Cash Management - Bill Pay (and paper checks)

Hi Tim,

I have used the routing number and account numbers on a few accounts, a few different times, to pay utilities and mortgage payments. So they do work. I have also used the physical debit cards and the virtual debit cards, with no problems.

As far as the tenant payments, I’m not sure how it looks on the tenant side, but I get an email as soon as my tenant pays and I see it in the transaction list, as a greyed out “Pending” transaction. It does take a few days to clear (2-3, which is typical, in my experience, for this kind of free service) but once it clears the pending transaction updates and it shows up in the account balance, attached to the correct account and property.

I hope this helps!

I wouldn’t say your money is trapped, you can transfer it out (for free) to another bank that has bill pay, if you wanted to do that. Or if any utility or mortgage you are paying can do ACH transfers, then you can give them the routing/account number to pay from the cash management account. I still think they need a full bill pay feature, but this has gotten me by on a few bills so far, for now.

please make paper checks available.

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We really need bill pay if cash management accounts for cash management accounts to be worth it.

Not having the ability for the bank to mail out a check is problematic, what about the ability to deposit checks

When is bill pay coming? This is essential to run my properties. The Stessa software wants to keep track on income and expenses; how can they not allow expenses to be paid out the the rent collected?

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A main bank account with all the features you need is essential right now. I use PNC for automatic checks, ATM service, cash deposits and am only using Stessa for high interest “savings” account, escrow accounts, and throwaway external transfer account I give all my tenants to pay rent.

When the account interest goes away, there’s no reason to have cash management tbh. Some serious functionality is needed to make it usable.

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For now I am using this as a reserve account. Am pretty disappointed that I am unable to use a bill pay form it. Not having that ability is a serious limitation. In the mean time I am making do and will, from time to time, eat the wire transfer fee after my reserve account gets large.

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Agree with the we need bill pay and checks!!

How is everyone refunding their Tenant’s security deposits? My small bank business account doesnt link to Stessa for ach transfer… ??? Thanks for your help!

I just printed checks with a check company, they work fine. Not automated, but does the job.

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I support this request!! I did hear that they are working on a bill payment feature. Hopefully this will be something that the Pro Membership can offer! It’s features like this that would make the Pro Membership invaluable and most definitely worth the expense!

Agree, I’ve requested this via support and just want to chime in. Billpay is necessary for us to pay the gardener, city, and a few others that don’t accept electronic payment.

I would like to add that in addition to Bill Pay I think it would be more beneficial to have Zelle electronic payments added. We haven’t used a papercheck in a few years and more and more vendors are fine being paid with electronic payment service. I haven’t tried, maybe we can just link Venmo and that’ll take care of it.

Have you used any of these checks successfully? I heard that they are declined when you try to use them. Is that true?

I did the same thing in an effort to get my money out more easily (ordered paper checks with the routing and account numbers). The check was returned with insufficient funds (even though there were funds). I received an email from Stessa telling me that the bank does not allow paper checks to be used on these accounts. It’s very frustrating to have your money “in jail” like this. The only good option is to get it out with wires (expensive) or with daily $1500 transfers (time consuming). Not good!

Yes, they get declined. I know first hand.

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Yeah!

I have sooo many useless checks now.

Hopefully they change to allow for it. I’d manage everything through Stessa if they did, but now I don’t use it at all.

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Shoot. wish I had seen this before I ordered those checks lol

This is my vote to add bill pay and/or physical checks!

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Yes, please add bill pay and check writing ability. I pay a lot of vendors via credit card, but some only accept checks. I am considering switching over from a mainstream bank, but until bill pay and check writing are available, it’s not worth switching, even with the tempting 4.55% APY on the Pro account.

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Still waiting on this as well. Support told me last year that it was in the works but no change. Bill pay and/or ACH pay is what is keeping us from moving our funds to this account.

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