Do you do regular electronic bank transfers?
 

Sorry, this is long, but I want to explain this first.

The banking industry has been using paper checks since the times of the Roman empire. We have a vendor that provides us a simple service, that saves us a lot of tedium and boring time at the computer, and they are better at it than we can do it ourselves. We just mark up the service and sell it to our client as an add on feature.

That vendor is trying to move into the future of 2022 and go truly paperless accounting, and is really wanting us to not pay with a simple analog paper check. I can print the check with QuickBooks with a few clicks of the mouse, so it is really easy for me, but difficult for them for some reason. For a business I have to have accurate financial records and for a small business, QuickBooks makes it easy. I enter the bill and categorize what account and catagory it is tied to, tie it to the general ledger and all the things my CPA insists i needed to keep the IRS happy.

To pay with a credit card involves a fee of usually 3.5% and that adds up quickly. They don't want to eat that cost and neither do we.

For my business we use a local family owned bank that has a nice convenient location, and by law credit unions can't do commercial bank service, so we are stuck with using a bank. If I initiate a bank transfer, my bank charges us $12 flat fee. They offer a bill pay service, but it just prints a paper check and mails it to the vendor and that does not help.

I know there are several companies doing a third party bank transfer. Zelle does it for free, but any service offered for free means I am the product they are selling.

Paypal does it, as does other services.

How do you do a bank transfer? Does your bank do it for a low fee? Do you use a phone app or a computer driven web site?

We have avoided a PayPal account for the company as I really don't feel warm and fuzzy trust for PayPal. This would be paying for a service we have already received so fraud is not an issue. We just need a reasonably easy and secure way to pay a vendor for an invoice. It might me three in one month and none for months at a time, so a monthly fee is not something I want to deal with either.

The college I work for changes banks every 5 years, sometimes more often if the bank we're currently using gets bought out (we just went to BBVA and they got bought by PNC)

Based on what I've seen them do (the bank, not us, we're just implementing stuff) - things like forcing vendors to be paid on a visa gift card, taking a extra percentage off the top to pay commission on these payments to the bank employee, etc - I'd say talk with your normal bank and see exactly what is on offer, and exactly what work flow changes would happen on your end and what costs would be associated on your end.

I have used Zelle a bunch of times. A "con" of Zelle is that you've got to setup a transfer to a person either using a mobile number or email address that I believe they have to setup and register. It doesn't seem like a great option for an established business like yours. And once you've sent the money, it's gone. So don't have a typo that goes to some random real person or you've just gifted them some money.

I've heard about Venmo, but I don't know anything about it and haven't used it.
I think there's something similar to Zelle at Chase.

I would be avoiding paypal as well.

Have you asked your bank, "Is there a way through you to send/receive money electronically that doesn't have an additional cost associated with it?"

That's probably your best first step.

On-line Quickbooks uses Melio. Melio can do with an ACH or Paper Check.

My Chase account I can pay vendors direct with an ACH payment. There is a way to create a CSV file with all of the payments you want to make and then upload them to Chase. I think most of the bigger banks can do this.

I pay most of my bills through online banking. I have a list of payees, power company, phone company, municipality etc., so when a notification of a bill arrives, I go to the bank website, sign in, select the payee and authorize the transfer.
A transaction number is generated, that is added to the record of the invoice.
I have never had a problem with the system.
My wife uses the same system through her mother's bank when she processes invoices, payments reimbursements for home care.
Best
Les

Almost all of my bills are handled through electronic transfer; mortgages, utilities, cell phone, credit card, etc... I haven't written more than a handful of checks in many years. I spend roughly 5 minutes per month on bills.

I haven't written a cheque in 20 years. For a Canadian to Canadian (account) is a free (for both seller and buyer) e-transfer. My limit is $3000 a day, but you call call ahead and get it waved or you just pay over how many days it takes.

I think Zelle is basically an ACH or wire transfer. Sounds like you are dealing with the same vendors monthly so setting them up with Zelle would be easy and once they're in your system, it would be hard to mistype a recipient and lose your money. Very easy to track and verify who and where it went to.
I use it for everything I can.
I also use monthly bill pay through my credit union and it's shocking how many vendors they still pay with a written check.

Agreed, if it's the same vendors over and over again, that's a no brainer.

And any time I add a new transfer destination via Zelle, I first transfer $1, ask for confirmation that it was received, then transfer the remainder.

I'm sure that "you" are probably the product with Zelle. I suspect at this point, it's "we want to be the VHS of this thing, not Betamax", so everything is free. Once they are the major player, then they'll start adding new services that they charge for (or start charging for existing services). Like you say, eventually there's gotta be a way for them to make money.

Glen
Just keep avoiding PayPal. In a word it sucks. I've wasted several hours on the phone to India to fix the issues I had with them and it never got fixed.

The final straw was a client paid me by debitcard to PayPal that I manually entered the numbers. PayPal flagged it as fraudulent and never completed the transaction but on my client's end it locked up the funds.

Sounds overly complicated to me.
I do etransfers regularly through CIBC (bank) for both my business and personal accounts.
Set up the payee, and do my thing. No charge, but I assume it's part of my monthly fee on my business account.
I write etransfer payment on the invoice, the same as writing a cheque number, and my bookkeeper figures it out. It's also how I pay her.
I hate service charges!!!

Yep. One of my tenants uses Bill.com for rent. Their gig is the float but if I'd like to "get" my money a couple of days sooner, it's a 1% fee to me.


Want it faster? Bill.com can send it instantly!

Fee 1% of payment amount
Get Money Instantly

Payments typically process in seconds and could take up to 30 minutes to appear in your account

Online banking for the last ten years at least. It must be many years since I wrote out a check.

Even between different banks the money arrives in the other person's account within minutes. Weekends may take an hour or two.

I also use bill-pay through my credit union. Very easy and free.
If it's a one time only bill...I'll write a check. (helps me keep my cursive writing in shape!)

It stuns me you guys still don't have email money transfer. So easy, and no cost, all through your bank and receivable by anyone that banks electronically via text or email.

We absolutely do, Zelle, Chase, etc.... I think there are a bunch of vendors that do it here. I don't think it's something that the average Joe does daily. It's probably more prevalent in younger crowds (they usually adopt new technology first).

Don't forget, we've got a bunch of guys here that either brag about still using a "dumb" flip phone or lament having to have a smart phone.

^^^ what's the diff between bill-pay and that?
Both free and done electronically.

No third party required, all secured by the bank and within there system and free of fees to either end user. And anybody can receive it without an account beyond their bank account, no apps required. What bank etc doesn't matter, you can each bank with separate institutions and it all still works.

yes, since 1995 or so, that's all I've been using.
I never had a chequebook, in my life
Never ever had a paycheck either, except that one time in Ireland

^^^ I believe that is what my cu does.