ONLINE BILL PAY UPGRADE GUIDE & FAQ

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1 ONLINE BILL PAY UPGRADE GUIDE & FAQ We re excited to announce that we are upgrading our Online Bill Pay system. Our upgraded system will be available on Friday, July 14, 2017 and is designed to improve your banking experience with us. With our new Online Bill Pay system you ll be able to manage all of your bill payments with ease. What To Expect Benefits and New Features Upgrade FAQ Timing of Upgrade General Questions Mobile & Alerts ebills Timing of Payments CustomerFirst Contact Center (203)

2 Our New Online Bill Pay We re excited to announce that we are upgrading our Online Bill Pay system. Our upgraded system will be available on Friday, July 14, With our new Online Bill Pay system you ll be able to manage all of your bill payments with ease. Our new Bill Pay system will be more intuitive and designed to make it easier for you to pay bills. You will enjoy quicker payment speeds, the industry s leading ebill service, and enhanced mobile functionality. What to expect and how to prepare Bill Payment access will be temporarily unavailable while the system is being upgraded from 2:30 P.M. on Wednesday, July 12 th through 10:30 A.M. on Friday, July 14 th. Your login credentials to Online Banking will not change. There will be no interruption in your access to Online Banking during the Bill Pay upgrade. Your existing payees and recurring payments will be automatically converted to the new bill payment service. However, on or after July 14 th we highly recommend that before making payments you confirm that each payee is present, the payee s mailing address is correct, and recurring payments are correct, including the name, mailing address, account number, and amount. During the upgrade, your recurring and scheduled payments will be paid as scheduled. We recommend that bill payments to be made between July 12 th and July 17 th be set up on our current system on or before July 10 th. Any payment scheduled for delivery between July 12 th and July 17 th may be slightly delayed. The timing of when funds are deducted from your account will change. Going forward funds will always be deducted on or after the Delivery Date of your online bill payment. Existing ebills will need to be re-enrolled after July 14 th through our new Bill Pay system. If you have multiple checking accounts, verify that bill payments scheduled on or after July 14 th are being funded from the correct account. 2

3 Benefits, New Features, and How Our New Bill System is Different: Online Bill Pay now offers new and improved features and functionality which include: Enhanced ebills Full copies of every ebill are available as electronic documents or PDFs. The enrollment process is simple and you can view supported ebill details directly in the bill pay system. The ability to group like biller/payees together If you have more than six (6) payees, you can organize your biller/payees to view and pay similar bill types in groups. For example all utilities, home expenses, auto, etc. Later cut-off times Certain bill payments can be set up as late as 10:00 PM. Make recurring payments Recurring payments can be setup as needed. Flexible scheduling options include new auto payments based on ebill balances. Payment scheduling options interact with ebills You can schedule one-time and recurring automatic payments based on your monthly ebill. Schedule payment reminders and alerts Set payment reminders for a bill due date or when a payment is made. Automated ebill or user-defined reminders can be set up within the payment center. Search pre-catalogued payees Pay your bill quickly and easily with our library of payees. Rather than inputting each payee s information, you can now search for and select from a pre-catalogued list. Alerts and enhanced fraud monitoring to protect you from unauthorized payments These alerts include: Recipient Added/Modified ebill due ebill account changed Payment due/past due Payment Sent/Posted Expedited Payment sent/posted Payment failure due to NSF 3

4 Rush payment options Expedited payments are available by ACH electronic payment or by check which is delivered by overnight courier. There are additional fees associated with these rush payment services. Please see our Deposit Account Schedule of Charges applicable to your account at our Disclosures & Schedule of Charges webpage. Extended payment history available Immediately after the upgrade, 12 months of your payment history will be available. Bill Pay will store up to 24 months of bill payment history. FAQ Quick Links Timing of Changes & Impact on Existing Bill Payments General Questions System Mobile Access, Alerts, & Help ebills Scheduling & Timing of Bill Payments Overdrafts & Overdraft Fees Transaction Related Fees FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ) Timing of Upgrade & Impact on Existing Bill Payments Will Bill Pay be available during the upgrade? Bill Pay will be temporarily unavailable beginning 2:30 PM, Wednesday, July 12, 2017, through to 10:30 AM, on Friday, July 14, Will Online Banking be available to me during the upgrade? Yes. There will be no interruption in your access to Online Banking during the upgrade. What will happen to payments that I have scheduled prior to the upgrade? All payments that have already been scheduled for July 13, 2017, are expected to process normally but may be slightly delayed. Should I reschedule a payment I already have setup to be delivered on July 13, 2017? You are not required to reschedule payments setup for delivery on July 13, We are planning to make those payments as part of the upgrade. However, payments scheduled for delivery between July 12, 2017, and July 17, 2017, may experience a slight delay in their delivery to the payee. To avoid the potential of a delay in any of your payments you may wish to temporarily adjust the delivery date. 4

