On 4 Jun 2006 at 13:38, Gary VanderMolen wrote:
> > You find the bank's online billpay sites *more*flexible* than Quicken? ??
> > [of course, this is a huge YMMV matter: some folk prefer MS Money, some
> > prefer some of the other billpay apps]. But overall, I think that using
> > a *local* app, that manages your billpay and all your checking and charge
> > accounts is just miles and miles ahead of dealing with a clunky "online
> > billpay" page from your bank.
>
> Can you use Quicken to pay bills on future dates,
Yes -- I do it all the time. For example, when I get my auto-insurance
bill, it is set up for two payments, and I just put them in to be paid on
the appropriate future days. [and so I have one pending, not-yet-sent,
payment that'll happen some time in August]. And it is all on the
server, so I need not log in from quicken or anyplace else or do anything
to get the payment to happen on time. Similarly, I now regularly pay
bills on their due date, and no earlier. If my phone bill says "pay
before 22 June", I put THAT date into quicken, and it gets paid
automatically on that [future] date]. Works like a charm!
> .. or to check your
> current balances, all without leaving your home computer turned on
> while you're away on vacation or a business trip?
Problem there is that I CAN check my balances online, but to do so I'd
need to go to six different sites (various bank accts, brokerage accts,
credit card accts) But if I happen to be at home [which, it turns out,
so far [only about ten years of quickening] has *always* been the case]
then one click gets me *ALL* my balances in one swoop.
> The flexibility of online banking/BillPay is that I can use it from
> anywhere in the world.
And you pay for that 'feature' with [IMO] klunkiness and inefficiency and
a bit of a cumbersome interface. Certainly not worth the tradeoff for
me. Obviously, YMMV.
I'm curious, why would you want to pay a bill if you're travelling in
Zambia anyway? My bills all come to my house and so even if I *wanted*
to pay electric bill from, say, a cybercafe in the Czech Republic, I
would have to call home to get someone to rip open the bill to check the
amount. [obvioulsy you're more travelled than I am, and you also
apparently don't travel with your laptop, for if you did that, then you
can have all the convenience of a "local billpay/moneymgr app" and STILL
pay bills from anywhere you can get an internet connection.
A similar argument about email and such: I'd rather carry my laptop
and have really-good email wherever I go, rather than put up with
the awful klunkiness of the "web mail" stuff -- even the very best
I've seen is hopelessly clumsy and ineffective (and of course,
incredibly slow and inefficient) compared to my Popfile/Pegasus
setup... again, everyonesMMV
/Bernie\
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Bernie Cosell Fantasy Farm Fibers
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Pearisburg, VA
--> Too many people, too few sheep <--
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