Online Bill Payment Service - Pacific Trust Bank

Advantages of Bill Pay

Writing checks, the high cost of postage, and trips to the post office, make paying bills the old way both inefficient and expensive. Take advantage of Pacific Trust Bank's free online Bill Payment service.

There's no cost to sign up or use our Bill Payment service. And, you can make an unlimited number of Bill Payments - for free!
All you need is a Pacific Trust Bank personal checking account, such as our totally-free Basic Checking account, and to sign-up for free HomeAccess Online Banking. You can Enroll Online, or call us at (877) 441-BANK, or enroll at any of our offices.
It's fast, easy, and free. You can make a Bill Payment today or schedule one for a date in the future. The payment amount will be deducted from your checking account, and the payment will be on its way.
And with our Bill Payment service you can pay anyone. While your gardener or similar payees will get a check via the mail, most payments to major companies are sent quickly via electronic means.

Free Online Bill Payments - just another reason why Pacific Trust Bank is the place to stash your cash!

Timely Delivery Guarantee
How to use Bill Payer
Bill Payment Tips
Frequently Asked Questions

Our optional HomeAccess Online Bill Payment feature lets you pay bills day or night right over the web. No more checks to write. No hunting for envelopes and postage. No more late-payment worries.

And this valuable and convenient service is FREE! All you need is a Pacific Trust Bank checking account and a personal computer with access to the Internet.

With our HomeAccess Bill Payment service, you're not limited to an approved list of vendor payees. You'll be able to pay anyone - even the kid who mows your lawn.

If you don’t have this handy feature, call us to sign up for it now.

Bill Payments Simplified

Paying Bills electronically is now easier than ever. You can quickly set up a new one-time or recurring payment, change or cancel a scheduled payment, and view your scheduled payments or payment history.

To make an electronic payment or to add a new payment, click the "Accounts" button, then click on the checking account you want the payment to come from, and click the "Payments" button. Click the "Setup New Payment" button, and enter the following:

Payee Information

Payee name . This is the name of the individual or company who is receiving payment.
The Address and City of the individual or company.
The State and Zip Code.
The Phone Number of the individual or company.
The Contact name is the name of the individual or contact at the company.

Add Scheduled Payment:

The Amount - in dollars and cents.
Date - the date that the payment is to be initiated (withdrawn from your account) - it defaults to today's date, but you can schedule it for a date in the future.
Frequency: On Demand - the payment will occur once or only when manually scheduled by you. If your payment is recurring (the same amount should be paid to the same payee) and should automatically be paid - choose weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or other recurring frequency. Most bill payments should be set up as On Demand.
The Description - a short explanation describing what the payment is for.
The Account Number - the account number assigned to you by the individual or company who is receiving the payment. This account number accompanies the payment to ensure that the individual or company credits the appropriate account (see Tips below).

* The Payment Frequency is used to determine how often the payment will be made. Select one of the frequencies in the drop down table when establishing a new payment or reassigning a payment. Payment Frequency values are:

On Demand - Payment will occur once or more frequently, but only when manually set up for a new payment date and amount.
Recurring - Weekly, Bi-weekly, Monthly, Bi-monthly, Quarterly, Semi-annually or Annually

Complete scheduling the payment by clicking the "Submit" button. Note: By pressing "Submit" you are actually scheduling this payment to occur as submitted, and will then get a payment confirmation notice.

To set up a recurring payment, simply enter all payment information including the frequency, and payments will be made continuously without any further intervention. You can establish new bill payments or change existing payments with drop-down list boxes.

Payments from your accounts are listed on the Payments List. All previously established and active payments will be displayed in this list. You may double click on any individual payment to change the information about currently scheduled future payments, or to set up subsequent payments to that payee.

If you delete a payment record from the Payment List, you will no longer have access to information about that payment or be able to send future payments to that payee without establishing a completely new payment record.

You can change or cancel a Scheduled Payment by clicking the "Payments" Button and clicking on the specific payment you wish to change. Up until 4:00 p.m. PST the day prior to the scheduled payment date, you can modify the payment Amount; payment Date; Frequency by selecting another frequency from the drop-down list box; Number of Remaining Payments; Description; or the Account Number that the payment is currently being made to by entering in a new one. Click the "Update Payment Information" button to complete the request. If any modifications are made to the payment after the 4 pm PST deadline it will result in no payment being sent.