5 Should I stop scheduling bill payments? No. There is no need to stop scheduling bill payments. All payments should process normally through the upgrade. We recommend that bill payments be made between July 12 and July 17, be set up on our current system on or before July 10. Any payment scheduled for delivery between July 12, 2017, and July 17, 2017, may be slightly delayed. Will all of my payees and scheduled payments transfer to the new Bill Pay? Most payees and scheduled payments are expected to transfer to our new Bill Pay system, but there may also be some payees and schedule payments that cannot be transferred. Please check your payees, ensure the payee s mailing address is up-to-date, and review scheduled payments immediately after the upgrade on July 14, If any payees and/or scheduled payments fail to transfer, you will need to log in as soon as possible to setup any missing bill payments. How do I log into the new bill payment service? Your Online Banking login credentials will not change. There is no separate login for Bill Pay. You can access bill payment services by simply logging into your Online Banking as you have normally done in the past. Will I have to re-enroll in Bill Pay? You will not have to re-enroll in Bill Pay but you will need to accept the new Bill Pay Terms of Service and a revised Online Banking Agreement and Disclosure the first time you log in to Online Banking starting July 14, You can view a copy of our new Bill Pay Terms of Service and Online Banking Agreement and Disclosure at our Disclosures & Schedule of Charges webpage. Please read these very carefully as they have changed. Note that Bill Pay will not be available until 10:30 AM on July 14, Why do I have to re-enroll my ebills? With our new Bill Pay, we have made some major improvements to our ebill process. By reenrolling your ebills, you will have access to new features such as electronic PDF copies of your bills, ebill alerts and new payment options that will allow you to schedule one-time and recurring payments based on your ebill each month. Do I need any special software or hardware to use Bill Pay? No additional or special software or hardware is necessary. Will historical payee and payment information transfer to the new system? Yes. Immediately after the upgrade, you will have 12 months of payment history available to you. You may accumulate up to 24 months of bill payment history over time. 5

6 If my primary address with First County Bank is outside of the United States, will the new system allow Bill Payments to be processed? Customers that have a foreign address as their primary address with the Bank may not process payments through our new Bill Payment system. How will the upgrade impact my Quicken or QuickBooks financial software s Direct Connect/Web Connect feature? After the upgrade at 10:30 a.m., on Friday, July 14 th, you will have to deactivate and reactivate your financial software connection. Quicken users: after the upgrade, you must deactivate and then reactivate your online services. QuickBooks users: after the upgrade, you must deactivate and then reactivate your bank feeds. Where may I find instructions and additional information about the deactivate reactivate process? Intuit software guides that detail how to complete the deactivate and reactivate process specific to your financial software are available at or you may call INTUIT. During reactivation you will be prompted to enter the name of your financial institution: enter First County Bank CT. How will the deactivate reactivate process impact my financial software data files? The deactivate reactivate process is not expected to result in any data loss, however, we urge you to backup your Quicken or QuickBooks software data files before beginning the deactivate reactivate process. There is also a possibility that transactional data may be duplicated when you reactivate your online banking services. Intuit instructions to address this may be found at How will the upgrade impact my Quicken or QuickBooks software s Direct Connect/Web Connect bill payment feature? After Wednesday, July 12 th, your ability to upload bill payments and payees through your Quicken or Quickbooks software Direct Connect bill payment feature will be temporarily unavailable. You will still have the ability to access your Online Bill Pay by logging into Online Banking at Any recurring bill payments you have setup prior to July 12 th will continue to be sent regardless of the connection disruption. Please be assured that every effort is being made to restore your financial software bill payment feature as soon as possible. Further communication regarding the restoration of this feature will be provided in the coming weeks. Additional information about the impact our upgrade may have on Quicken or QuickBooks can be reviewed at: *Quicken, Intuit and Quickbooks are trademarks, service marks or registered trademarks of Intuit Inc., in the United States and other countries. 6

