Lead time for Bill Pay Service

When scheduling bills in Money, it is important to consider the lead time that would be required when paying online. Online bill payment services will not provide 'instant' transfer.

The actual lead time you need depends on the Financial Institution, or more specifically the Bill Payment service since you or the financial institution may be using MSN Bill Pay or CheckFree.

These will require a 1-5 day lead time, but this depends on the payee (some could be paid via a electronic funds transfer, whereas others need a check to be mailed to them).

When scheduling the first payment to any new payee, you should give at least one week's lead time to allow for additional processing.

Thanks to Mark and Bob Peel (MVP) for parts of this article