Personal Finance

Automatic Pre-authorized Payment of Full Balance on Credit Card possible?

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  • Jul 14th, 2021 8:31 am
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Automatic Pre-authorized Payment of Full Balance on Credit Card possible?

I'm trying to set up automatic pre-authorized payments of full balances from all credit cards from my chequing account.

I don't want to spend time paying them or reminders of when I need to pay a credit card bill; just want it automated.

Is this possible without sending in paper forms?
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Jan 16, 2007
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Entirely dependent on each specific credit card. Some require a form to be sent in, some can be done online. It's a process set out by each individual one.
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SKill7 wrote: I'm trying to set up automatic pre-authorized payments of full balances from all credit cards from my chequing account.

I don't want to spend time paying them or reminders of when I need to pay a credit card bill; just want it automated.

Is this possible without sending in paper forms?
I don’t see possible, only minimum is possible. Else how will the credit card issuer earn $ from the cardholder.
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Sep 14, 2012
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cgtlky wrote: I don’t see possible, only minimum is possible. Else how will the credit card issuer earn $ from the cardholder.
They also earn money based on the cardholder spending habits from the merchant. That's all they get from me (excluding my cards which carry annual fees) since I pay off my balances in full each billing cycle.

As joshnet indicated, it is dependent on the card issuer whether there is an option to pay the entire balance automatically. I know my American Express allows me to do this automatically (but I haven't opted to the service since in case of an issue/dispute, I don't want them to take the amount in dispute).
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lmcjipo wrote: They also earn money based on the cardholder spending habits from the merchant. That's all they get from me (excluding my cards which carry annual fees) since I pay off my balances in full each billing cycle.

As joshnet indicated, it is dependent on the card issuer whether there is an option to pay the entire balance automatically. I know my American Express allows me to do this automatically (but I haven't opted to the service since in case of an issue/dispute, I don't want them to take the amount in dispute).
Agree.

Paying bill is a good opportunity to review the bill
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Thanks everyone!

I've always preferred paper statements because it gives me an opportunity to review them, but I've now gone electronic due to covid.

My understanding was that the balance needs to be paid off even in the case of an unauthorized transaction/dispute, or am I wrong here?
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SKill7 wrote: Thanks everyone!

I've always preferred paper statements because it gives me an opportunity to review them, but I've now gone electronic due to covid.

My understanding was that the balance needs to be paid off even in the case of an unauthorized transaction/dispute, or am I wrong here?
With zero liability, this is not the case...except for Robbers bank!
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Impossible. How can the account knows the other CC info like account #, amount to be paid, date, etc? Sound easy but it’s not easy. Still need human inter-action. There is no incentive to offer this. FI wants to make $$$ from interest and late payments.
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Pushing it from the bank to the credit card certainly not, but having the credit card issuer pull it is certainly possible. The initlal post was phrased in a way that it could be interpreted either way, but my response is in regards to what is actually possible - that is managing it/setting it up on the credit card issuer side.
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teoconca wrote: Impossible. How can the account knows the other CC info like account #, amount to be paid, date, etc? Sound easy but it’s not easy. Still need human inter-action. There is no incentive to offer this. FI wants to make $$$ from interest and late payments.
And yet RBC and AMEX make pre-authorized payment setup of credit-cards balances online quick and easy and many others offer it as well.
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My friend tells me TD and Simplii also offer full balance pre-authorized payment on its credit card balances. Presumably, MBNA, a subsidiary of TD also offers it. Simplii is a subsidiary of CIBC, so presumably CIBC also offers it.
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SKill7 wrote: My friend tells me TD and Simplii also offer full balance pre-authorized payment on its credit card balances. Presumably, MBNA, a subsidiary of TD also offers it. Simplii is a subsidiary of CIBC, so presumably CIBC also offers it.
I think scotiabank can do it as well, but I never tried.
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Nov 22, 2012
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Here are the banks I am familiar with that allow a credit card PAP:
AMEX (setup online)
BMO (setup online)
Canadian Tire (setup online)
CIBC (must call)
MBNA (mail form with void cheque)
PCF (mail form)
Rogers Bank (email or mail form)
Scotiabank (must visit branch)
Tangerine (PAP only from a Tangerine account)
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Jan 21, 2018
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I have one credit card that is paid automatically in full each month, a TD USD Visa, actually paid from a company business USD account at a different bank (BMO) because I use it mostly for business expenses. That required a paper authorization form to set up. And it has a defect - TD always takes payment of the full amount of the monthly bill from the BMO account on the due date, even if all or part of the balance owing is already paid prior to the due date (for example a refund from a merchant, or me paying off a personal expense).

But for my other credit cards I prefer to download the monthly bill pdf, examine it, and make payment manually. I don't like pre-authorizations of any kind because I just don't trust them. I've seen lots of billing errors over the years, and I think I've gotten them all corrected eventually, but it was a bit of a fight with some of them. I wouldn't want to be in the disadvantaged position of trying to get their attention when they've already received payment automatically and don't give a crap if I object.

