We all have been there: The bills pile up and we begin to forget who and how much we owe. Star Reviews found a great way to sort out those financial nightmares through online bill pay. Our team decided to check out one of the multitude of online bill paying services on the Internet: MyCheckFree. Upon entry to this site, we liked how basic, yet resourceful it felt. We didn’t think we’d run into any fiascos during our stay. See what we encountered below.
What’s New with MyCheckFree Online Bill Pay?
- Up to $50 in late payment coverage
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Small business and individual plans
Star Reviews Favorite MyCheckFree Feature:
The best thing about MyCheckFree’s online bill paying service is its free service. You don’t have to pay anything to use MyCheckFree, although some payment methods require a fee. Other than that, the e-billers partnered with MyCheckFree cover the costs for you.
MyCheckFree Online Bill Paying Features:
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Check the status of any of your bills for the last six months
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Print copies of your online bill payments.
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Makes it easy for you to manage all of your bill paying activity through one location.
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Guarantee of up to $50 to cover late payments made through their service with no fault of your own.
About MyCheckFree:
Launched in 1981, CheckFree hosts about 25 million user accounts within its financial divisions. If you’re thinking about signing up for the service, avoid the corporate web site (Checkfreecorp.com) and instead go to MyCheckFree.com. The main website is hard to navigate, especially if you’re trying to track down information on online bill paying. You will find that CheckFree provides numerous financial services mostly to businesses and banks so that might make you feel a little more confident in their service.
Navigating the MyCheckFree website interface:
We liked how visually appealing their site was right off the bat. The MyCheckFree website interface is very straightforward and easy to use. In fact, it’s one of the most intuitive methods being used by online bill paying services. When you sign in to MyCheckFree, your e-bills are retrieved for you automatically after you create a list of payees. You just click a small box next to each bill you want to pay, enter the amount, the payment date, and select the account you want to use, and everything else is taken care of. Although similar to the system used by most online bill paying services, it seems more streamlined and even more intuitive. On the down side, you can only pay certain companies through the service.
MyCheckFree Pricing:
As mentioned above, MyCheckFree's service is free. However, you may be required to pay an extra fee by some payees if you choose to make payments by credit card or for those who need to make same-day payments. Otherwise, it is completely free to view, organize and schedule your payments in one central locale.
Customer Support:
When we were looking for answers about the service, our first stop was the dozen or so FAQ's on the web site which answered most of the questions we had. However, we were also happy they provided more personal customer support options, too: live chat, email, and phone.
Our experience with the live chat representative was pleasant. We were connected quickly and received a down-to-earth answer to our question. Unfortunately, we were disappointed by the phone and email service.
We sent an email to MyCheckFree, but after seven days of waiting for a response, we still hadn't heard anything. So we called the telephone number with our question. On the bright side, the customer service representative got on the line quickly. On the down side, he couldn't answer our question, nor did he try to redirect us to someone who could. Much to our surprise, we found the answer on our own by doing a little digging on the site the next day. This isn’t telephone customer support at its best.
Upside:
The interface is very easy to use. Provides a late payment guarantee. It’s FREE!
Downside:
Poor customer service by email and phone. Limited number of payees available.
Summary:
How can you beat a free service for online bill paying? Of course you can’t use the service to pay anyone in the United States, but if many of your payees are on the list, then this could be a great service for you. Plus, you’ll save money on postage. The user interface was very easy to use and adapt to, which is another advantage. Unfortunately, not all of MyCheckFree’s customer support was up to par.
While the live chat was great, the lack of a response by email and the inability of the customer service representative on the phone to give us an answer were troubling. Overall, though, MyCheckFree is a good online bill paying service to use as long as most of your payees are involved in the program and you don’t mind some incurred costs when using your credit card for payments. We recommend them for their usability and convenience alone. Overall, we feel this warrants them 4.5 Stars!