bill I pay this way because I refuse to pay a fee to pay on my mortgage company's site. It's a rental now, so I often pay close to or on the due date.

I have some bills I pay direct on the site and it applies to my account that day but that doesn't mean it's out of my bank account that day or I have one that is pending for a day or two and I will get an email saying it's posted. But even with that one I've gone on to my account and the money is still in the bank.

I don't care how long any of them take as long as I'm aware of when things need to be set up to pay on time. It's no different than using my debit card. Some transactions show up right away and others take a day or two.

 

[Albort]

My CC's are not through my bank. That's why I don't understand the difference in timing between paying on-line through my checking account and paying on-line through the CC's website.

i believe its up to how wired your bank is. I use Chase, chase is same day process if you submit before 5pm est. I had a credit card with BOA which also takes a day cuz its done electronically(chase to BOA). Another bank i use often takes 3 days... Makes me wonder if its just a formality of a "business day" Try submitting and see if it passes over the weekend?

 

[amylevan]

I can pay a CC bill on the CC website by inputting my bank account and routing info 24/7 and the transaction takes effect immediately. Doesn't take any business days to process, it's there within seconds of hitting the enter key - NOT only M-F during business hours. So how is that different than paying using my bank's on-line system which only processes M-F?

But is the money actually out of your bank account immediately? It can be "accounted" as paid on your CC, but the money might not actually have transferred.

I pay all bills from my bank's site (not the receiving site) by picking the date I want the bill to be paid and I cannot pick weekend dates (or Holidays). I always assumed it was because of the money having to go through the Federal Reserve, as noted by a PP, and had nothing really to do with my bank.

 

[PlutoPony]

Yes, I'm sure this is not just my bank which is Wells Fargo btw.

Here's the exact scenario.....
Thursday 1/14 (early am) - pay CC's on-line from WF on-line, scheduled payment for 1/14. Wells Fargo notes it will be delivered by Tuesday 1/19 (18 is a holiday). NORMALLY I see payments credited to my CC account the day after the payment is scheduled - in this case I expected (based on past experience) payment to be posted 1/15 by the CC.

Friday 1/15 - get notification from WF that payments were sent 1/14, checking account debited for these payments 1/15

Sat. 1/16 am - call CC's, talk to live person, they do not see payments yet in their system. Since due date is 1/17 (yes my bad), I made same the payments with them on phone (doubling up payment - essentially we're just paying next month's statement earlier when it all nets out). The payments (2 CC's) I made on the phone this morning are immediately applied to my CC accounts but have NOT been taken from my checking account and are not even showing as pending. However my checking account does show pending deposit transactions for Tuesday the 19th fwiw.

So bottom line seems to be the payment initiated from my checking account has left my account and is somewhere between Wells Fargo and the receiving bank for the CC's (US Bank and Citi). I don't know WHO has it now (federal reserve?) but it appears it will not be processed any further until Tuesday 1/19. HOWEVER, the CC's will take a payment over the phone and process it IMMEDIATELY to my CC account showing payment today. But it appears the CC's won't actually have the $ today since it WF won't process anything again until Tuesday the 19th. The CC will credit my account before physically receiving the $ from my checking account as long as I initiate the transaction WITH THEM. So on Tuesday 1/19 I think I will show 2 identical payments credited to my CC accounts - 1 initiated from my checking account 1/14 and the other initiated by calling the CC companies 1/16. Interesting.....

Let me be clear - I'm NOT irritated, I'm just trying to understand the system out of curiosity if nothing else. I initiated the bill pay later than I should have (in spite of previous experience) and I made the duplicate payments to avoid a late fee or interest charges. We have the $ to do that and the next month CC bill's will be a similar amount so it's not "wasted" money. It was worth it to us to avoid the credit ding and interest charges. And next month I'll schedule them earlier .

 

[mrudman]

I know with my bank, they have someone personally put through all the billpay transactions. The only reason I know this is that a while back, I was trying to pay one of my bills and kept getting errors, so would have to re-do it. Come to find out they were going through even with the errors. I called them and she told me that at the end of the day they verify all the transactions before they actually get posted and my multiple transactions would be cancelled at that point.

 

[tvguy]

But is the money actually out of your bank account immediately? It can be "accounted" as paid on your CC, but the money might not actually have transferred.

I pay all bills from my bank's site (not the receiving site) by picking the date I want the bill to be paid and I cannot pick weekend dates (or Holidays). I always assumed it was because of the money having to go through the Federal Reserve, as noted by a PP, and had nothing really to do with my bank.

I have noticed a few times, the money IMMEDIATELY is gone from my account, but takes a day or 2 to get posted to the receiver. So what "mrudman" is saying might be true on one of both ends of some transactions.

I'm fortunate, I'm at a point of my life where house/cars/student loans are all paid off, so bills get paid the day they are received, not the last possible minute.