Online Banking

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Online Bill Pay work?
Online Bill Pay is a service that allows you to set up bill payments to businesses and individuals. Once you enter a payment instruction in the system, the request is submitted to Bill Payment Services (8:00 p.m. CT, Monday through Friday). The following business day, your payment is sent electronically or by check. The funds are deducted from your funding account with the next scheduled ACH process, which is typically on the day following the payment date.

If I enroll for bill payment today, when will I be able to schedule and make bill payments?
Bill pay enrollment for new CeB customers requires enrollment approval by the FI and enrollment through the CeB admin tool eManager.  Once enrollment is approved, the end user may access bill payment, but a batch process runs to display the user’s account or payment method used for making payments. The batch process is run Monday – Friday (not on bank holidays) at the following times:  9:30 a.m. CT, 12:30 p.m. CT, 3:15 p.m. CT, and 8:15 p.m. CT.  Until that is complete, the end user cannot initiate any payments because the “payment method” drop-down list will not have any selections to choose from. The same batch process  will apply when an end-user adds additional accounts to be used for bill payment – the end user will not be able to initiate payments with a new bill pay funding account until the next batch process runs. 

Can I use Online Bill Pay from outside the United States?
Yes, as long as your bank account is in the United States, Guam, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Which accounts can I use to pay bills?
Demand Deposit Accounts (Checking / NOW), and Money Market accounts are the only type of accounts you can use to pay bills. NOTE:  Financial Institutions will need to update this statement if they allow drafts from Savings accounts.

How do I add a funding account?
If you would like to use more than one account to make bill payments, you set up additional bill payment funding accounts on the Account Preferences screen by clicking the box under Billpay Account.  You will not be able to use the new funding account until a batch process is complete.  The batch process is run Monday – Friday (not on bank holidays) at the following times:  9:30 a.m. CT, 12:30 p.m. CT, 3:15 p.m. CT, and 8:15 p.m. CT.  Until that is complete, the end user cannot initiate any payments because the “payment method” drop-down list will not allow you to select the new funding account.

How do I change a funding account?
If the funding account has pending payments, you should select a new funding account for the bill payments before changing the current funding account.  You MUST have at least one account set up as the bill payment account in Account Preferences at any given time.

Can I set up a payee in another country?
Online bill payments may only be made to a United States payee (which includes Guam, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and international U.S. military bases) in United States dollars. 

Do I need to contact my payees to tell them I am using a bill payment service?
No. Your payees do not need to do anything different to process online bill payments. Online Bill Pay uses the ACH electronic network or a paper check with your payment information clearly indicated.

How do I add a payee (merchant/vendor)?
Use the Payee Search function within the product to find and add your new payee. If the new payee is not listed, simply select Manually Enter Payees and enter the required information.

How long does it take to setup a new payee in Online Bill Pay?
Once the new payee is entered, you can use the payee immediately.

How do I know if a payee will receive payments electronically or via paper check? 
When you conduct a Payee Search, electronic payees are indicated by a message under Payee Name that the payee “Provides ePayments”.  Also, when a bill payment is made electronically, a little “e” is displayed on the “Make Payment” screen.  If only the payee’s name appears under Payee Name, that payee currently accepts only paper check payments, and a picture of a check is displayed.

Can I make multiple payments to the same payee on the same day?
Yes, you can make multiple payments to the same payee on the same day as long as the payment amounts are different. For your protection, the system will not pay duplicate items for the same payee on the same day.

How do I change a payee's name and address?
To change any payee from the Payee Summary list, click the Payee Details link and then select the Change information link to make the necessary changes.  The only fields that may be changed are AMOUNT, ACCOUNT NUMBER, and PAYMENT STATUS.  For any other changes, delete the payee and re-add it with the correct information.

How do I delete a payee?
Cancel all scheduled payments for the payee by accessing the Pending Payments screen and clicking Cancel under the Action column.  Under Payee Management, locate the desired payee and then select Payee Details.  Select Delete Payee.

What does the payee receive with my payment?
Your payee will receive either an ACH electronic payment or a paper check.  In either case, the payment is appended with the information that you have provided, such as your name and account number with the payee, so the payee can properly credit your payment.

When should I set up my payments to make sure they are paid on time?
Minimum payment “lead times” will be provided based on whether the payee accepts electronic payment (designated by an “e” symbol) or paper check payment (designated by a paper check symbol).  Payments to electronic payees should be scheduled a minimum of 3 days before the payment due date.  For paper check payments, payments should be scheduled a minimum of 6 days before payment due date.

Are there any payments that I cannot make using Online Bill Pay?
Payments cannot be made in foreign currency or to international payees. For payments to U. S. government agencies, Online Bill Pay has limited ability to research any issues that may arise due to the government’s strict adherence to the Consumer Privacy Act. Online Bill Pay will not be responsible for any late fees or penalties that may be incurred by these types of payments.

How far in advance can I schedule payments?
You may schedule a one-time future payment up to 364 days in advance.

