I'm so angry I could cuss!!!

[CreditInspired]

OP, please get "overdraft protection" immediately so something like this NEVER happens again! And if Woodstock, Woodpile, or whatever the name of this bank is don't offer it, close your account and open an account with a bank that does offer it. Because it's Murphy's Law, and !*#% happens. So the next time you believe your bill is covered, it will be, and you'll be ahead of the curve. So sorry this happened but treat it as a lesson-learned.

[medicgrrl]

Regarding you account never being "overdrawn", I'm guessing that's because the payment never cleared your bank.  Was your balance ever below $250 after your bank didn't allow the bill pay to go thru?

Regarding NFCU, I've noticed the same thing about the payments disappearing.  From what I can figure out, the payment is pending until the day before it's going to post and then it goes into limbo until the next day when it posts to your account.  It had me pretty stressed out yesterday trying to figure out what happened to my CLOC payment.

[Anonymous]

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@heyryan wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

So, on April 21, 2017 I got paid and paid all my bills.  I paid $250 on my CC (Cap One).  They showed the payment posted on that day.  Then, 5 days later, the bank reversed the funds and now it looks like I didn't pay! What's worse is that its a $250 SC and because it looks like I didn't pay AND have %100 Utilization it caused my score to go down 86 points!!! I called the bank they said I didn't have enough funds to cover the payment, well I did when I made the payment and Cap One shows this! Why would the bank touch money that they can clearly see I had allocated to a bill already??? Cap 1 is going to try to clear up the CR thing but I told WoodForest (my bank) that I work on Capitol Hill and I will go to my Congressman and Senator and file a complaint! But before I do, am I missing something in your opinion?  I did learn to never pay a bill directly from your bank account and always use a debit and never pay on a Friday.  Please help...

{{and this....}}

I still don't think it's fair that I authorize the bank to put money to a certain bill, then they move the money over to that bill and just because the payee hasn't finished proccessing yet then they just take it back??? It was already authorized and funds were available!!! UGH!!!

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I'm a little confused by your explanation. Did you pay Cap1 through Cap1's website, or through your bank's bill pay? It SOUNDS like you paid through Cap1's site since you said they showed the payment as posting the same day. Also, I checked Woodforest's website, and their billpay policy seems to be that if you don't have the money, they just won't send the payment, not send it and then reverse it.

If you pay through the biller's website, your bank does not "clearly see [you] had allocated [money] to a bill already". Also you didn't "authorize the bank to put money to a certain bill" if you paid on Cap1's site. You're authorizing Cap1 to do an ACH pull on the 21st, which might take a couple days to hit your bank and clear. Your bank has no idea how you're allocating money when you pay at the far end via ACH pull.

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This would certainly explain what happened (especially Cap One showing the payment posted the same day which certainly wouldn't happen with a push from the bank)

But I was confused by OPs "I did learn to never pay a bill directly from your bank account and always use a debit and never pay on a Friday."

[jamesdwi]

My favorite tips, I learned a long time ago 

Step 1: after you open a checking account, forget about the first $50 in it, never spend it, consider it unavailible. that $50 may be the best investment you ever make, one bounced check saved by that $50 saves you $30+ in non-suffient funds fee (NSF, in banking lingo). 

Step 2: once you get the $50 buffer in place, work on openning a saving account, with a $100, link it to your saving account, if you make a bigger mistake, the bank will transfer money out of the savings account to your checking account usually for a small fee, still much less than the NSF above.

I have gotten to the point where I have an extra $500 in mycheking account, for two reasons, the whole float thing plus my credit union pays 7.5% interest on the first $500 in my checking account,  gotta love Landmark Credit union, my checking account pays me $2.75 to $3.xx a month.   There credit card sucks but its not to earn about $40 a year just by having a checking account, not bad considering most banks pay about 1/10 of a percent on saving accounts. 

I haven't paid an NSF fee in years, have paid a couple of the smaller transfer fees when I make big mistakes but still $10 compared to the $100 or so it would of cost. Banks also don't like having your account over drawn so its a win all around. 

[Anonymous]

Cap 1 posts the same day but it takes 2 to 3 days for the money to clear the account. I always make sure i calculate how much i have in my bank and give it a whole week to clear payments .

[Dalmus]

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@Anonymous wrote:

You should be fortunate to have a bank like my own (South Atlantic).  My story is similar to your own.  I have 4 bank accounts but local South Atlantic is where I pay my credit card bills.  I was confused by the NFCU site while trying to make my first payment on my Cash Rewards card.  The pending transaction disappeared.  There was no proof of any payment and apparently NFCU doesn't thank you for making a payment or anything.  I made another payment and again no proof was shown.

I look at my South Atlantic bank account today and I paid my balance off twice.  There was a credit on my NFCU card.  This is before a $225 payment to my Total Rewards Visa had cleared.  Oh snap!  I had about $80 in my account at this point.

I drove quickly to South Atlantic to deposit enough cash to cover the $225 payment.  Banker said nothing to me.  I get home and check my bank account again and the Total Rewards payment had posted.  I now had $20 left in this bank.  My bank says the Total Rewards payment posted today on the 2nd.  My Total Rewards card says it posted on the 29th of last month.

Either I made it to the bank in the nick of time or they forgave the insufficient funds issue for a short period knowing I had made two payments to NFCU in the exact amount.  No late fees from my bank and eveyrthing is cool with Comenity.  This is the second time my bank has hooked me up like this.  They charge no fees for checking and I can use any ATM in the country without fees.

Two blocks from the bank and a heavy piece of machinery backs into the road and a construction worker stops traffic while I'm hitting the steering wheel and letting a few words fly.

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 I just had this EXACT same point of confusion!   I had (or thought I had) scheduled an EFT for this past Friday.   When I logged in on Friday to check, there was no "pending" or "processing" or "thanks for your payment."  So thinking I had somehow screwed up, I ALMOST made another multi-thousand dollar payment...  But I decided to call and check, and sure enough, they said the paymet was made and would be processed during the day at some point.

They REALLY need to NOT remove all  mention of the payments on payment day!

[Anonymous]

I always do I screen print when I pay anything.  I would look for another bank.  There are a ton of credit unions in metro DC including PenFed I believe that would take you if you have an SF-50 from almost any federal agency.   

[Aduke1122]

When I pay my Cap One bill it will show as paid on the next day , BUT IT SOMETIMES TAKES UP TO 3 days to actually clear my bank account . Just bc Cap One says it's paid doesn't mean it ha cleared your account yet at the bank .

[rmduhon]

A suggestion that I use. I have a separate account that I use for paying cards. Every payday I put whatever I plan to pay towards cards in it. That's all that this account is for. My main account is for other purchases (most go on the credit cards though). That way there is no issue with money not being available for the payments. Assuming I add correctly that is.

[Anonymous]

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@rmduhon wrote:
A suggestion that I use. I have a separate account that I use for paying cards. Every payday I put whatever I plan to pay towards cards in it. That's all that this account is for. My main account is for other purchases (most go on the credit cards though). That way there is no issue with money not being available for the payments. Assuming I add correctly that is.

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I always round up to the nearest dollar, that way, if I'm off by a few cents, it wont matter!!