Paying BPAY bills with amex?

[DeadlySchnauzer]

Recently signed up for a Qantas amex... actually been quite surprised at how widely accepted amex is . The one thing that is frustrating me is the online account doesn't seem to offer any way to pay BPAY bills (where as my mastercard does).

Is this a general limitation of all AMEX cards? Does anyone know if theres a way to pay BPAY via AMEX (via phone, in person or?).

 

[oz_mark]

I don't belive amex participate from that side. Given the number of billers that won't accept cc card payments via bpay, it would be a fairly limited facility.

 

[Maca44]

Recently signed up for a Qantas amex... actually been quite surprised at how widely accepted amex is . The one thing that is frustrating me is the online account doesn't seem to offer any way to pay BPAY bills (where as my mastercard does).

Is this a general limitation of all AMEX cards? Does anyone know if theres a way to pay BPAY via AMEX (via phone, in person or?).

I am slightly confused..if you want to pay a bill using Amex then payment details should be on the back page of the bill you are paying, or pay by billpost etc. It is my understanding, if you want to pay your Amex bill using BPAY then you have to use your on line banking so that the funds come from your bank account to pay the amex card. I pay the majority of bills with amex, (gas, elect, telstra, etc) and they can all be paid using amex. As I said, I am confused as to what you mean so excuse me if I have addressed things you are already aware of.:-|

 

[serfty]

I can still pay many bills using Amex simply by using there service provider's web sites/automated payment phone numbers.

 

[DeadlySchnauzer]

I am slightly confused..if you want to pay a bill using Amex then payment details should be on the back page of the bill you are paying, or pay by billpost etc. It is my understanding, if you want to pay your Amex bill using BPAY then you have to use your on line banking so that the funds come from your bank account to pay the amex card. I pay the majority of bills with amex, (gas, elect, telstra, etc) and they can all be paid using amex. As I said, I am confused as to what you mean so excuse me if I have addressed things you are already aware of.:-|

My mastercard lets me pay all my BPAY bills directly from the mastercard online account and have them charge straight on to the credit card. This is obviously very convenient.

AMEX however does not let me do this. Instead i have to pay each bill by phone, the billers internet site or in person... whatever the specific biller requires for AMEX payments.

So in the end its a convenience thing. It just seems silly that i can pay these bills via AMEX by going through each billers individual procedures, but i cant pay them all from the one spot using BPAY.

Maybe im just too demanding after using mastercard only for so many years

 

[Mal]

So in the end its a convenience thing. It just seems silly that i can pay these bills via AMEX by going through each billers individual procedures, but i cant pay them all from the one spot using BPAY.

With BPAY being owned by the 4 major banks (and a couple of smaller ones), I suspect there isn't much push towards allowing Amex to participate as a sender of funds.

 

[oz_mark]

There are about 170-180 financial institutions that you can BPay from, but to offer a full BPay service Amex would need to offer savings accounts and so on. They are not set up to do so (in Australia at least)

Billers such as Telstra (and many others) don't accept BPay from Credit Cards, so these would be an issue for anyone using Amex. The best they could do would be to treat it as a cash advance.

 

[docjames]

I can still pay many bills using Amex simply by using there service provider's web sites/automated payment phone numbers.

+1

Most billers that accept Amex will have an option on the back to pay by phone or on their own website etc.

 

[pauly7]

My mastercard lets me pay all my BPAY bills directly from the mastercard online account and have them charge straight on to the credit card. This is obviously very convenient.

AMEX however does not let me do this. Instead i have to pay each bill by phone, the billers internet site or in person... whatever the specific biller requires for AMEX payments.

So in the end its a convenience thing. It just seems silly that i can pay these bills via AMEX by going through each billers individual procedures, but i cant pay them all from the one spot using BPAY.

Maybe im just too demanding after using mastercard only for so many years

Why don't you just set them up as direct debits?

 

[serfty]

Personally, I prefer not to have direct debits; it places too much onus to make sure funds are available at the correct time lest you run the rick of incurring hefty penalties.

Also I have found that sometimes, the service provider jumps the gun by a day or a weekend; while it can be fixed it's a PITA.

Nup, more control is my motto; even if I know the 8+ digit account numbers of some of my stuff by rote ... :!:

 

[oz_mark]

Personally, I prefer not to have direct debits; it places too much onus to make sure funds are available at the correct time lest you run the rick of incurring hefty penalties.

Also I have found that sometimes, the service provider jumps the gun by a day or a weekend; while it can be fixed it's a PITA.

Nup, more control is my motto; even if I know the 8+ digit account numbers of some of my stuff by rote ... :!:

On the other hand not having them set up as direct debits, means that you have to remember to pay them. Having said that, I only have a few direct debits, and they are on ones with a regular, known, fixed payment (monthly insurance, mortgage etc)

Not had the experience of any of those jumping the gun!

