As the end of the month rolled around, Star Reviews thought it was the perfect time to find you some online bill paying services to help you organize those monthly bills. With so many options out there and without a clue on which to choose, we delved into some old-fashioned research, and came across MyEZBills. There are many subscriptions available here, so we waded through the fine print. See what we discovered below.
What’s New with MyEZBills Online Bill Pay?
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CD On-Demand available at an extra cost – keep a copy of all your transactions
Star Reviews Favorite MyEZBills Feature:
SmartBalance- Integrate and balance your online banking information with your MyEZBills account, so you’ll always know how much money you have available to pay your bills. This will keep you from having to pay any overdraft fees.
MyEZBills Online Bill Paying Features:
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Choose between two subscription levels and four pricing levels within each subscription.
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Receive all of your bills electronically, including ones usually only available on paper.
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No charge for an extra transaction if your payee sends the bill electronically.
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Email alerts and reminders to help you keep track of your bills and payments.
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Cover fees resulting from a problem or issue with the service not caused by you.
About MyEZBills Online Bill Pay:
Until mid-summer 2007, MyEZBills was a web site known as Status Factory which handled online bill paying. Besides the name change, very little about the service seemed altered by the change, except for the addition of a more professional site feel. Unlike other online bill pay services which have partnered with CheckFree or which are connected to major software development companies, MyEZBills is not affiliated with anyone or anything.
Navigating the MyEZBills Online Bill Pay Site:
If you end up at the Status Factory web site, you won't find much information about MyEZBills.com but a small link near the bottom of the page will take you to the revised site. Don't try clicking on the banner on the main page. We did that several times during the review and ended up getting an error message every time. Once you're on the MyEZBills.com web site, you won't have any trouble getting around and finding the information you need. A guided tour of the service is also available, if you should want an online demo before signing up for bill pay.
Using MyEZBills Online Bill Pay:
The MyEZBills interface for bill paying is very straightforward. You can see at a glance which bills you have received and which need to be paid. Then you have the option of utilizing links along the top of the interface, such as “Pay Bills,” to go to the next screen where you can enter an amount to pay, pick a payment date, and more. Like most of the online bill paying programs, MyEZBills is not too difficult to master after playing with it for a little while.
MyEZBills Pricing:
Pricing for MyEZBills can be quite confusing. Although two subscription levels are available – Pay Anyone Plus and Total Bill Management – you can pick from four different pricing options within each of those levels: a la carte, lite, standard, and premium. The pricing breakdown per month is outlined in the chart below:
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Pay Anyone Plus
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Total Bill Management
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A la carte
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No free transactions
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$4.95
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A la carte
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No free transactions
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$5.95
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Lite
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Up to 10 free transactions
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$6.95
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Lite
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Up to 10 free transactions
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$7.95
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Standard
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Up to 25 free transactions
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$9.95
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Standard
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Up to 25 free transactions
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$12.95
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Premium
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Up to 45 free transactions
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$16.95
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Premium
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Up to 45 free transactions
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$19.95
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The differences between the two main subscription levels is that Pay Anyone Plus does allow you to receive all of your bills electronically and does not include email reminders. However, you only pay $0.50 per extra transaction instead of $0.60 as you would with Total Bill Management. Incidentally, paying a bill and receiving a non e-bill are considered separate transactions.
Customer Support:
MyEZBills’ customer support might be fine if you’re already a user, but if you have questions before signing up, don’t expect to get help. We sent them an email and did receive a response within 24 hours. The response told us they could only help us if we used the email address under which we had opened our account. No account means no help. Interestingly, the web site claims the email support offers 24/7 customer assistance but our first automated email said we would have to wait two to four days for a response. They must have been swamped with questions!
We also tried calling their customer support number and ran into the same problem. Without an account, no one was available to answer our question and we ended up stuck in a menu loop.
The web site frequently asked questions isn’t much better. With a paltry 18 FAQ’s available on the site, you’re simply not going to find answers to every question you have about their service.
Upside:
SmartBalance feature helps you keep track of all your finances. Easy to use interface.
Downside:
Bad customer support.
Summary:
Star Reviews had high hopes for MyEZBills once it took over for the now defunct Status Factory. Sure, the user interface is easy to master, but that’s the case with most online bill paying services. They even offer most of the same features, although you may need to be a Total Bill Management subscriber to receive most of them, including email reminders which are fairly standard elsewhere. The subscription costs aren’t outrageous, but there are way too many options when it comes to pricing plans.. Why not just have two or three options to pick from instead of eight? The real problem with MyEZBills, however, is their poor customer service. By being unwilling to answer questions for potential clients, they may end up ensuring that they don’t get any new clients. Overall, we assign them 4.0 Stars!