@UncleB wrote:I did some poking around Paypal Bill Pay last night... this might be interesting to those who were using PPK for their Verizon Wireless Bill...
I use Verizon Prepaid so this doesn't apply to me, but I'm thinking that if one were to setup autopay (to trigger the autopay discount) they could still pay their bill a few days early via Paypal to take advantage of PP quarters on Freedom/Disco, and depending on the MCC that is passed maybe even the cell phone category on the U.S. Bank Cash+.
I do something similar with my Verizon Prepaid account; I have autopay setup for the discount, but I always have a credit balance on my Verizon account due to buying refills for a discount in advance. In my case, it's the best of both worlds.
Obviously some testing would need to be done... 🤔
@UncleB sorta off-topic: With setting up auto-pay on Verizon Wireless I know you get 2% if you use your Verizon Visa (which I have been doing). But if change that auto-pay to another card that get you 5% CB, there's no downside to that, right? When you try to change the auto-pay on the Verizon Bill it keeps giving me warnings, so now I am thinking I must be missing something 
@Wavester64 wrote:@UncleB sorta off-topic: With setting up auto-pay on Verizon Wireless I know you get 2% if you use your Verizon Visa (which I have been doing). But if change that auto-pay to another card that get you 5% CB, there's no downside to that, right? When you try to change the auto-pay on the Verizon Bill it keeps giving me warnings, so now I am thinking I must be missing something
Well, the downside is that doing so makes you lose the autopay discount, which it specifically says must be one of.... and Verizon Visa is the only credit card the allows you to keep the discount. It's possible, and I THINK I accidently did something like this, is that you can do a one-time pay with another card, such as Cash+/MaxCash, while still keeping the autopay set to a preferred method, and get the benefit, but I would be surprised, although something similar seems to work for @UncleB on the Verizon Prepaid side.
ETA:
FWIW, I just tried this again with FiOS, which has similar autopay requirements. Trying a one time pay with MaxCash generates the warning message that if I use this card for a one time payment, the autopay/paper-free billing discount will be removed for this month. So they spotted that loophole!
@Wavester64 wrote:
@UncleB wrote:I did some poking around Paypal Bill Pay last night... this might be interesting to those who were using PPK for their Verizon Wireless Bill...
I use Verizon Prepaid so this doesn't apply to me, but I'm thinking that if one were to setup autopay (to trigger the autopay discount) they could still pay their bill a few days early via Paypal to take advantage of PP quarters on Freedom/Disco, and depending on the MCC that is passed maybe even the cell phone category on the U.S. Bank Cash+.
I do something similar with my Verizon Prepaid account; I have autopay setup for the discount, but I always have a credit balance on my Verizon account due to buying refills for a discount in advance. In my case, it's the best of both worlds.
Obviously some testing would need to be done... 🤔
@UncleB sorta off-topic: With setting up auto-pay on Verizon Wireless I know you get 2% if you use your Verizon Visa (which I have been doing). But if change that auto-pay to another card that get you 5% CB, there's no downside to that, right? When you try to change the auto-pay on the Verizon Bill it keeps giving me warnings, so now I am thinking I must be missing something
Yeah, Verizon doesn't treat all credit cards the same... you really need to do the math before changing your payment source to a non-Verizon credit card.
What I was suggesting above was a bit different. How the autopay discount works on Verizon prepaid is as long as autopay is active you get the discount. If there's no balance due (because of a credit or it's already been paid) they don't actually hit your autopay source, yet you still get the discount. (I think at one time they would 'ping' my credit card for $0 at the usual time of the autopay, but I'm not sure if they even do that any longer.)
Since Paypal Bill Pay isn't a credit card (it appears to be ACH?) I was thinking if you used it to pay your Verizon balance before it's due the results might be the same - autopay would still run at the usual time, but for $0 since there would be no balance due, and you would still get the autopay discount while (effectively) using a different credit card (via Paypal Bill Pay). Of course just because it's logical doesn't mean it would work... like I mentioned before, some testing is definitely in order.
@Anonymous wrote:
@UncleB wrote:
But..... As a big-time gambler (kids, don't try this at home!) I tried a $5 on Paypal Billpay. My Cash+ was charged just $5. Next step is to see if the whole $5 gets credited (what WILL eversource do with all that money!) but I assume that it will. If so, this will allow us to save $2.50 a few times a year. FREE MONEY. Thanks for pointing this out @Anonymous
I made a $10 payment to the propane company for the same purpose, also using the Cash+. Depending on the MCC that's passed on it could trigger the 5% category, although I'm not betting on it.
As long as the payment 'works' this method will still be useful during the Paypal quarters on Freedom/Disco.
I hope @UncleB found the same, but it just posted on my Cash+ and the MCC is indeed the correct one. So this seems to be a fee-free way to pay, so long as your biller is in the list. One caveat though, don't see the credit on my bill though, I assume it takes a few days. Otherwise it's a good way to get credit card rewards while losing the rest of the money!
Hang in there, @Anonymous, I had the same concern. I submitted the $10 payment to the propane company Monday evening, and this AM there was still no corresponding credit on the propane company account; I admit I was starting to get annoyed. For 'giggles' I just checked again, and it's finally showing up. 
Also, the MCC for the transaction was 4900, which is the same as the power company here so I know it will trigger the 5% utility category on the Cash+. This is notable for me, since when I use the Cash+ on the propane company's website (directly) the MCC is 5983 (Fuel Dealers–Coal, Fuel Oil, Liquefied Petroleum, Wood) which does not trigger the 5% utility category. Simply put, using Paypal Bill Pay will allow me to earn 5% back on the propane charges through the Cash+ year-round.
@kilroy8, hopefully this will be useful!