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Electronic Speed?You authorize the payment, directly to the bank, or through ISC, but what happens to it? It will not go out immediately. To begin with, the Intuit software (and the bank’s) forces a four day lead time from the date of authorization. No, you can’t fool them by changing the system date on your computer. I tried that. The delay after the payment date, until the draft clears the bank, has ranged from one day to ten days. The payee receives the money, and has to record it as paid against the correct account. How soon will the payment be posted? This, of course, depends primarily on the payee business. Take note that it also depends on definite identification of the payment. In other words, if they don’t know it is your payment, you will not get credit until the confusion is cleared and the matter is resolved. Many bills include a payment stub, with bar coding or computer-readable characters, for automated recognition of your payment. Obviously, this stub will not be sent with the payment draft. You account number (with the payee) will be printed on the draft, but the payee’s clerk must enter this number into the computer. Someday the “year 2000” date problem will become history, and in that time frame we can hope that all banks will have online payment, and speed will become a competitive feature. Until then, the key to reasonably fast movement at minimum cost may well be to know the time of the last pickup at your local post office. |
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