Topic: Bitrefill's new bill pay service (Read 473 times)

And it's gone:

Guess I have to go back to saving my BTC.

Seriously, it was a good service it let me spend on my CC and get points and then pay with BTC / crypto. Best of both worlds. Not to mention a lot of friends who don't have great credit were using it because they could spend to their (low) limit and then just send a crypto payment.

But, it was a good service hope they re-launch it soon.

-Dave

The issue, at least IMO, with banks / others screwing up payments is not just the money involved, it's the time you have to put in to 'make it right'
If I screw up I spend time fixing what I did wrong. If a bank screws up, I spend time dealing with the issues they created. Yes, they will 99.99% of the time cover the fees & penalties. But, I still have to deal with it.

Pushing this thread, back OT........

As of now they seem to have just about everyone I use in terms of billing except for my HOA bill. Not a big deal since the community has been changing property management companies a lot. If we don't change in 2023 I'll look into it.

Would like to have the ability to save account numbers so I don't have to put it in every time, but I understand the security implications of storing it.
Along the lines of that would like a regular bill payment option, as in have everything that you have paid in one place and just click the ones you want to pay again, but as above I understand they are now long term storing your information and they may not want to do that.

-Dave

Those were the days, with home shopping channels. Now all replaced by online orders and online payments.

And once in a while, a bank processes 3 million payments twice

Yea, that was a typo. I fixed it.

Yes, checks are still used, but are becoming less frequently used.

I think the most common error when a merchant takes out the incorrect amount would be when the customer calls the merchant, and a representative accepts payment via phone and the agent keys in an incorrect amount. These will typically be isolated incidents, and the merchant will have both records of the call itself, and the fact that the payment would be illogical according to the the status of the account. Problems with "auto pay" are very rare, and most commonly, merchants will provide a statement (usually electronically) to the customer advising of the amount to be withdrawn, so the customer can address issues and/or suspend auto pay if they are being billed for an incorrect amount.

I don't get it: did you make a typo, or are they withdrawing exactly what they should?

From what I've seen, the US banking system is decades behind compared to ours. You guys are still using checks, right? Like I said: mistakes are rare. And I'm pretty sure people would make much more mistakes if they have to pay everything manually.

If you authorize xyz company to withdraw $100 from your bank account, but they take $1000 instead, they have initiated an unauthorized transaction, and are liable for any fees you incur as a result. Often, your bank will waive/reverse any overdraft fees that resulted, but if they don't xyz company would need to reimburse you for said fees, and any other expenses you incurred as a result. Obviously, in the intrum, you will be without access to your money, which is an issue.

It probably varies per country, but here I (and most people) pay many things by direct debit. Cable/phone/road tax/energy/water/subscriptions/insurances and more. Mistakes are rare, and you can "undo" those charges within 6 or so weeks at the click of a button. It's much more convenient than paying all those recurring bills manually.

My bad I misread your post. I thought I read 120 days. 5 day wait isn't long at all. I do apologize for not making sure I understood what I read before posting.

Hours, not days.
And IMO 5 days is pushing the limit but I don't know if it's the service they are using or my CC company that just reacts a bit slower then I would like.
But, it is a nice service to have, and it eliminates the 2 middle steps in  BTC -> exchange -> Bank -> Pay bill.

-Dave

If you are paying your bills, isn't 120 a bit too long of a wait? I know a utility company isn't gonna wait 120 days for their money before disconnecting you. What specifically took 120 days to get paid if I may ask? Not asking to invade your privacy but if I was to want to use this service I would want to know what to avoid trying this service to pay to avoid the long delay.

So there was an issue with a payment that I didn't catch when it was made, I just noticed after a few days and want to look and saw that the payment had not hit.
Sent them a message and they refunded my payment to my BTC balance. Took under an hour, so A+ from them on that.

Been using the service on and off for the last 5 months or so with no issues besides this one so if you are US based and don't mind KYCing with them I fully recommend it.

-Dave

Security issue, you should NEVER allow a biller to pull from your bank. You should only initiate payments from your bank to them.
Many times banks and other businesses have made mistakes and pulled too much from peoples accounts.
As a rule since it usually only happens to a few people it does not make the news like other things, but I have seen it now and then.
I pay what I can on CC and then just pay that bill, but since I have been testing their bill pay service this was one of many bills that I was testing.

-Dave

Completely unrelated to Bitrefill, but I thought that nowadays they can just debit the bill from your bank automatically?

So been using it for a while now. Some thoughts.

1) Still can't pay my cable bill no update on that.

