The first time this happened I thought I was missing something, but then my friend Sam told me she had the same experience, and we both wonder if it’s legal. I would love to hear your thoughts.
The company in question is Wells Fargo bank, but I haven’t done any research to know if they are the only ones doing this. They have an online bill pay service that I used once earlier in the year. I started by enter all of my bill information, ranging from Seattle City Light to my credit card bills, and as I entered the names of the companies and addresses, the forms would pre-populate with a lot of the correct information so it seemed the bank had a clear and easy way to pay the bills, and I figured it would be instantaneous from the moment I set the date I wanted the bills to be paid. Well that month all of my bills were late because I was wrong to assume they were wiring the money, even though that technology exists and it’s no big deal.
I went into the bank to ask them about it and what they said was that if I entered Monday March 2nd as the date they should pay the bill, Wells Fargo says it will take up to three days for the check to actually get mailed (so it would go out as late as Thursday the 5th, and then to allow up to ten more days for it to be received and cashed (so now we are up to March 15th). So if my bill is due on March 15th, I need to ask Wells Fargo to send it 13 days before that. That part is incredibly stupid to me, so I don’t know why anyone would ever use the service. So I felt dumb, and I got hit with some late fees, but I lived to tell about it. That’s a “how” I won’t ever use again when it comes to how I pay bills.
But just because it’s stupid doesn’t make it illegal.
The part where I wonder if it’s legal is the fact that if I have a $1,000 credit card bill, and I ask Wells Fargo to pay my credit card company on March 2nd, I expect my credit card company will get the money on or before March 15th and that’s when they cash the check, that’s when the $1,000 leaves my account. Nope. Wells Fargo takes it out on March 2nd and they hold it until my credit card company cashes the check. That’s up to 13 days of float they get. Unreal.
Is that legal?
-Ric
Legal? Sure. That’s no different from when you write a bank check – they take (secure) your money right away and then don’t credit the other person until they have to (there are banking regs that dictate these periods I believe).
Now, it is astounding to hear that Wells has such a craptastic online bill pay. I use BofA, which has great bill pay. Also I sometimes use Fidelity – both of these services tell you exactly the date the recipient will be paid. If they have an ACH agreement, those payments clear same-day. If you’re paying your gardener or something, they will mail a physical check. But, both those banks tell you what day the payment will arrive, since that is clearly the only useful information to you.
Maybe you should take your business elsewhere?
-R
BECU doesn’t do that… I just enter the date the bill is due and they take care of getting the money there on time. I have not had a single late payment in years.
Commerce Bank, here I come. I heard some things about BofA that I didn’t like.