Bill Pay and eBill FAQs

Bill Pay is a free service of Online Banking that allows you to pay your bills online. You can pay virtually anyone, anytime, anywhere in the United States with your Bank of America checking or money market account. You may also pay a limited group of merchants with your Bank of America credit card account or Home Equity Line of Credit¹ or a checking or money market account outside Bank of America. Making payments online is one of the most efficient and economical features of Online Banking. It saves you the time of writing checks, trips to the mailbox, and to other bank websites and time at the post office. It even saves you the cost of stamps. In addition, you can elect to receive eBills - electronic versions of your paper bills - from your Bank of America credit card and a large number of companies like AT&T Long Distance, Sears and Texaco. See the list of companies currently offering eBills.

EBills are electronic versions of your paper bills that you can receive through Online Banking. An eBill comes directly from the biller to your Online Banking service. In addition, a notification that you have received an eBill in your Online Banking account can be sent automatically to an e-mail address that you choose. You can view balances, transactions and other statement information in an eBill. (Each biller offers unique features associated with their eBill.) Then, you can pay it and print it - all online. See the list of companies currently offering eBills.

You can pay almost any business or individual that you currently pay by check - your phone bill, loan payments, insurance, credit cards - even your dentist or daycare center. Please note you cannot pay court-ordered payments or state and federal taxes online at this time.

There is no limit to the number of bills you can pay. The more bills you pay, the more money you save on mailing costs.

Pay To accounts are businesses or individuals to whom you are making payments. Payments you make through Bill Pay are delivered in one of three ways:

• By electronic transmission. Pay To accounts that are paid in this way receive your payment through secure electronic transmission.
• By corporate check. Pay To accounts that are paid in this way receive a check that is drawn on our account and mailed to the Pay To account address.
• By personal check. Pay To accounts that are paid in this way receive a check that is drawn on your account and mailed to the Pay To account address.

We deduct these payments from your account on the Deliver By date. In most cases we show these payments as pending at the beginning of the Deliver By date. This reduces your available balance as of the beginning of that day. However, if your payment is to a Bank of America company, we do not reduce your available balance until we post the payment, which could happen at any time on the Deliver By date.

Beginning a few days before the Deliver By date, please make sure funds in your account will cover your scheduled payment and other transactions. Keep those funds available until the payment is deducted from your account. Please refer to your account agreement for details.

When we use a personal check to make your payment, we do not deduct the amount of the payment from your account until we receive the check from the recipient. That could happen a few days or even weeks after the Deliver By date. During that time we do not display the payment as pending.

Beginning a few days before the Deliver By date, please make sure funds in your account will cover your scheduled payment and other transactions. Keep those funds available until the payment is deducted from your account. Please refer to your account agreement for details.

To start using Bill Pay, sign on to Online Banking and select the Bill Pay Center & eBills tab. You'll need copies of your bills to begin adding Pay To accounts.

Pay To accounts are the businesses and individuals you pay through the Bill Pay Center in Online Banking. You create a list of your own Pay To accounts by using the Add a Pay To Account feature. You can add Pay To accounts such as utilities, department stores, credit cards and other businesses. You can also add individual Pay To accounts such as your daycare provider, your doctor, or a relative.

A Pay From account is an account that you use to make payments from. You have a variety of options for choosing the Pay From accounts you'd like to fund payments. You can use a Bank of America checking, money market or credit card account or Home Equity Line of Credit¹. You can also link a checking or money market account outside Bank of America. This flexibility makes it convenient to pay almost all your bills without having to leave Bill Pay.

Not all Pay To accounts will accept bill payments from all Pay From accounts. For example, you can't use your Bank of America Home Equity Line of Credit to pay your Bank of America mortgage.

We recommend scheduling your payments to be processed at least five business days before the actual payment due date. Scheduling payments sufficiently in advance of the due date on the bill allows enough time for the Pay To account to receive the payment and credit it to your account.

Bill Pay is a free service of Online Banking.

EBills are only available from select companies. Refer to our list of Pay To accounts to see who's offering this service.

The number of companies offering this convenient feature is growing all the time. Refer to our list of Pay To accounts to see who's offering this service.

You can pay one or more eBills from several places within Online Banking. Unpaid eBills appear in the Incoming e-Bills area on the Bill Pay Center page and e-Bills overview page. You can also click on the e-Bills page directly to view a list of your current eBills. To pay an eBill, you simply choose the Pay From account from which you want the bill paid, enter an amount and enter the date you want the payment sent. Our handy calendar tool recommends how many days before the payment is due that you should send it.

Yes, within Online Banking you can set up a variety of alerts that serve as notifications or reminders of payment activities related to a particular Pay To account or eBill. The alert notifications are sent via email. To set up these alerts , go to the Bill Pay Center page within the Bill Pay and e-Bills tabs, select an individual Pay To account and follow the instructions for alerts. To set up these alerts for an eBill, go to the e-Bills Bill Pay Center and select the e-Bills tab, select an individual eBill and follow the instructions for alerts.