7 General Questions How does Bill Pay make paying bills easy? Rather than writing checks and mailing them to the same biller/payee each and every month, you establish a biller/payee list. Then, each month it's just a matter of pointing and clicking on a biller/payee, entering a date and the amount you would like to pay. You also have the option of scheduling payments or setting up recurring payments. How does Bill Pay help to protect my account from fraudulent bill payments? Every payment is evaluated to ensure that it is within your normal behavior as well as a within the normal behavior for that biller/payee. If we have any questions regarding any of your payments, the payment may be held for 48 hours while we try to contact you for verification. If we are unable to contact you, the payment may be canceled. How do I log into Bill Pay? You can access Bill Pay by simply logging into your online banking account. There is no separate login for bill payment services outside of Online Banking. Why am I receiving a message that says Online Bill Pay is not available? If you receive an error message that says Bill Pay is not available please check to make sure we have the most up to date home phone and/or address on file. You may verify this information by accessing the Service Center tab within Online Banking. If after verifying your information, you continue to receive an error message, please contact our CustomerFirst Contact Center at Telephone: (203) Why do I have to select a funding account? The first time using our Bill Pay, you will need to select a funding account when processing a payment for each biller/payee. Once repeated payments are made from the same funding account, the selected funding account will be saved for that biller/payee. How can I change the funding account I set for a specific merchant? To choose a different funding account for a specific biller/payee, simply select the new account from the Pay From drop down. What if I need to change the funding account for my recurring payments? Changing the default funding account for recurring payments is easy in our new Bill Pay. Simply select the Accounts tab and select the Move Payments link from the existing funding account. Select the new account from the Move to this Account drop down and click the Move Payments button. How can I add a new biller/payee? Click the Add a Company or Person button from within the Payment Center and select the Company Tab. You can either search for the company in the Search bar, or you can select the company from the list of major biller/payees. When adding a major biller/payee, the biller/payee information has already been identified by the Bill Pay system; therefore, all you need to do is 7

8 enter your account information for that major biller/payee. For smaller businesses or local businesses, the biller/payee information may not be readily available; therefore, you may need to enter more information about the business such as mailing address and phone number. How can I organize my list of billers/payees? To organize your list of biller/payees, select the Organize my List link from the Payment Center. This will allow you to group biller/payees together in a way that works for you. Mobile Access, Alerts, & Help May I continue to use Bill Pay through my mobile device? Yes. You may create new payees and payments, view past payment history, and see what ebills are currently due. Mobile Bill Pay is accessed through the First County Bank s official mobile app. Is it possible to set up bill payment service alerts? Yes. You may set up alerts to notify you of due dates, sent payments, posted payments, etc. What is the Payment Assistant? The Payment Assistant is a help center located on the upper right side of the Payment Center. When selected, it provides users with assistance in making bill payments based on where the user is in the process. ebills What are ebills? EBills are your regular statements delivered to you electronically by your Payee/Biller. You can choose either to have the Bill Pay pay the bills automatically (under a certain dollar amount) through ebill Auto-Pay or pay the bills according to your chosen schedule or amount. What information is required to enroll an ebill? Often, only the biller/payee name and account number are required, although some do require an additional field for validation, such as the ZIP code or phone number. Can the Bill Pay system automatically link to bills that I receive? Yes. EBills will allow you to directly connect to your complete payee billing statements electronically from eligible payee providers. How do I set up my Payee/Biller for ebills? The fastest way to create ebillers is to choose from the pre-defined list. The payees on this list capable of sending ebills are indicated by an asterisk (*). 8