How late in the day can I enter, edit, or delete a payment?
Cut off time is 8:00 p.m. CT.  Any new bill payments entered by that time will be accepted for processing that day, unless they are future dated, in which case they will remain in the pending queue until 8:00 pm CT on that date.  Payments entered after this cutoff will be processed on the next business day.

Will bill payment activity that I perform today reflect “real time” in my bill payment reporting function?
Bill payment reporting is not “real time.” Activity reports do not reflect bill payment activity until the day following the activity.

How often does the payment processor make payments?
Payments are processed Monday through Friday excluding holidays.

Are funds debited from the consumer’s bill pay funding account at the same time that the payment is being sent to the payee?
As Metavante uses a Risk-Based bill payment processing model in CeB, the funds are debited from the consumer’s bill payment funding account from between one and two days following the transmission of the bill payment.  There are NO balance verifications that occur prior to the bill payment being sent by Metavante on behalf of the consumer.

Can I make changes to an already scheduled payment?
If the payment is still pending, changes can be made. However, once the payment has been transmitted, you can no longer make changes to or delete payments.

When can I cancel a payment?
You can cancel or modify your payment online at any time before the cutoff time of 8:00 p.m. CT on the payment transaction date.

What date do I put in the TRANSMIT DATE field?
For a future dated payment this should be the date that you want your payment to be transmitted.  This is the date the payment is extracted for processing.

Can I place a stop payment on a bill payment that I have already set up? You yourself cannot place a stop payment on a bill payment. If the payment has been processed and is a paper check that has not yet cleared, you may contact the Metavante Customer Care Center or your Financial Institution’s bill payment support area, and they can place a stop payment on it for you.

What if my payee says that they have not received my payment?
Contact the Metavante Customer Care Center or your Financial Institution’s bill payment support center who will research your payment. 

Can I get a copy of a canceled check?
Contact the Metavante Customer Care Center or your Financial Institution’s bill payment support center to request a copy of a bill payment check. A fee may apply.

Why do I need to use my horizontal scroll bar to see the OK button when working in bill pay version v6 when I did not have to scroll in v5?
The content layout of the v6 product is wider than the v5 product.  Each bank that was created in the v6 environment was built using the same scale as the v5 product.  If we were to make a change to the v6 product to eliminate the horizontal scroll it would result in text wrapping on the navigation panel; as well as within the tables of the product display.  A screen display set to 1024x768 does not result in a horizontal scroll bar.

How does the account description affect enrollment for bill payment?
An account description is required for the customer's DDA account before he or she can enroll for bill payment. Normally the system takes this description from the Statement Market Name field on page 1 of the 205 segment of Bank Control. If that field is blank, bill-pay enrollment will fail. There are two ways to correct this situation:

• The financial institution can update the 205 segment before the customer tries to re-enroll.
• The customer can enter a description for the account on the CEB Account Preferences screen and then re-enroll.

Since the financial institution is essentially creating a loan by allowing an overdraft, what criteria should they use to determine if they should give a customer bill pay ability? 
This is totally up to the individual institution. Perhaps they should use the same criteria they use when allowing an overdraft on an on-us check. 

Do we have any statistics regarding losses incurred by FI's due to unresolved bill payments?
Only .003% of transactions are returned, and some of those returns are due to things like incorrect account numbers that aren't related to fraud. Out of approximately 150,000-200,000 payments processed per day, about 400-500 are returned.

How does a financial institution manage pending payments so that they do not honor overdrafts without taking outstanding bill payments into consideration? 
When Metavante’s EPS group encounters an NSF situation, they block the customer's account. This means that no further bill payments are processed until the NSF is resolved. In effect, we manage the delivery of any further bill payments through our normal NSF process.

The institution really has no way of monitoring outstanding bill payments in the pending queue. Most customers make use of single payments and don't rely on recurring or future-dated payments.  The single payments are logged by customers at any time during the day and can be adjusted at will until the: 8:00 p.m. CST extraction for processing.

If this is a concern, consider how you currently manage how many on-us checks a customer has en route, and the amounts of each, when determining whether to allow an overdraft. That would be an analogous situation.

Is it possible to establish multiple recurring bill payments to the same payee?
The Consumer Internet Banking Bill Payment system does not allow multiple recurring bill payments to be set-up for the same payee.  If a customer attempts this, when they try to set up the second payment with the same payee, there will be no option for the customer to set the payment as recurring.  They will only have the option of a one time payment.  The customer could set up a second payee to the same vendor and set up another recurring payment to this payee.

How do I edit the payment amount of a recurring pending payment?
You can go into Pending Payments and edit the pending payment amount.  If one of the payments has already been made, the start date of the recurring pending payment will need to be changed, because the date would be in the past.  The start date should be changed to the date of when the next payment should be processed, and then change the amount.  This change will only affect the payments that have not yet been made. 

