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Answers to Your Questions About
GEFCU's Online Bill Pay!
To Join:
You must have a
GEFCU checking account with a positive balance to enroll in Online Bill Pay.
Costs:
None!
So let's get started...click on the question to see the answer below.
How much does it cost?
When can I enroll?
What if I want to cancel my enrollment?
How do I sign up?
What if I don't use Home Banking? Can I still use
Online Bill Pay?
Can I use
Online Bill Pay with my regular share account or my SWIS account?
How do you know who I am?
How safe is my information?
How do I know that my enrollment is complete?
What does "confirmed" mean with the
Online Bill Pay program? How do I do that?
Who can I pay? How long does it take for my money to get there?
Can I set up my bills to pay automatically, or do I have to do this every month?
When does the money come out of my account?
What if I need help at midnight, when I am paying my bills?
What if I overdraw my account by paying a bill?
How much does it cost?
Free!
When can I
enroll?
You can enroll 24
hours a day, 7 days a week. But keep in mind that the verification
process discussed below will not be performed on weekends or
holidays.
What if I want to cancel my enrollment?
You can do so anytime, but any enrollment fees paid up to that point
are non-refundable. If you wish to cancel your Online Bill Pay registration, you need to log into the Bill Pay program and cancel your account
from inside the application. GEFCU staff cannot terminate
your Bill Pay account. Otherwise, you
will continue to be charged the monthly fee. To do so, once you are logged into your Online Bill Pay account, click
on the "My Profile" tab in the upper right. You will see a list of options down the left side of the screen.
Toward the bottom of this list is the option to "Cancel Service". Click on this radio button. You will then be asked to verify
your request by clicking on the "Cancel Service" button. Your Online Bill Pay account will be terminated.
It is very important to recognize that any "Pending" bill payments that you
have set up will be cancelled as long as the processing has not been initiated.
Any bills in process WILL be taken from your GEFCU
account.
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How do I sign
up?
It's
easy! Click the "ENROLL" button over on the right and you will
be sent to the Online Bill Pay Enrollment/Login page. (Once you have
your Online Bill Pay account set up, you will use the "Bill
Payment Login" button
to access the Online Bill Pay system.) Have your checkbook handy, as
you will be asked for information about your checking account.
REMEMBER TO ENTER ALL 10 DIGITS WHEN ASKED FOR YOUR ACCOUNT NUMBER
(include the leading zeroes and the "50" at the end).
There is a field on the screen labeled "Marketing Source Code" -- you can leave it blank.
It has no effect on your enrollment.
What if I don't use
Home Banking? Can I still use Online Bill Pay?
Yes! The two processes are separate. You can do one without the
other. Keep in mind that while you do not need to be enrolled in GEFCU's Home Banking to access
the Online Bill Pay system, you might want to consider doing so. You
cannot see your GEFCU account balances from Online Bill Pay. The enrollment
in GEFCU's Home Banking is free, and very simple
to complete. Plus, if you ever have the need to quickly access your
GEFCU account, Home Banking and/or the Audio Response system
will meet that need.
Click
here for instructions for setting up your GEFCU Home Banking access.
Can I use
Online Bill Pay with my
regular share account or my SWIS account?
Because Share and SWIS accounts are considered
by Federal regulation to be savings type accounts, and therefore NOT transaction accounts, you must have a checking
account to use Online Bill Pay.
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How do you know who I am?
Once you have enrolled in the
Online Bill Pay program,
the information you entered is verified with a consumer credit reporting agency for your security. No, this verification will NOT
affect your credit score or your credit report. If the information is not able to be verified, you can still enroll by printing and completing the
enrollment form, and sending the form to the address provided.
How safe is my information?
You have guaranteed
privacy and security - your information is protected and your payments are 100% guaranteed. Precautions taken to ensure
the security of your information include 128-bit data encryption and an automatic logout feature. Additional information can
be found in the Terms and Conditions under the FAQ section within
GEFCU's Online Bill Pay site.
How do I know that my enrollment is complete?
You will receive an email response from
gefcu@membercare.customercenter.net that your information has been received.
You will receive a second email informing you that your
Online Bill
Pay account needs to be confirmed (explained below). Follow the instructions within
that email and you are ready to go!
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What does "confirmed" mean with the
Online Bill Pay program? How do I do that?
To complete the confirmation/verification process, the
Online Bill Pay
processor will submit to your GEFCU checking account two small deposits, and a single withdrawal which is the sum of the two deposits.
The three transactions will be easily identifiable as "Bill Pay" transactions from the description.