2) Does not store account numbers. Good in that it gives you more privacy, bad in the fact that it's a point of failure on the users part when they put in a bad account number but one that still passes the checks that they have in place.

3) I have had payments hit in as little as 48 hours (2 days) and as long as 120 (5 days) don't know if it's on their end or the the payees but if you need to pay something tomorrow this is not for you.

Still don't like the 2% fee but it is what it is.

-Dave

Hey everyone, thanks for the interest in our new bill pay service. Here's a couple responses to clear up some of the questions in this thread expressed by several of you.

For the proof of address verification, this is required for a US Bill Pay service which is why we are keeping it separate from all of our other services. You can still use everything else at Bitrefill without an account.

We do not share the information you provide with third parties as outlined in our privacy policy.

The account ID or number you submit before checkout is checked as a valid account at the vendor who receives payment before checkout.

Let us know if you have any other questions, we'll be happy to answer.

Cleaning up the post and merging some things.

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Some people want to be 100% anonymous, so this limiting their customer base. But, since some regulations probably require it there is probably no way around it.



They offer a lot, just about every car loan and credit card, tons of utilities and even HOA and mortgage payments.
Health insurance was listed as were some hospitals and other health related things.

Can even pay your taxes.

BUT some things are way to generic.
Picking on "Suffolk County Treasurer Sewer District Funds" as one of the things listed. There are at least 3 Suffolk counties that I know of in the US which one is it?

-Dave

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Both payments hit the accounts sometime overnight. So the 3 business days they say does look to be accurate. They did not show on the accounts till this morning when I looked BUT they are dated yesterday. Going to send out another 2 small payments later today and will report when they hit.

-Dave

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So other 2 payments hit. So the service does work with no issues. So it looks like a good service. Thumbs up from me :-)
Got a generic how is it going email from someone at bitrefill and I replied. They answered VERY PROMPTLY about me not being able to pay the cable bill (looking into it) and on the needing of ID.

On the ID:


He knows about this thread. So hopefully if there are any questions / issues that are raised here there will be a response.
Glad to see a service that actually listens to their customers and responds to things.

-Dave

It is possible that bitrefill will contact the company you are paying, and will provide the account number along with your identity information, and ask if the identity information matches the account holder. I am not able to see any of the companies that bitrefill offers this service for, however, it does appear they will only pay certain bills, which is unlike most bank's bill pay service when if a particular company is not listed, you can have the bank send a check to a particular address payable to a particular company.

Their FAQ page does say that they will verify with the payee that the account information is valid before allowing you to pay the bill.

Hello

I was surprised to see this as I have used bitrefill and I am not aware of anything similar in Europe. I have searched and it seems to me that it is only available in the United States.

Anyway, I don't quite understand why you are worried about them asking for your driving license to pay your bills. Is it because you have been asked a second time? Did I understand correctly?

I have used bitrefill pretty much anonymously, but if I wanted to pay my house bills, then I guess it's like paying them through the bank, they know who I am.

They only ask for the account number and the amount you want to pay.
So if I WAS paying other peoples bills they would have no way of knowing unless whoever I was paying was giving them that info back.
I am guessing that in case someone comes looking for something they have a record.

As I have said in other places my privacy is blown anyhow, and they already had a ton of my info from when there was an issue with something else.^*

-Dave

^*Not bitrefill's fault at all but they needed to get some info to figure out what happened. I could have just taken a refund but wanted to know what caused it.

I tried to access their bill pay service, and it appears they want me to join a waitlist. So it might not be open to everyone yet.

I think the ID verification is to ensure that you are paying your own bills, and not someone else's. If they are allowing customers to pay other people's bills, they could potentially be "transmitting" money, which opens them up to additional regulation (and would probably require them to collect ID information anyway).

I agree that 2% is probably a bit high. If I was going to use crypto to pay bills, I may as well sell it on an exchange and withdraw to my bank account.

So Bitrefill is rolling out their US bill pay.
https://www.bitrefill.com/buy/bill
And since you asked @o_e_l_e_o here is another trigger warning :-)

Seriously, they want a drivers license / ID and live selfie and a bill with an address that matches your ID and a phone number.

Since for other reasons, outside of the selfie they already had that info and I figured I could be the tester for all of you I did it.

the 2% fee seems high to me but it seems to be what is out there for other non crypto bill pay services.
You can't do multiple bills at the same time you enter the info and pay then enter the next and pay.

Did 2 small payments to credit cards. If those work I will move to mortgage and some other stuff.
Could not pay my cable bill, kept giving an invalid account number.

Will update as I do more.

-Dave