 

[albatross710]

Personally, I prefer not to have direct debits; it places too much onus to make sure funds are available at the correct time lest you run the rick of incurring hefty penalties.

That's exactly the way the banks want it. They go out of their way to make it convenient to use Credit Card for bill payments and get a % of the tic. DD I think are fixed fee transactions.

 

[straitman]

Personally, I prefer not to have direct debits; it places too much onus to make sure funds are available at the correct time lest you run the rick of incurring hefty penalties.

Also I have found that sometimes, the service provider jumps the gun by a day or a weekend; while it can be fixed it's a PITA.

Nup, more control is my motto; even if I know the 8+ digit account numbers of some of my stuff by rote ... :!:

I have, within the past few weeks, had an ISP continue a direct debit after I faxed & emailed them to stop the direct debit. All I have thus far is 'we are looking into it'

That's why, like serfty, I prefer not to use direct debits. Unless they respond appropriately and soon I'll have no qualms in naming them publicly :!:

 

[pauly7]

I have, within the past few weeks, had an ISP continue a direct debit after I faxed & emailed them to stop the direct debit. All I have thus far is 'we are looking into it'

That's why, like serfty, I prefer not to use direct debits. Unless they respond appropriately and soon I'll have no qualms in naming them publicly :!:

A friend also had the same problem, called both the gym debiting him (who were playing silly) and the Comm Bank. Comm Bank said there was absolutely nothing they could do as the contract was between him and the gym. So he couldn't stop them unless he canceled the card or pretended it was stolen and got it re-issued with a new number!

Anyone else heard this line? (It is Comm Bank though...)

 

[rwatts]

A friend also had the same problem, called both the gym debiting him (who were playing silly) and the Comm Bank. Comm Bank said there was absolutely nothing they could do as the contract was between him and the gym. So he couldn't stop them unless he canceled the card or pretended it was stolen and got it re-issued with a new number!

Anyone else heard this line? (It is Comm Bank though...)

This is different to a direct debit. In this case your friend has given credit card details to the gym and having once authorised them to debit the card the bank has no real interest or responsibility. There are quite a few similar stories, and gyms and isp's seem overly represented in continuing to debit cards after their right has ceased.

Direct debit authorisations are an instruction that you give to your bank (used to be form PD-C from memory) authorising them to accept direct debit requests against a bank account from the nominated system user. You may return the form to the payee but eventually it is sent to your bank before a direct debit can be made. In theory you should just be able to contact your bank and withdraw that authorisation.

Richard.

 

[bambbbam2]

I absolutely refuse direct debit unless compulsory. I had a friend who had a gym membership (surprise, surprise) and they kept charging him.

He couldn't get it stopped - in the end he simply closed that bank account and opened a new one at the same branch, it was the only way to get aaway from these robber-barons.

 

[serfty]

About a decade ago I had car lease payments that were a regular direct debit. When the term of the lease was up I assumed that the direct debits would automatically stop - they didn't. :evil:

It took a lot of effort to get this payment refunded and, to top it off, had to pay that bank a $20 fee to stop the debit from recurring. :evil::evil:

(Now I think about it, this situation was probably the major reason I do not have such automatic payments if I can reasonably avoid it).

 

[aschmid]

I am getting a bit scared now here since I have most of my bills setup as direct debit - never had a problem though.

The way I see it I can anytime withdraw the direct debit agreement I have given to any organization, of course best to do this in writing.

Once I have withdrawn the agreement they have no permission to take any money from my account or credit card, if they do they are making a fraudulent transaction and this would be subject to investigation and possible prosecution by authorities.

Again I don't understand why somebody say they aren't able to stop somebody taking money out of their account. Have they canceled the agreement in writing?

If they did there is no way any organization could go ahead and still debit them.

Am I too naive or what?

 

[serfty]

Gettin' a bit OT here ...

With a CC you can "dispute" the transaction (If done soon enough). It's much harder with debits from standard cheque/savings/transaction accounts.

In any case it's still a PITA if/when it happens.

 

[rwatts]

Going back on topic then, it is a shame that Amex don't/can't participate in BPAY (other than as a biller).

I love BPAY and use it wherever possible because I can schedule a payment for the very date a bill is due and not have to allow for the several days that what should be an instantaneous transaction seem to take.

Its a BPAY requirement that billers must accept the time that the payer's bank debits their account as the receipt time and not the time the funds arrive in the biller's account.

My Amex and MasterCard account payments therefore get scheduled for payment by BPAY on the very last (business) day possible. Compare this to paying a previous MasterCard by direct debit when I found the bank was taking the money 10 days before due date "in case there were problems with the transfer". Suddenly my "55 days interest free" was now 45 days. I thought it was a little cheeky seeing as it was an account with the same bank they would be debiting. That pretty soon got cancelled.

Richard.