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"old suckers will get BIG 0"

GICinvestor said

I never thought about this before. Does an FI act as a payment agent for a. b. e. and f. and receive funds from the vendor for processing their payment?  

I'm not quite sure what you mean, but how online banking bill payments (ad hoc or automatic and recurring) work is that the financial institution bundles all the bill payments up into one batch and remits it, via EFT, to the bill payee along with a batch report containing the input names and payor account numbers so posting. In most cases, the process is automated on both ends such that even the bill payee's payor accounts are automatically credited in their system once the batch file is downloaded and input, though some manual matching could be required where someone enters the wrong name or account number.

In other cases, financial institutions will outsource the bill payment process to a third-party bill payment service provider.

But, if this is what you were asking, yes the CR to the bill payee's bank account would come in "from" the financial institution or the FI's third-party service provider. The account level details are provided in the batch report.

saty11 said
Hi, Do any of you know if they do a hard or soft credit inquiry while opening a new account? Thanks!  

When it was branded as President's Choice Financial, it was always a hard pull; however, this pull is not significant on your credit score (usually only 5-15 points off your score, which is so minor). It's usually on the lower end of that range, too, unless you've had multiple hard pulls in the last 2-3 months. I wouldn't worry about it.

Cheers,
Doug

Norman1 said
I looked around the online banking web site.

I think "Automatic Bill Payments" means the pre-authorized debit (PAD) kind:

Automatic Bill Payments

Authorize a billing company to pay your bills by withdrawing the money directly from your account.

1. Please select an Account for paying bills: ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
2. Complete the form.
3. Print the completed form.
4. Sign the completed form.
5. Send the signed, completed form to the designated company or organization you have indicated on the form.

View/Print Form

In contrast, "recurring payments" is what Simplii calls the payments where one sends or pushes money to a biller at certain intervals (monthly, annually, …).  

Aww, shoot, that sucks. Thanks, Norman. I hate when the financial institutions use this misleading wording, whether it be intentionally or unintentionally. Calling them "automatic bill payments," which is non-industry standard parlance, is misleading since that's not a term used by the industry on a widescale basis. They should be using the industry-standard term pre-authorized debit or pre-authorized payment. They could still add a qualifier, like only certain type of PADs/PAPs are applicable to the offer (i.e., "non-funds transfer pre-authorized debits," etc.)

Cheers,
Doug

mr2711 said
Sorry to revive old topic. I just wanted to confirm that if Amex and RBC Mastercard pull money ( minimum payment due) from their end, will it satisfy "Automatic Bill Payments" requirements?  

They should. I don't see why they wouldn't, provided you set it up as a scheduled pre-authorized debit, not a scheduled bill payment (I dislike Simplii's use of "automatic bill payment" terminology as it confusingly overlaps with industry standard parlance of "pre-authorized debit" to describe what they're meaning and those online banking-initiated, one-time or recurring, bill payments).

Cheers,
Doug

Norman1 said

Doug said

They should. I don't see why they wouldn't, provided you set it up as a scheduled pre-authorized debit, not a scheduled bill payment …
 

There is also the remote possibility that AMEX or RBC uses transaction code 450 (for Miscellaneous Payments) on their pre-authorized debits and Simplii expects qualifying pre-authorized debits for credit card payments to come in with transaction code 350 (Loans) or 351 (Personal Loans).  

It's been my experience, albeit limited experience, that such granularity in terms of types of qualifying pre-authorized debits. At most, they usually typically only distinguish between those bill payment pre-authorized debits (which qualify) and those funds transfer pre-authorized debits (which don't, in most cases). Funds transfer PADs are those that we use for self-to-self transfers between our own bank accounts or between our PayPal account and our bank accounts. Funds transfer PADs are also used for funding one's investment account, which could be argued forms a regular payment obligation operating under the principle of one paying themselves first to their retirement and children's educational savings plans.

In any case, I think you could successfully argue, if not on the letter of the Simplii Financial T&C certainly on its spirit, that regular monthly investment plan withdrawals to a mutual fund or investment brokerage account or a credit card coded as a "miscellaneous payment" should qualify and thus you would ask for a manual credit. They may also provide a manual $200 credit, provided you've never received a cash promotion, as a gesture of goodwill. Most banks and credit unions are reasonable in this regard.

Cheers,
Doug

Hello All - When does 90 days window start? From the date application was submitted or from the date when account was activated after submitting signature ?

Canadianbull said

Hi mr2711, how many days it will take them to send you email regarding signature after submitting application?  

2-3 days as far as I can recall.

I am still waiting. Technically my account is not open even though I received a confirmation email regarding my online application on July 24. Are they purposely slowing down the process?