9 Will I still receive a paper bill in the mail from the ebiller? You will no longer receive your paper bill. However, you can print out any bill if you would like to keep a paper copy for your records. Your bills, statements and notices are available online for six months from their arrival date; then they are archived. Is there any way to automatically link bills that I receive? Yes. Our ebill system will allow you to directly connect to your complete payee billing statements electronically from eligible payees. How do I know if a company participates in ebills? To see if a company participates in ebills, you can search at: How do I know when I have new ebills to pay? When you log on, you'll see the number of new bills, statements, and notices you've received. Also, you'll receive a reminder to notify you of new bills in your account mailbox if they have not been viewed within four days of delivery. When will I receive my ebill each month? This depends upon the payee. Most companies use their established billing cycle so you can expect to receive your ebill at approximately the same time of the month that you currently receive your paper bill. Scheduling & Timing of Bill Payments When is the money for my payments taken out of my account? Your account will be debited on or after your scheduled payment date. How does the new Bill Pay system determine whether bill payments are made electronically or by paper check? Payments will be made electronically, by corporate check or draft check based on a proprietary risk analytics engine. Most payments will be sent electronically; however, we may send payments by corporate check or draft check depending on the payee, your payment history, recent payment activity, and the amount of the payment. Each of these payment methods works a little differently: 9

10 Electronic: Funds will be withdrawn when the payee receives payment. Funds must be available in your account on that date to avoid insufficient funds fees and the reclamation of the payment from your payee. Corporate Checks: Payments sent by paper check are mailed four (4) business days prior to the scheduled due date you select. Corporate Checks are drawn on our service provider s account and the funds will be withdrawn from your account when the payee receives payment. Funds must be available in your account until the check clears to avoid insufficient funds fees or the return of the check. Draft Check: Payments sent by check are mailed (4) business days prior to the scheduled due date you select. Draft Checks are drawn on your account and will clear your account just like any check that you write from your own checkbook when the check is cashed by the payee. Funds must be available in your account until the check clears to avoid insufficient funds fees or the return of your check. Who can I pay using Bill Pay? You can pay almost any individual or business as long as they have a United States mailing address or receive mail at a Fleet Post Office (FPO) or Army Post Office (APO) address (APO - Abroad, APO - America or APO - Pacific). Please note that the following payment types are prohibited: Tax Payments, Court Ordered Payments, and Payments to Payees/Billers outside of the United States. What is the cut-off time for making payments? The cut off time for certain payments options is generally 10:00 PM, Eastern Standard Time, on a business day. This means that it is possible for an electronic payment to be scheduled on a business day for same day or next day payment (Fees apply, see our Deposit Account Schedule of Charges applicable to your account at our Disclosures & Schedule of Charges webpage). Please note that particular payees may have earlier cut-off times. May I stop a scheduled payment? Bill payments may be stopped or canceled before they are processed (5 or more business days prior to the requested due date). Once the payment has been processed, additional modifications are not possible. How far in advance can I schedule a payment? You can schedule a payment up to 364 days in advance of the payment due date. Do not forget to allow five (5) business days in between the scheduled payment date and the due date. A good example of when you might schedule a payment that far in advance could be to pay annual dues to an organization or association, or to send a birthday or anniversary check to someone. Do you guarantee that my payments will be made by the Scheduled Due Date? Yes. We provide a limited guarantee. If, through no fault of yours, your payment is not made in accordance with your instructions and as a result, your payee imposes late fees our service provider may cover any late payment charges up to $

11 In order to be eligible for the guarantee, when scheduling bill payments, you must select a Scheduled Payment Date that is no later than the actual Due Date reflected on your Biller Statement unless the Due Date falls on a non-business Day. If the actual Due Date falls on a non- Business Day, you must select a Scheduled Payment Date that is at least one (1) Business Day before the actual Due Date. Scheduled Payment Dates must be prior to any late date or grace period. You may make a claim by contacting the CustomerFirst Contact Center at (203) Are there any types of payments I cannot schedule in the Bill Payment service platform? Yes. Certain payments are prohibited from being scheduled within the system. For example, you are not permitted to schedule tax payments through the new Bill Payment service. Please view the complete list of prohibited payment types in Section 13 of the Bill Pay Terms of Service located at our Disclosures & Schedule of Charges webpage. Is there any limit on the payment amount that I can make? Yes. There are limits on the amount of a payment you can make. These limits may be adjusted from time-to-time. Overdrafts & Overdraft Fees Could a payment made through the new Bill Pay service overdraw my account? Yes. Payments are made without checking the available balance in your account. Bill Payments will now be sent regardless of whether there are funds available in your account. This could cause your account to be overdrawn which may result in Insufficient Funds Charges or Overdraft Service Charges. Sufficient funds must be available in your account when the merchant is paid. Sufficient funds must be available in your account until electronic and/or check payments are credited to the merchant in order to avoid insufficient funds/overdraft fees. Overdraft fees that you may incur include: Insufficient Funds Charges-Paid; Insufficient Funds Charges-Returned; Overdraft Service Charge; OD Protection Tran Fee; Uncollected Funds Fee. See the Bank s Deposit Account Schedule of Charges applicable to your account at our Disclosures & Schedule of Charges webpage for a description of Bank fees. Please note that when determining the available balance in your account, bill payments made through our system will not be deducted from your available balance or appear in your account history until posted and will appear as Pending Payments. The image below illustrates how Pending Payments will appear in the system. 11

