topic Re: PayPal Bill Pay Nerfed - Alternatives? in Credit Cards

PayPal Bill Pay Nerfed - Alternatives?

K-in-Boston — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 23:17:11 GMT

I went to pay my gas and electric bills today using PayPal Bill Pay to charge them to one of my US Bank Cash+ cards for the utilities category, and was surprised to see that every single payee in my account was gone. Just paid the water bill about a week or so ago and everything was normal. A quick internet search showed that this has been rolling out for about a month and looks like PayPal has nerfed most payees. I guess it was too good to last; they were eating the Interchange fees on these payments after all.

Is anyone aware of any alternatives other than Plastiq? I'm assuming that there are no other completely free bill pay services with credit card funding, but if there's a low cost one that might make sense to use. I used to just pay $600 at a time each for the gas and electric bills to minimize the fees (and have credit balances going forward to the next bill). I could go back to doing that, of course, but with the water bill it's kind of silly that Boston Water and Sewer charges $4.95 (which can be more than 10% some months) so before PayPal Bill Pay I was just paying my water bill like a year ahead. Nobody wants to go back to ACH when there are credit card rewards at stake!

RIP PayPal Key and PayPal Bill Pay.

Re: PayPal Bill Pay Nerfed - Alternatives?

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 01:17:03 GMT

Thanks for the post, just found the same thing. National Grid is still available, via search, but it doesn't recognize my account number (doesn't even complain about account/zip combo, just says the account number is wrong). As you say, RIP these Paypal goodies, but we knew they were unlikely to last. Now I have to remember how to do that 602.50 or whatever

Re: PayPal Bill Pay Nerfed - Alternatives?

cws-21 — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 01:26:44 GMT

I noticed the same thing recently. All that is left for me to use PayPal Bill Pay for are State Farm and one utility company. Fortunately, I can now pay all my utilities through their own websites fee free. However, I am out of luck with Verizon Fios, which I was, until recently, paying via PP BP.

Re: PayPal Bill Pay Nerfed - Alternatives?

K-in-Boston — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 05:09:42 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for the post, just found the same thing. National Grid is still available, via search, but it doesn't recognize my account number (doesn't even complain about account/zip combo, just says the account number is wrong). As you say, RIP these Paypal goodies, but we knew they were unlikely to last. Now I have to remember how to do that 602.50 or whatever

Yeah, Eversource isn't there and neither is Nstar (which if I remember correctly, is how I originally added the Eversource accounts). I did just discover some great news, though. Eversource stopped charging the $2.50 per $600 fee when using Speedpay on their website! Just made two payments (electric, gas) with no fee!

Bad news is that Boston Water & Sewer does still charge (I was wrong about the $4.95, it's only $4.25 whether you are paying $20 or the maximum amount of $650).

@cws-21 wrote:
However, I am out of luck with Verizon Fios, which I was, until recently, paying via PP BP.

I've always paid for multiple Verizon FIOS accounts (business and personal) with both manual credit card payments (~$10 a month on Business Platinum for the credit, but the remainder autobilled to a card that earns more) and with autopay directly on the Verizon website with no fee. Are they charging a fee in your area?

Re: PayPal Bill Pay Nerfed - Alternatives?

xenon3030 — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 05:25:06 GMT

By nerfing PPK and PP Bill Pay, Plastiq might be one of the options (Bilt only supports rent). I do not like to use Plastiq for high risk payments like mortgage (a single discrepancy on a payment can be a disaster).

Several of my utility companies charge ~1-2%, if I pay by CC, but my HOA charges 4%

Re: PayPal Bill Pay Nerfed - Alternatives?

cws-21 — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 14:20:54 GMT

@K-in-Boston wrote:
@cws-21 wrote:
However, I am out of luck with Verizon Fios, which I was, until recently, paying via PP BP.
I've always paid for multiple Verizon FIOS accounts (business and personal) with both manual credit card payments (~$10 a month on Business Platinum for the credit, but the remainder autobilled to a card that earns more) and with autopay directly on the Verizon website with no fee. Are they charging a fee in your area?