You also need to take a look at some of the notes that can appear on your bill every month. That's where the bank tells you about changes in interest rate or policies that may negatively affect you. If you run afoul of those changes months later, they will say it was mentioned in a note on your bill, didn't you read it? Among those policy changes lately I have seen for example one that says you now have one month maximum to report any errors on your bill or they won't be corrected.
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Scote64 wrote: ...

But for my other credit cards I prefer to download the monthly bill pdf, examine it, and make payment manually. I don't like pre-authorizations of any kind because I just don't trust them. I've seen lots of billing errors over the years, and I think I've gotten them all corrected eventually, but it was a bit of a fight with some of them. I wouldn't want to be in the disadvantaged position of trying to get their attention when they've already received payment automatically and don't give a crap if I object.

You also need to take a look at some of the notes that can appear on your bill every month. That's where the bank tells you about changes in interest rate or policies that may negatively affect you. If you run afoul of those changes months later, they will say it was mentioned in a note on your bill, didn't you read it? Among those policy changes lately I have seen for example one that says you now have one month maximum to report any errors on your bill or they won't be corrected.
Auto-payment doesn't impact any of the actions you note.
- Bill can still be checked in advance of payment and any billing errors/fraudulent charges contested. In general, you are still liable for full statement payment owing until the issuing FI agrees to any preliminary credits anyway. The fight to get an error corrected won't change whether you have autopay or not.
- Similarly, autopay doesn't mean auto-ignore on the customer's part. And, your mixing the issue of on-line statements vs autopay.
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Dec 21, 2007
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All of mine are set up to auto pay full balance. When you sign the agreement, you have the choice to have them take the minimum or the full amount owing on each month's bill.
SKill7 wrote: My friend tells me TD and Simplii also offer full balance pre-authorized payment on its credit card balances. Presumably, MBNA, a subsidiary of TD also offers it. Simplii is a subsidiary of CIBC, so presumably CIBC also offers it.
Simplii does PAP/PADs now? When I originally got their Visa I asked and they said it wasn't possible. As for MBNA, they do, but you need to call it in (or fax, but then call puts it through immediately).
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robsaw wrote: Auto-payment doesn't impact any of the actions you note.
- Bill can still be checked in advance of payment and any billing errors/fraudulent charges contested. In general, you are still liable for full statement payment owing until the issuing FI agrees to any preliminary credits anyway. The fight to get an error corrected won't change whether you have autopay or not.
- Similarly, autopay doesn't mean auto-ignore on the customer's part. And, your mixing the issue of on-line statements vs autopay.
We clearly disagree on the issue of auto-pay. We all know that autopay often means auto-ignore. It's not a certainty, but it's human nature. Come on, be honest, admit it - I'll certainly cop to paying insufficient attention to things that happen automatically sometimes, when I'm busy.

Paying closer attention means that you can report an error before the payment is taken from you, get it contested and removed if necessary, and then you are in a better position discussing it with a merchant who is being difficult.

In what way was I mixing auto-pay and online statements? They are two totally separate things. I like online statements. I much prefer them to paper. I don't like auto-pay. Auto-pay is a blanket authorization to a company to go ahead and take whatever money they want from your bank account, just let you know what it was for. Sorry, I don't trust any company that much.
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titaniumtux wrote: With zero liability, this is not the case...except for Robbers bank!
Can you clarify? I don't follow
Scote64 wrote: But for my other credit cards I prefer to download the monthly bill pdf, examine it, and make payment manually. I don't like pre-authorizations of any kind because I just don't trust them. I've seen lots of billing errors over the years, and I think I've gotten them all corrected eventually, but it was a bit of a fight with some of them. I wouldn't want to be in the disadvantaged position of trying to get their attention when they've already received payment automatically and don't give a crap if I object.

You also need to take a look at some of the notes that can appear on your bill every month. That's where the bank tells you about changes in interest rate or policies that may negatively affect you. If you run afoul of those changes months later, they will say it was mentioned in a note on your bill, didn't you read it? Among those policy changes lately I have seen for example one that says you now have one month maximum to report any errors on your bill or they won't be corrected.
This is interesting - it becomes a point of leverage to even out the playing out a bit more so it's not as favourable for the bank.

Nevertheless, the amount for the unauthorized transaction would still accrue interest over the period you don't pay. I suppose you would escalate it within the bank (and/or elsewhere - like a consumer rights agency or something...) during this period.
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Conundrum1911 wrote: Simplii does PAP/PADs now? When I originally got their Visa I asked and they said it wasn't possible. As for MBNA, they do, but you need to call it in (or fax, but then call puts it through immediately).
The Simplii VISA is set to withdraw the full amount from their Simplii chequing account, but can also be set up with other chequing accounts - all this can be done so long as it's not within 2-3 days of the bill start/end date

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