PayTrust
Intuit Unethical Fees, Non-Disclosure, Refuse to Close Account, Misleading Fee Statements, Dips Into Bank Account San Diego

PayTrust is an internet bill payment service offered by Intuit, the makers of TurboTax, Quickbooks and a few other financial software products. The service allows anyone with a checking or savings account to manage and pay their bills online. It works by signing up for the service, providing your bank account information and entering in biller details. You can setup reoccuring payments, pay 3rd parties, personal people, etc.

Sound like a useful service, especially if your bank does not offer online bill pay, right? Think again. My experience with this company has been downright horrible. The company not only charges a monthly service fee in addition to per-transaction fees (there are several plans available, but most follow this scheme), but they automatically deduct said fees — without authorization — from your bank account. They "schedule" these payments themselves, giving you a few days to cancel them, if you catch them in time.

Sounds nice, huh? But it gets better — not only do they dip into your bank account whenever they want, but they also will charge a $20 "NSF" fee if they fail to collect on their service fees. Such is the case with myself.

Shortly after signing up with their service, which is really just a mediocre version of what most banks offer for free, I decided to cancel. The user interface sucks and despite what they say, they don't get electronic statements from as many billers as they claim. There is also a delay in sending payments, as the company must wait for funds to clear your bank (2-3 days) BEFORE cutting any check or posting any electronic payment. With most banks, there is usually no delay.in addition, I switched banks to one that offered online billpay, making the service worthless. After examining their web site for a good 20 minutes looking for a cancel link, I finally e-mailed their support requesting my account be canceled.

I received an automated reply back and didn't hear back from the company until a few months later, alerting me that I had a pending payment. Shocked, I attempted to log in to my old "canceled" account. Not only was the account not canceled, there was a "balance owed", corresponding to several months of $2.95 service fees as well as several $20 "NSF" fees.in the time that past, my old account had closed and they were unable to collect on their fees and in turn incurred more fees.

They were honestly expecting me to pay them money for nothing. I wasn't having it. I promptly shot an e-mail to customer service, who explained their policy and reminded me I had agreed to a terms of service upon signing up, and also stated they had never received my request to cancel, and even if they had received it, due to "security" I could not cancel my account unless I called them directly.

Wait a minute. I can open an account online, but can't cancel it the same way? That really irked me. Not only were they now refusing to cancel the account, but they were stating I owed them money, and would continue to owe them money for no service at all. I also didn't remember reading anywhere about such NSF fees. I went to their web site looking for the terms of service, and it was not available anywhere [note: this has since been fixed, after I e-mailed about it, but is still par for the course for this company]. I had to actually go through a "mock" sign-up process to see the terms of service before canceling. Sure enough, there was a clause buried near the bottom of the long-winded text box. However, i can't help but think they may have added this "feature" in after I signed up — there was also a clause stating they could change the terms at any time.

I refuse to do business with a company that operates such a service. With banks offering free online bill pay and many other ways to pay (free prepaid debit cards, etc.) I'm sure paytrust has fallen on hard times and probably only time will tell when Intuit decides to let the drain out of this filthy tub.

Until then, my best advice is to avoid this company at all costs. Do not sign up for their service, or you may end up in a situation like mine. I probably used the service a few times and paid a few bills, and now that is costing me almost as much as the bills I paid. Just the mere fact they automatically schedule payments to themselves should be cause for alarm.instead, look for a bank that offers a good online bill pay feature, or pay bills using a prepaid debit card with the feature.

Company: PayTrust
Country: USA
Site: paytrust.com

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