How do bill payments work?

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tombrownzz

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#74584 3-Jan-2011 01:34

I want to add a bill payment today using asb internet banking but asb will only allow me to choose to make the payment on Wednesday. Why is this? Isn't a bill payment handled by computers instead of people processing them manually?

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#423592 3-Jan-2011 02:03

Westpac is doing the same. They close on weekends, and because new years fell on a weekend, we get holidays on Monday and Tuesday. I was meant to have my Orcon bill paid on Saturday, didn't go through because it was a weekend. Monday rolled over and its still not gone through because its a public holiday. The payment gets processed on Wednesday but the funds wont show up in their account until Thursday. Very very annoying. I think you will find most banks wont let payments go through until at least Wednesday.

Damager

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#423593 3-Jan-2011 02:15

anything processed from now until wednesday inclusive will be processed wednesday night.

quite simply, all payment transactions on non business days will be processed overnight on the first business day.

eg make a payment on a typical weekend day eg saturday, it wont be processed until monday night, so tuesday morn will show the updated balance on your account. the holiday period is no different. its just a longer weekend.

nothing to do with computers or people, its just normal business protocol.

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richms

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#423595 3-Jan-2011 02:54

Obsolete business protocol more like it.

If they can take cash out anytime thru eftpos, they should be able to sort out putting it in anytime.

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michaelmurfy

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#423596 3-Jan-2011 03:01

Dude, Computers need Holidays too.
Give them a break, they had to work overtime over Christmas.

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tombrownzz

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#424135 5-Jan-2011 08:47

tardtasticx: Westpac is doing the same. They close on weekends, and because new years fell on a weekend, we get holidays on Monday and Tuesday. I was meant to have my Orcon bill paid on Saturday, didn't go through because it was a weekend. Monday rolled over and its still not gone through because its a public holiday. The payment gets processed on Wednesday but the funds wont show up in their account until Thursday. Very very annoying. I think you will find most banks wont let payments go through until at least Wednesday.

has your payment got processed yet? mine still hasn't and I thought the banks are opening today (the 5th jan)?

wreck90

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#424140 5-Jan-2011 08:56

tombrownzz:
tardtasticx: Westpac is doing the same. They close on weekends, and because new years fell on a weekend, we get holidays on Monday and Tuesday. I was meant to have my Orcon bill paid on Saturday, didn't go through because it was a weekend. Monday rolled over and its still not gone through because its a public holiday. The payment gets processed on Wednesday but the funds wont show up in their account until Thursday. Very very annoying. I think you will find most banks wont let payments go through until at least Wednesday.

has your payment got processed yet? mine still hasn't and I thought the banks are opening today (the 5th jan)?

You're not listening....

"anything processed from now until wednesday inclusive will be processed wednesday night. "

So, check on Thursday morning.

timmmay

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#424143 5-Jan-2011 09:01

Payments are processed the night that the banks computers get back from holiday. They got back from the computer playground this morning, so the payment will go through tonight.

It's an outdated policy that really needs to be changed now that everything is electronic. Transfers should be done in real time, 24/7.

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nate

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#424190 5-Jan-2011 10:48

timmmay: Transfers should be done in real time, 24/7.

Amen.

It happens (for me anyway) if I do an ASB-ASB transfer, why can't it happen for ASB-Kiwibank?

Also, cheques should clear after one day as well.

wreck90

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#424193 5-Jan-2011 10:58

I also agree payments should be realtime.

The banking system has it's origins in the 70's, where transactions were run in large batches. And, if it ain't broke.....

You are talking about a massive project - this is not trivial .

tardtasticx

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#424200 5-Jan-2011 11:08

tombrownzz:
tardtasticx: Westpac is doing the same. They close on weekends, and because new years fell on a weekend, we get holidays on Monday and Tuesday. I was meant to have my Orcon bill paid on Saturday, didn't go through because it was a weekend. Monday rolled over and its still not gone through because its a public holiday. The payment gets processed on Wednesday but the funds wont show up in their account until Thursday. Very very annoying. I think you will find most banks wont let payments go through until at least Wednesday.

has your payment got processed yet? mine still hasn't and I thought the banks are opening today (the 5th jan)?

Sitting in a bright red box on my account page it says: "PAYMENT OVERDUE: Your account has a balance of $15.26, of which $15.26 is overdue and needs to be paid immediately. "

Westpac really should fix that, or Orcon could put something into their system that holds payments until the next working week/day or something?

I don't know what ASB does with payments like this, because I haven't used my debit card with them online before. When I used to have more than one account, it would be transfered imediatly and I got used to that, then moved to westpac and when parents put money into my account or I put money in to theirs, we still have to wait one business night.

timmmay

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#424209 5-Jan-2011 11:50

I've worked in banking, any project to do this would be massive. There is a facility for real time payments, it's called something like same day cleared payments, but I think it's maybe business or international focused, not consumer to consumer.

Transferring within a single bank is just updating a database, rather than communicating with another business.

In general it's an individuals responsibility to make sure their payments go through on time. If you use direct debit it does it automatically on the correct day.

freitasm

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#424219 5-Jan-2011 12:10

timmmay: It's an outdated policy that really needs to be changed now that everything is electronic. Transfers should be done in real time, 24/7.

Like they do in movies? The bad guy opens his laptop and the bank website shows a $0.00 balance. Then the good guys pay the ramson and we see the bad guy's screen showing numbers going from $0.00 to $5,000,000 in a meter kind of animation - like mony would flow from an account to another in small increments...

tardtasticx: Sitting in a bright red box on my account page it says: "PAYMENT OVERDUE: Your account has a balance of $15.26, of which $15.26 is overdue and needs to be paid immediately. "

Westpac really should fix that, or Orcon could put something into their system that holds payments until the next working week/day or something?

This is not a bank problem, but an Orcon problem. Most businesses will accept that payments due on a weekend or bank holiday should not be considered "due" until the next business day. However this is for the time the funds show in their account, not the time the funds leave your account.

It is well know the banks process online payments, and inter bank transfers, overnight. This mean funds are always available THE NEXT BUSINESS DAY.

In other words you should have created the payment the last business before the payment was due.

I am not saying payments shouldn't be processed real-time. I am just saying if you don't know how the financial transactions work, you should inform yourself to make sure everything goes smoothly.

tardtasticx

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#424237 5-Jan-2011 13:06

freitasm:

tardtasticx: ...

This is not a bank problem, but an Orcon problem. Most businesses will accept that payments due on a weekend or bank holiday should not be considered "due" until the next business day. However this is for the time the funds show in their account, not the time the funds leave your account.

It is well know the banks process online payments, and inter bank transfers, overnight. This mean funds are always available THE NEXT BUSINESS DAY.

In other words you should have created the payment the last business before the payment was due.

I am not saying payments shouldn't be processed real-time. I am just saying if you don't know how the financial transactions work, you should inform yourself to make sure everything goes smoothly.

I don't do it manually. When I signed up with Orcon I put my Debit Card as the main payment method and they just charge it when the payments due. I think Debit Card payments should be done in real time, nearly everything else online is. I dont think you can put a credit onto the account can you? (my orcon account i mean)

freitasm

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#424238 5-Jan-2011 13:08

In this case, since Orcon has the automatic payment details they shouldn't say it's due, until the first business day transactions clear after the holiday...

Blame on Orcon's systems...

Kyanar

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#424273 5-Jan-2011 14:28

Actually, if you read down the page at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10680214 - the Reserve Bank is already working on a system to remove the requirement for all transactions to occur at the predefined settlement window. Which would also lead me to believe that the issue is actually with the Reserve Bank, not the banks.

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