I did pay my Verizon Fios bill with a credit card, but I was told by a Verizon CSR that I would lose autopay discounts if made an additional payment outside the autopay. Furthermore, I could not use a credit card for autopay. I may be mistaken, or misremembering, but I don't think so.

Re: PayPal Bill Pay Nerfed - Alternatives?

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 14:52:08 GMT

@cws-21 wrote:
@K-in-Boston wrote:
@cws-21 wrote:
However, I am out of luck with Verizon Fios, which I was, until recently, paying via PP BP.
I've always paid for multiple Verizon FIOS accounts (business and personal) with both manual credit card payments (~$10 a month on Business Platinum for the credit, but the remainder autobilled to a card that earns more) and with autopay directly on the Verizon website with no fee. Are they charging a fee in your area?
I did pay my Verizon Fios bill with a credit card, but I was told by a Verizon CSR that I would lose autopay discounts if made an additional payment outside the autopay. Furthermore, I could not use a credit card for autopay. I may be mistaken, or misremembering, but I don't think so.

Yes, you are right. Unlike T-Mobile, you cannot use a non-Verizon credit card for any payment and get the autopay discount. (I think you can still set up autopay with a credit card, but not certain)

Re: PayPal Bill Pay Nerfed - Alternatives?

cws-21 — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 15:19:49 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@cws-21 wrote:
@K-in-Boston wrote:
@cws-21 wrote:
However, I am out of luck with Verizon Fios, which I was, until recently, paying via PP BP.
I've always paid for multiple Verizon FIOS accounts (business and personal) with both manual credit card payments (~$10 a month on Business Platinum for the credit, but the remainder autobilled to a card that earns more) and with autopay directly on the Verizon website with no fee. Are they charging a fee in your area?
I did pay my Verizon Fios bill with a credit card, but I was told by a Verizon CSR that I would lose autopay discounts if made an additional payment outside the autopay. Furthermore, I could not use a credit card for autopay. I may be mistaken, or misremembering, but I don't think so.
Yes, you are right. Unlike T-Mobile, you cannot use a non-Verizon credit card for any payment and get the autopay discount. (I think you can still set up autopay with a credit card, but not certain)

Thanks for confirming, @Anonymous. I don't believe I was able to use autopay in conjunction with a credit card given a change on Verizon's end, but I could be wrong. It would be great if I could go back to using a credit card for Verizon. Can anyone verify this in particular?

Re: PayPal Bill Pay Nerfed - Alternatives?

K-in-Boston — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 15:32:07 GMT

I have a total of 11 Verizon accounts (only 1 personal) auto-billed to credit cards every month; there is definitely no fee for me. I don't think Verizon ever charges a fee for paying with a credit card, but it seems like some accounts may not be eligible for the autopay discount unless paid with ACH, debit card, or with the Verizon card. So while not paying a fee, you may lose a discount for doing so.

I had VZ FIOS set up on PPBP just to see if pushing a payment from there would code as internet instead of "calls placed through the use of magnetic stripe-reading phones" (apparently I must fly a lot of older planes with those still built into the headrest) on US Bank Cash+, but only made the one payment. Otherwise, they've always been paid directly with VZ. (MCC still got pushed through the same way, although just as with Amex it appears that FIOS triggers wireless categories.)

Re: PayPal Bill Pay Nerfed - Alternatives?

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 17:32:48 GMT

@K-in-Boston wrote:
I have a total of 11 Verizon accounts (only 1 personal) auto-billed to credit cards every month; there is definitely no fee for me. I don't think Verizon ever charges a fee for paying with a credit card, but it seems like some accounts may not be eligible for the autopay discount unless paid with ACH, debit card, or with the Verizon card. So while not paying a fee, you may lose a discount for doing so.

