A Quick-En Note

I’ll try to save you the time a few of my clients have already spent: some banks won’t allow new account holders to pay bills though Quicken’s Direct Connect feature. The bank recommends you pay bills from the bank's own website, and sync the transactions to Quicken, rather than pay bills directly from Quicken.

This might be a good thing.

I think some banks are changing the game for your safety — and their liability. As banks try to protect your money, they lose some control when you place a third-party bill-paying company (like Quicken) between you and them. Each bank has it’s own website BillPay feature and it seems they really prefer you to use it.

It’s probably safer.

Everyone can still use Quicken as a financial management tool, and it is pretty helpful, especially if you have accounts with more than one bank. Just pay your bills from your bank’s website and sync the account to Quicken through Quicken’s One-Step Update to load your bank transactions into your Quicken register.

Notes:

• If you can pay bills from Quicken now, you will still be able do so, until/unless your bank changes that access.

• Some banks who won’t allow BillPay from Quicken, do support BillPay from Quickbooks (different financial management software), but only if you have a business account with the bank.