Hi- Was wondering if anyone has any info re MBNA's billpay after the completion of the operational merger with Bofa. Called Bofa a few months ago - and rep claimed that MBNA cards would simply become Bofa cards - and the bofa billpay service will apply - which of course - strips us of the many perks MBNA billpay offers. I read today that the final merge will be in Oct 2006. I'm hoping they keep MBNA's Billpay - but somehow I'm not optomistic. Anyone have any reassuring info? TIA
manuel said:Been discussed adinfinitum in mbna threads - don't think the october 2006 date means a thing.
Billpay will end when billpay ends.
Has anyone actually got confirmation that Billpay will end? I just received a letter today saying that I should receive a new card branded BofA instead of MBNA soon. I really really pray that they keep Billpay. Otherwise, I'm just going to reallocate to my no fee BofA card.
There appear to be no insiders from the MBNA/BofA marketing and planning departments on this board. Or if there are, they are not talking.
We don't know what will happen to Billpay. We don't know if you will be able to continue paying your favorite bill. We don't know what new services they will introduce. We don't know what services they will take away. We don't know what new charges there will be. We don't know if they will close your account for doing x, y, or z. We don't know if there will be a 0% APR offer. We don't know if there will be a no-fee BT offer. We don't know... We don't know... We don't know...
I received this week a letter saying that I will soon receive a BofA card to replace one of my 2 MBNA cards. So we're closer and closer to finding the answer...
I already received the BOA card to replace my MBNA card, the letter that came with the card says continue to access the card through MBNA net access online. So far nothing but the card has changed.
While it is not clear what BOA will do with bill pay, a possible edge may be to enter future payments in now.
It is possible that if they restrict it, or shut it down, they will let the already scheduled ones go through. This would improve customer relations and avoid having complaint that people had said up payments before their big trip, and then they were not made etc. Ones who log on and find that payments are not possible, are not inconvenienced too much since they at least have notice.
A possible change (one I might make it running BOA) would be to put a cap on payments to single creditors, so that they do not provide an extra months interest free loans on large amounts, say paying off other credit cards when the 0% expires. This would let them continue to earn interest off of those that carry a balance and use bill pay for its convenience while limiting the amount of credit extended to those who pay off their lines before the due date.
Thus, it might be wise to set up repayment of other cards from MBNA now (assuming of course your credit lines are large enough). You presumably know the date you wish to repay these and the amounts now.
Of course, if they do not change the rules you can cancel the payments, or change the amounts to what you do want.
Since the system appears programmed not to make payments if it would exceed your credit line, you risk is reduced of having something go badly wrong.
Of course, if you do not check it, you risk finding the amounts set up are wrong. If the amounts are on the low side (say for a credit card) and they do not let you change them, you could let them go through and then pay the rest through some other route.
ProfessorEd said:It is possible that if they restrict it, or shut it down, they will let the already scheduled ones go through. This would improve customer relations and avoid having complaint that people had said up payments before their big trip, and then they were not made etc. Ones who log on and find that payments are not possible, are not inconvenienced too much since they at least have notice. I think I should go ahead and schedule the next 12 months of my mortgage payment. LOL...
The screen on the 10th click shows a link called "Pay an external bill using Bill Pay" under the "I want to..." section on the left. I don't see this link on my Non-MBNA BofA Cards.
scanchain said:ProfessorEd said:It is possible that if they restrict it, or shut it down, they will let the already scheduled ones go through. This would improve customer relations and avoid having complaint that people had said up payments before their big trip, and then they were not made etc. Ones who log on and find that payments are not possible, are not inconvenienced too much since they at least have notice. I think I should go ahead and schedule the next 12 months of my mortgage payment. LOL... Done. I sure hope you are right.
BTW, you can only schedule at most up to 365 days in advance. But of course you can also schedule more instances to any future date and then change the date later.
OT but I hope they will finally add OFX download for current account activities on MBNA cards, while keeping the Bill Pay Choice service on the card. Right now you can only download aftre the statement closes.
I was looking through the pamphlet for the "Bank of America WorldPoints" program and it makes mention in the small print that "Cash advances, purchases of money orders or other cash equivalents, fees, out-of-network payments through Bill Pay Choice, purchases made by or for a business purpose, and unauthorized or fraudulent transactions do not earn Points."
I think that pretty much summarizes what the end result will be, which is Bill Pay Choice staying and, most likely, existing Bank of America Power Rewards customers will gain access to Bill Pay Choice on October 23rd.
Reminder for everyone who uses MBNA's billpay function. Since they are supposed to transition to the BofA system on Monday, you may want to go in and schedule any last minute payments and print off your scheduled and completed payments in case they don't keep the billpay option. I did it this morning so I could know for sure what payments had been made and so I don't double pay a card or worse miss a payment.
I spoke with a CSR at MBNA who referred my question to someone "from that side" (BofA). She said as far as she knows everything relating to ibsnetaccess bill pay should remain intact since BofA likes their credit card model. She said she has not heard about any changes to netaccess. I specifically queried if BofA billpay on Monday will allow using their credit card to pay a credit card account (figured at this point, what have I got to lose). She did NOT say yes this feature will still be there, all she could say is she hasn't heard of any changes. What this means (reading between the lines) is that it was not specifically targeted for removal and made an issue. And maybe why no one has been able to answer our queries affirmatively. Good news? Let's hope so.
edited to be clearer, words in bold is pretty close to what I remember the CSR said verbatim.
nymgiants said:on the bofa website thorugh their online tour it does show billpay as a menu selectionYou're right. I didn't see it either. On second thought, maybe the second CSR didn't understand my question correctly or she is not very familiar with MBNA's billpay since she seemed to be "from BofA". Another point also is maybe MBNA's credit card feature will remain intact but it's billpay will not. She did say all the features of netaccess should remain intact, but we've already seen that BofA billpay is very different from MBNA. So I'm less assured she knows anything more.
The only thing I can be assured of is the part of MBNA billpay which we so love is not a poster child....
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LOL...