I had VZ FIOS set up on PPBP just to see if pushing a payment from there would code as internet instead of "calls placed through the use of magnetic stripe-reading phones" (apparently I must fly a lot of older planes with those still built into the headrest) on US Bank Cash+, but only made the one payment. Otherwise, they've always been paid directly with VZ. (MCC still got pushed through the same way, although just as with Amex it appears that FIOS triggers wireless categories.)

There isn't an added fee, but obviously the removal of the discount is pretty similar. I paid FiOS with PPBP for a long time, and it worked fine. I had a thread that it didn't seem to be working a month or two ago (there was no Pay button on the usual merchant screen). Obviously now an early warning.

Re: PayPal Bill Pay Nerfed - Alternatives?

Wavester64 — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 11:52:56 GMT

@K-in-Boston wrote:
I went to pay my gas and electric bills today using PayPal Bill Pay to charge them to one of my US Bank Cash+ cards for the utilities category, and was surprised to see that every single payee in my account was gone. Just paid the water bill about a week or so ago and everything was normal. A quick internet search showed that this has been rolling out for about a month and looks like PayPal has nerfed most payees. I guess it was too good to last; they were eating the Interchange fees on these payments after all.

Is anyone aware of any alternatives other than Plastiq? I'm assuming that there are no other completely free bill pay services with credit card funding, but if there's a low cost one that might make sense to use. I used to just pay $600 at a time each for the gas and electric bills to minimize the fees (and have credit balances going forward to the next bill). I could go back to doing that, of course, but with the water bill it's kind of silly that Boston Water and Sewer charges $4.95 (which can be more than 10% some months) so before PayPal Bill Pay I was just paying my water bill like a year ahead. Nobody wants to go back to ACH when there are credit card rewards at stake!

RIP PayPal Key and PayPal Bill Pay.

**BLEEP** This is now happening to me!

Sheesh - that *TOTALLY* kills one of my cards (and the savings that came a long with it).

Re: PayPal Bill Pay Nerfed - Alternatives?

TyrannicalDuncery2 — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 13:42:00 GMT

I'd also like to know! Fortunately no big impact on me, Here is some crappy generic advice based on my experience:

I don't know any alternatives, but in some cases maybe there is an option specific to your utility? I've seen one utility that links to a 3rd-party site that allows you to make credit card payments specifically for that one utility (they charge a small fee).

Also maybe there is a way to do it by phone? I've never seen that be the only way for a utility, but sometimes you can pay for things on the phone in ways you couldn't online.

Also, maybe mobile wallet? I saw a utility that lets you pay via mobile wallet but it was very minimally advertised. I missed it for a long time. Maybe check on your phone if you haven't?

Re: PayPal Bill Pay Nerfed - Alternatives?

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 15:12:27 GMT

@TyrannicalDuncery2 wrote:
I'd also like to know! Fortunately no big impact on me, Here is some crappy generic advice based on my experience:

I don't know any alternatives, but in some cases maybe there is an option specific to your utility? I've seen one utility that links to a 3rd-party site that allows you to make credit card payments specifically for that one utility (they charge a small fee).

Yes, this is the way some utilities here (Boston) do it, going to a Western Union site. Before PPBP, many of would pay around $602.XX, as $600 was the largest amount where the fee was only $2.XX. But @K-in-Boston reports that one major utility isn't charging that fee any more.

Re: PayPal Bill Pay Nerfed - Alternatives?

UncleB — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 08:42:10 GMT

I'm a little late, but figured I'd chime in that I've experienced this as well. The gas company I've been paying with PPBP for a while disappeared last month.

On the plus side, that same gas company changed CC vendors and the new one codes as 'utilities' on the Cash+ without the PP work-around, but the new vendor also charges a 1.99% fee, so 5% becomes ~3%.

FWIW, PPBP could be janky with the gas company (sometimes payments would take over a week to post, and once I had one that after two weeks never posted and required me to get PP to investigate, after which it promptly arrived) so at least now that's no longer an issue. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