It appears that every customer that enrolls is getting sent to the bill pay pending queue whether they are entitled or not. Why is this happening?
The Online Bill Pay workspace is not a queue; it is a maintenance workspace.  All users that are attached to a Customer Profile that is entitled to bill pay are in the Online Bill Pay workspace.

Are there any known issues with the calculator in Bill Payment?
When you are using Netscape 6.2 and click on the calculator once, the calculator appears correctly. If the user closes the calculator and then clicks on it again, it comes up blank.

Is there a difference on how the Transmit Date field populates when a customer is setting up a single payment vs. a customer setting up payments via the Pay Many Option?
When a user schedules a single payment, the Transmit Date field populates with the current date.  When a user is scheduling payments using the Pay Many feature, the Transmit Date fields do not populate.  If the user clicks on the calendar widget next to the Transmit Date Field within the Pay Many Option, it will open with the current date, but the user must click on a date to fill the field. 

The reason for not pre-filling the date on the Pay Many screen is to allow users to schedule payments for different dates.

How are bill-payment overdrafts handled?  For example, customer pays a $150.00 bill but only has $100.00 in their account.  Will the payee get $100.00 or no payment at all?
The payee will receive full payment, even if it creates an overdraft situation.  For example, if the customer pays a $150.00 Visa bill but only has $100.00 in their account, Visa would receive $150.00. The customer’s account balance would then be -$50.00.  CEB does not check the balance of a customer’s account before issuing requested bill payments. 

When using the subtotal filter on bill pay reports, what transactions are included in the “Total Paid?”
The total that makes up the “Total Paid,” only includes those payment transactions that were processed and paid.  So, if you have a display that has both paid and cancelled payments, the subtotal only represents those dollar amounts for those payments that were paid. 

What does the status “Cancelled,” on my “Bill Payment History” report mean?
The payment was not made and must be re-initiated by the consumer.  If a consumer has re-initiated payments resulting in duplicates due to this issue, they should call Customer Care Center and they will open a service request for them outlining the issue.  They will attempt to collect the money back from the payee if the consumer requests, but we are subject to the rules of the payee.  If the customer is in arrears or if the payee’s policy is to not return funds, we advise the consumer to withhold the next payment, etc. 

Is it possible for a customer to establish a National/Regional Payee?
No, Customers may not set up Regional or National payees themselves.  When a customer sets up a payee that is not already listed within the “pick list”, it becomes a personal payee only visible to the customer who established it.  Through the standard Metavante process of payee consolidation, it is possible that a personal payee can be consolidated into a Regional or National Payee if multiple users have established the same payee.  The Payee Management Department routinely calls the newly consolidated Regional and National payees to verify phone, address, edit masks, etc.

Is there a Support Track report available to Financial Institutions listing how many tickets have been opened for their customer base reporting bill payment issues and the reason for the ticket?
We currently do not have this type of reporting.  Bill pay issues are opened for tracking on the Oracle Engine as a Service Request, not within Support Track.  There are reports available for Financial Institutions listing the tickets/calls that came in, but the reports will not show what remains open or the mean time to resolve them. 

How are end users charged for the use of the Bill Pay system?
Each month a database query is run to count the number of bill pay enrolled users which is then used for billing purposes.  It is a requirement that an end user must be ENTITLED for bill pay before they can enroll.

Known Functionality

Bill pay enrollment requires processing to display the end user’s account or payment method when making payments. If an end-user successfully self-enrolls in the banking portion of CIB, they will then have the opportunity to enroll within the bill payment portion of CIB, if entitled for bill payment. After the end-user enrolls for bill payment and the financial institution approves it, he or she will be able to access the bill payment screens. However, the end-user will not be able to make a payment. They are prevented from doing so because the “payment method” drop down list will not have any selections to choose from. Once the process runs, the user will be able to make a payment.  The processing job run multiple times during the day (09:30, 12:30, 15:15, and 20:15 CT Monday – Friday excluding holidays).

• After an existing end-user adds another bill payment account by selecting the bill payment box on the Account Preferences screen, the process needs to occur. The end-user will be able to make bill payments out of the new account after the process completes.
• Bill payment Reports are not “real time”. Activity reports will not reflect bill payment activity until the day following the activity.
• The payee information screen has a field called  "Status alert for payments".  The bill payment alerts have been turned off and the button will be removed from the screen.
• On the Pay Many Screen, if there is no payment method available, it will appear in the drop down as though there is a payment method available to the user to make a payment from.  When the user then makes the payment, they will receive an error message ‘Due to interruption, some of your payments may not have been processed.’  User must first verify in payees that they all have a default payment method available. 
• The transmit date on the Pay Many screen is not pre-filled with today’s date as it is on the Pay One.  This is working as designed.  Since there are numerous payments being made, we want the customer to put in the date the payment is to be made. 
• When changing an end date on a recurring payment to be out of sync with the start date, the date entered is shown as the new end date. (example...start date is a Wednesday.  The end date is changed to a Friday, 06/28/02.  The payment end date will display as 06/28/02 even though the reoccurring payment was setup for Wednesdays.)  This is functioning as designed.