All One of the recent conveniences is to use the BoA payment of bills right from your computer.
If the creditor one is paying has an electronic arrangement with the bank, the funds, once one authorizes payment, apparently pass in 2 days.
If the creditor does not have an electronic arrangement, the bank writes a check and mails it to the creditor, supposedly delivering it within 4 days from when you requested payment.
Well I find that this last one may not happen as promised.
I was a bit nervous about setting up my rent payment this way, because it would be of the type of a mail checked.
I requested payment around September 28.
The software said the check would be delivered by October 4, which is within the grace period.
On October 8 I received a late notice from my landlord, stating that no payment was received.
I checked my bank account and the bank records stated that the check was delivered by October 4 and the funds withdrawn October 5.
Again I thought I was safe.
The landord’s accountant said that the check arrived yesterday, on the afternoon of October 9.
It’s as if the bank took the money out of my account and placed it in reserve for a payment, but really the creditor did not receive it on time, and the check was mailed on the 4th.
The bank is not a post office, so how can it state that it delivered the payment on the 4th? Lucky for me, the landlord will not penalize me this time.
But delivery of payment on the 9th is inexcusable.
If I had mailed that payment myself on October 1, it would have arrived very much in time.
I’m going to be careful about payments to creditors that don’t have a financial electronic arrangement with the bank.
Cheers, A