12 What happens if there are not sufficient funds in my account to make a scheduled bill payment? Bill payment is made by your scheduled due date regardless of whether there are funds available in your account. If the bill payment is made and you do not have sufficient funds in your account to cover the payment along with all associated fees, two (2) attempts will be made to collect the funds from your account. You will incur additional insufficient funds fees at each failed attempt to collect the funds. If a bill payment is made and the two (2) attempts to collect the funds from your account have failed our service provider will contact the payee and attempt to reverse the payment. If the payment cannot be reversed your bill payment features within Online Banking will be frozen and our service provider will begin debt collection processes against you. Can an expedited payment fee or overnight paper check cause my account to be overdrawn? Yes. For consumer accounts, if you do not have enough money in your account to cover an expedited payment fee or overnight paper check fee when you request these optional services, your account balance will become negative and you may be assessed related overdraft fees. Please reference the WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OVERDRAFTS AND OVERDRAFT FEES section in your Checking Account Disclosure for more information. For business accounts, if you do not have enough money in your account to cover an expedited payment fee or overnight paper check fee when you request these optional services, your account balance will become negative and you may be assessed related overdraft fees. Please reference the Insufficient Funds section 3.7 in your Deposit Account Agreement for more information. 12

13 Transaction Related Fees Are there any fees for using Bill Payment Services? There is no fee for enrolling in our Bill Payment services feature. However, it is possible for you to be assessed fees related to overdrafts and/or optional services you elect to utilize. In addition, our bill payment service provider may initiate collection activities directly with you. As part of these collection activities you may be assessed a late fee equal to one and a half percent (1.50%) of any unpaid amounts plus costs of collection by our service provider if the payment cannot be debited because you have insufficient funds in your account. What do you mean by collection activities? In the event a bill payment is made and you do not have sufficient funds in your account to cover the payment along with all associated fees, our service provider will attempt to collect the funds from your account. As part of these efforts, you may receive a phone call, letter, or directly from our service provider. The letter is designed to inform you of what has occurred and may reference a company called Fiserv or CheckFree Corp. Communications may also refer to Online Bill Pay services as CheckFree Web Services. You may always contact our CustomerFirst Contact Center to inquire about the communications. We will assist you in trying to answer any questions you may have about direct communications you receive from our service provider. Is there a fee for expedited payments? Yes. If you elect to expedite the timing of a payment, you will be assessed an additional fee. The fee for same day expedited payments is $9.95 per payment. This fee is assessed whether or not the payment is made. The fee will be automatically debited from your account at the time the payment processes. This may overdraw your account and result in you being assessed insufficient funds fees in addition to any applicable fees for additional elective services. Can I overnight a paper check payment? Yes. You have the ability to overnight a paper check payment for a fee if you submit the payment request on a business day before 4:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. Overnight paper checks setup on a Friday may be delivered on Saturday. Overnight paper checks cannot be setup for delivery on Sundays or Federal holidays. Is there a fee for sending an overnight paper check payment? Yes. There is currently a fee of $30.00 for an overnight paper check payment. This fee is assessed whether or not the payment is made. The fee will be automatically debited from your account at the time the payment processes. This may overdraw your account and result in you being assessed insufficient funds fees in addition to any applicable fees for additional elective services. REVISED: