ACH Pull vs Bill pay Push

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know the pros and cons when comparing the two? I really have no idea. A simple Google search did not help.

[SnackTrader]

As long as it pays your bill - who cares!?

But seriously, for many issuers an ACH pull will get credited to your account immediately, or very soon thereafter where as a push has to wait until it gets to the receiving bank. For instance, if I remember I need to pay my CC bill tonight, I can log on and schedule an ACH Pull and the CC company will likely credit me for the payment today. Meaning, it won't be late. But if I schedule a push from my checking account, that payment might not get to the CC company until Thursday.

So from a time perspective there is a difference, but otherwise, I don't really see any reason to pick one over the other. I find pulls through my CC logins easiest.

[Anonymous]

Well there you go! ACH Pull FTW. Anything fast is good in my book.

[Anonymous]

Pushes are useful when the issuer website has some restrictions on payment, e.g. you cannot pay until a balance is posted, only pay X times per cycle, cannot pay more than 1.Y times current balance.    Doing a push overcomes these restrictions.

But, these are generally only when people are micro-managing utilization, so for many people not really needed.

The other time I use push is from Bluebird to a credit card.   You cannot pull from Bluebird (or rather, I don't know how!) and this is the quickest way to repay manufactured spend.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Pushes are useful when the issuer website has some restrictions on payment, e.g. you cannot pay until a balance is posted, only pay X times per cycle, cannot pay more than 1.Y times current balance.    Doing a push overcomes these restrictions.

But, these are generally only when people are micro-managing utilization, so for many people not really needed.

The other time I use push is from Bluebird to a credit card.   You cannot pull from Bluebird (or rather, I don't know how!) and this is the quickest way to repay manufactured spend.

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It's funny you mentioned the ACH pull from BB. Just now, on my student loan website, for fun i added the routing and checking # from BB and it worked! It said "Saved success from American Express Centurtion Bank - Checking".  However i'm reluctant to use it as an ACH pull because the BB terms says you cannot do it and should only use BillPay to pay bills. hmmh...

FWIW, i tried adding it to Chase Student loans, Chase credit card, Discover student loans, and it would not accept the BB routing & checking #. Only my government loans would.

thanks for the info, btw.

[Open123]

I always prefer push, since before any bill pay, I always send a $1.00 test payment.  Once that goes through, I just pay at my leisure.

The only reason don't like pulling is the chance of inputing wrong account information.  One digit off, and the payment bounces; and, lord knows what sort of hassles this will create.

[JonStur]

The only push I use is for my 5th Third World MC because they want you to have an account with them to pay online... So I would have to go to a branch or try to mail a payment...

[thom02099]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Pushes are useful when the issuer website has some restrictions on payment, e.g. you cannot pay until a balance is posted, only pay X times per cycle, cannot pay more than 1.Y times current balance.    Doing a push overcomes these restrictions.

But, these are generally only when people are micro-managing utilization, so for many people not really needed.

The other time I use push is from Bluebird to a credit card.   You cannot pull from Bluebird (or rather, I don't know how!) and this is the quickest way to repay manufactured spend.

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+1.  If one has credit cards, it's important to know the rules of the game, as far as what each issuer will allow.  If you know each company's rules, up front,  then you know when you need to PUSH vs PULL a payment. 

For example:  Wells Fargo will only allow 2 payments to PULL from within their on line account payment process.  However, one can PUSH as many times as you'd like. Chase also has limitations.   They require a 3 day window for payments, you make a payment, then have to wait 3 days to PULL another payment, whereas you can PUSH whenever you'd like. 

And....as Lurker said, this all really comes down to micro-managing accounts.  Yes, there may be times when one needs to do a PULL and PUSH to a payment, but for most folks I don't think it's really necessary.

[Blackbeauty212]

I've always prefered to PUSH my payments for the following reasons:

1 - I like being able to manage all my accounts from one source, and all my bill except for my rent are sent electronically so I can have my payments post as soon as next businessday. Its more manageable for me this way.

2 - Some PULLS will actually charge a fee (mostly utilities). I will not pay a fee to take my $$$$$$$.

3 - I pay my Everyday card a couple  times a month to always have a 0$ report to the CRAs. As other said PULLS can restrict when and how much you can pay. Id rather  have the flexability of PUSH.

To be honest the only advantage I see for PULLS are if you need to make a payment on the Due Date or the day before Statement Cycle (for us Util watchers)

el

[Anonymous]

Some utilities charge for a (pull) payment from a bank account?  Wow!  Mine charge for credit card, but that makes a little more sense.  Generally ACH payment is much cheaper for the business than someone sending in a check.