About Check Pay

Check Pay makes mailing a check to anyone nationwide fast and easy. You need to enter the name, address, and amount into Quicken, and we’ll automate printing, stuffing, and mailing a check drawn off of your own checking account. 

To use Check Pay to pay a bill, you must first set up Check Pay. 

Set up Check Pay for new manual bills

When you create a new manual bill, you have the option to allow paying with Check Pay. To allow Check Pay for a new manual bill:

1. Select the Bills & Income tab.
2. Select +.
3. Select Manual Bill. The Add Bill Reminder screen will appear.
4. Enter the name of who you want to Pay to. As you enter the name, Quicken displays a list of past payees to choose from.
    
5. Once you have entered the name, select Next.
6. On the Add Bill Reminder screen, enter the appropriate information:
   • Due Next On: When your next bill is due.
   • Amount Due: How much you expect to send. This amount may vary for some of your bills, but the amount can be changed when you send the actual payment.
   • From Account: Choose the bank account you want to pay from, usually your checking account.
7. Click Add category, tag or memo to add additional information about the transaction.
   
8. Select Optional Settings, then Allow paying with Check Pay.
    
9. The Edit Payee screen will appear. Provide the following information:
   • Payee: The name of the person or biller receiving the payment.  
   • Account Number: This is the account number of your payee. This field is optional but is helpful when making payments to an account.
   • Address: The address where the check will be delivered to the payee. 
   • City, State and Zip: These fields need to be entered correctly to deliver the check to the payee. 
     
10. You will be prompted to verify the address you have given. Review your address and select Done.
11. Select Done on the Add Bill Reminder screen.
    The new bill will appear on the Biller list with the default action Pay (Check Pay).

Set up Check Pay for existing manual bills

If you already have created a manual bill and want to pay the bill using Check Pay, you need to choose to Allow paying with Check Pay.  To allow Check Pay for an existing manual bill:

1. Select the Bills & Income tab.
2. Find the payee on the Biller list. 
3. From the Action list, select Edit the instance and all future instances.
4. On the Edit Bill Reminder screen, select Allow paying with Check Pay. You can choose from any account you have enabled for Check Pay.
5. Provide the following information:
   • Payee: The name of the person or biller receiving the payment.  
   • Account Number: This is the account number of your payee. This field is optional but is helpful when making payments to an account.
   • Address: The address where the check will be delivered to the payee. 
   • City, State and Zip: These fields need to be entered correctly to deliver the check to the payee. 
6. You will be prompted to verify the address you have given. Review your address and select Done.
7. Select Done on the Add Bill Reminder screen.
   On the Biller list, you will see that the default action for that bill is Pay (Check Pay).

After you enter the address information for your payee, Quicken runs an algorithm that helps to find and correct important details required for sending the check. Quicken will display any address suggestions, which commonly include changes to the street address or zip code. This to ensure reliable delivery through USPS First Class Mail. You can choose whether to save the new suggested address for the payee or to use your original address entry. 

Select Done when you are through reviewing the address. 

Check Pay is a way to automatically send payments by check through the Quicken application. Unlike our check printing feature, this service sends the actual payment. You select the account to make the payment from and the payee. Quicken sends the check using our service, Check Pay. Through our tool you can set your payment account, add a payee, confirm the address, send a payment, and verify that the payment has been sent.

To make a payment using Check Pay, you need to the following information: 

• Account to use: By default, Quicken will use the account that you chose while setting up the reminder. You can choose any other Check Pay enabled account as well.

• Payment amount: Quicken will display the default amount that was entered when you created the reminder. You can change the amount as needed. 

• Date: Quicken allows you to to either send a check immediately or to schedule that check to be sent later. The payment date will default to today’s date. If you want to send your check immediately, leave the date set to the default. If you want to schedule a payment, pick a future date on which you want the check to be sent. When you set your date, you will get an estimated delivery date range. This range accounts for factors such as weekends and delivery distances.
  Note: When using Check Pay, you can schedule more than one check for the same Payee.

You can optionally enter information for the Category, Tag, and Memo fields. Adding this information will improve Quicken reports about your payments and transactions. 

Once you have filled in all the information, you will be prompted to either Pay or Schedule. If the Pay button appears, that means the check will be sent within one business day. If the Schedule button appears, it means that check will be sent within one business day of the scheduled date. Keep in mind that the date a check is sent is not the date it is scheduled to arrive. The system will provide an estimated delivery window when you create the payment.

If you choose to Schedule a payment, that payment will appear immediately in your register marked as Scheduled. The status will change to Sent once the bill is verified as having been paid or Failed if the bill could not be paid. You can also see your scheduled payments in Calendar view.

Quicken gives you the ability to track your check payments. Once you select the link under the Last Payment Status column, you see a screen that describes the current status of the payment. 

The following status levels are the most common: 

• Scheduled - Payment has been submitted with a future date.
• Processing - Payment submitted for immediate processing. Status changes after check has been processed.
• Sent / Payment Successful - The payment has been mailed.  Unless an issue arises, this is the final state of your payment.
• Canceled - Payment process has been halted at the user's request. 
• Failed - Payment was unable to be completed.

As part of the Check Pay verification process, two micro-deposits will be made to your account. You need to review your account transactions and find the two micro-deposits. The order you enter the deposits does not matter, but they must be correct. If you enter the wrong amount too many times, you get the message:

You need to confirm your request to send a check using Check Pay.  Review the payment information on the screen to ensure the Payee, the Address, the Account to use, and the Amount are correct. Once you have verified the payment information, select Confirm.

As part of the process to enable Check Pay, you need to request verification deposits. 

When you select Send Verification Deposits, two micro-deposits ($.01 to $.99) will be made to your designated account. This can take up to two or three days. 

At the top of the the Bills & Income page, you will see a link that will allow you to complete your payment account verification once the micro-deposits have been sent.