Once you receive this email notification, log into GEFCU's Home Banking to view your account. Note the amount of the two deposits. Then,
from within Home Banking, log into the Online Bill Pay and when the first page displays, you will see the word "Unconfirmed" under the
STATUS box. Click on the "Unconfirmed" link and you will be asked to identify the deposit amounts. This accomplishes a number of things: the
Online Bill Pay program then knows it accessed the correct account, it knows that you are who you say you are, and finally, that the submission of
deposits and withdrawals to your GEFCU account are successful.
Until you Confirm your GEFCU Online Bill
Pay account, you are limited to a small dollar amount
to pay bills through the Online Bill Pay
program, so it is important that you confirm your
Online Bill Pay account
as soon as possible.
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Who can I pay? How long does it take
for my money to get there?
You can pay anyone, anywhere, anytime.
Once you have set up your "billers" (a "biller" can be anybody -
your utility company, your mortgage company, even your mother in
Hoboken), you will submit the dollar amount and the date to have the
biller paid. If your biller is a business entity already recognized
by the Online Bill Pay processor, your payment will be sent via electronic
funds transfer so that if arrives on the day you set for payment.
Electronic transfers can usually be done the day after your payment
request. If you are sending a payment to your mother in Hoboken,
more than likely your payment will be via paper check, which takes a
couple of days longer. You will know when the payment can be made at
the time you set up the payment because you can click on the
calendar icon next to the "Payment Date" field on the screen, and
the dates available for payment will show up in blue.
A WORD OF CAUTION: Do NOT set up an automated payment
for your GEFCU loan within your GEFCU
Online Bill Pay account! This will only serve to possibly delay payment. If you want to set up an automated loan payment, call us at 512-339-9812
and we will be happy to set up that automated withdrawal for you.
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Can I set up my bills to pay
automatically, or do I have to do this every month?
Schedule
payments when you want to, up to 1 year in advance. You can set up
your GEFCU Online Bill Pay account to receive
electronic bills ("ebills") in your email box from over 200
participating vendors, if you wish. You can set bills to pay
automatically every month, if your payment is always the same
amount. You can set up your account to send you
reminders that a bill is due. You can even set up your account to
send you an email when an automated payment has been made. Of
course, you can also set up a bill so that you pay it "manually",
which means you receive a bill in the mail, so you go into your
Online Bill Pay account, tell the system when you want to pay the
bill, and how much money to send.
When does the money come out of my
account?
The funds are deducted from your GEFCU
checking account on the date the
payment is due, not before.
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What if I need help at midnight, when
I am paying my bills?
24/7 customer service is available from
GEFCU's Online Bill Pay processor. Call anytime at
888-918-7605. Please call this number rather than GEFCU's office
numbers, as the toll-free number above will get you in touch with
staff knowledgeable about the Online Bill Pay program.
What if I overdraw my account when I am paying my bills?
There can be substantial costs involved. Because you control when a bill is scheduled for payment, your responsibility
for having funds in your checking account is greater. In addition to the NSF fees charged by GEFCU, the Online
Bill Pay processor charges $22.00 per item returned NSF. Your bill payment is presented twice, as is normal processing
with any financial institution. So as an example, you submit your utility bill payment of $50.00 through
GEFCU's Online Bill Pay
system and schedule the payment to be paid on the 14th of the month. The Bill Pay processor pays your utility company. BUT, when
the bill payment is sent to GEFCU from the Bill Pay processor, you have only $45.00 in your checking account. You will be charged
$22.00 by GEFCU, then $22.00 by the processor for the first presentment. The Bill Pay processor submits the bill payment to
GEFCU
a second time. Unless you have deposited funds, you will incur a second NSF charge from
GEFCU AND a second NSF from the processor!
So, for that $50 bill payment, it now costs you an additional $86.00 in NSF fees.
As you can see from this example, it is extremely important to ensure that funds are available when you pay your bills through
GEFCU's Online Bill Pay system.
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So, save the 120 minutes per month
you spend
paying bills - writing checks, adding postage, walking to the
mailbox, etc. What is your time worth? When you consider the cost of
postage, your time standing in line at the Post Office and the gas
to get there, or having to write out all those checks every month,
this is truly a bargain!
Enroll in
GEFCU's Online Bill Pay today!
For a demonstration of
GEFCU's
ONLINE BILL PAY,
click here or the DEMO
mouse on the right side of this page.
Think about all
of the time you will be saving by paying your bills all in one
place. Should you have any questions or concerns regarding your
Online Bill Pay account, please feel free to contact a
GEFCU Online
Bill Pay Services representative at 888-918-7605.
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Click
Here for a Demo
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