To cancel a scheduled payment click the "Payments" button and click on the specific payment you wish to cancel. Then delete the existing payment amount and enter a zero. Switch the Payment Frequency to "On Demand" and delete the Next Payment Date. Click the "Update" button to complete your request.

Making your payments online couldn't be simpler, and clicking on the Help Button in HomeAccess will guide you through most Bill Payment questions you may have. Of course, you can always call our Telephone Banking Center during normal working hours at (877) 441-BANK for any additional assistance you may need.

Bill Payment Timely Delivery Guarantee

We will reimburse you for any late payment fees or penalties you are charged up to a maximum of $50.00 per scheduled payment, as a result of the failure of a Business Payee to receive a payment made through the Bill Payment Service by the bill's actual due date to the extent that Pacific Trust has not refused the transaction if we reasonably believed such refusal is necessary for security reasons, if you meet each of the following conditions:

You must properly schedule the payment to be initiated on a date at least seven (7) business days prior to the bill's actual due date. This means that you must initiate a Single Payment before 4:00 p.m. PST or PDT on a business day at least seven (7) business days prior to the bill's actual due date. For Recurring Payments, this means that you must allow additional time for months in which weekends or holidays reduce the number of business days between the recurring scheduled payment date and the bill's actual due date.

You must provide us with the correct Payee name, address, phone number and account information, and with the correct payment amount.

On the scheduled payment date your checking account must contain sufficient available funds to complete the payment.

The late payment fee or penalty, or the method of its calculation, must be published by the payee prior to the bill's actual due date.

The Payee must be a Business Payee.

Bill Payment Tips

Entering New Scheduled Bill Payments (setting up new payees). Some customers attempt to set up a new bill payment payee without also scheduling a payment to be made. Attempting to do this may result in inadvertent unwanted or multiple payments being actually transacted.

With our bill payment system, you actually schedule a payment to be made when you initially click on "New Scheduled Payment" or the "Setup New Payment" button.

Sending a Bill Payment When You Didn't Mean To - Be sure to carefully review your new Bill Payment setup information before pressing the "Submit" button. With our system, paying a bill can be too easy.

When you Schedule a New Payment, and its is set up for "On-Demand" with today's date as the scheduled payment date, the payment is immediately executed as soon as you press the "Submit" button. You then get a confirmation that the transaction has been completed. The money is immediately withdrawn from your checking account.

If you are comfortable using Bill Payer, use of On-Demand same-day payments should not present any problems. If you are new to Bill Payer, or are not sure about how you set up a Bill Payment, we recommend scheduling the payment for a few days in the future. That way, you will have time to modify or delete that payment before it is transacted.

If you inadvertently have sent a Bill Payment that you didn't want to go (you can tell this really happened, because the money will have been actually taken out of your checking account), please immediately call us at (877) 441-BANK. Once it’s been determined with a customer service representative whether the payment was sent by check or electronically, a stop payment may be placed on the issued check. Electronic payments will need to be reimbursed by the Payee.

Modifying or Deleting a Future Scheduled Payment - If you have scheduled a payment to take place on some date in the future, you can modify or delete that payment up until 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time the day prior to the scheduled payment date. For example, if you set up or schedule a payment on January 15th to occur on January 25th, you have until 4:00 p.m. PST on January 24th to either delete that payment so it will not occur, or modify that payment so that it goes out as a different amount or on a different date.

Please see the online Bill Payment Help menu for more information about modifying or deleting Bill Payments - and pay particular attention to the warning about attempting to change a scheduled Bill Payment after 4:00 p.m. PST (6:00 p.m. Central time per the Help Screen) as follows.

Note: Once a bill payment transaction is in the system, you can make changes until 6 p.m. (Pacific time) the day before the transaction date. You cannot make changes on the date the transaction is scheduled. Attempts to do so may result in additional payments taking place.

Use of "On-Demand" and Other Payment Frequencies - “On-Demand” payments are recommended for reoccurring payments with varying amounts and/or due dates. By using an “on-demand” scheduled payment you avoid having to re-enter the payee information each month; rather the “on-demand” payment record remains on your list of scheduled payments and you simply modify the necessary information [by 4 p.m. PST the day prior of the due date.] Note: If the information being modified is the Billing address, the payment will need to be deleted and a new payment set-up.

You Can Reuse On-Demand Payments - You can reuse each of your On-Demand payment records for subsequent payments to the same payee. After the payment has been completed, the payment information will remain on your account. Then, the next time you get a bill from that vendor, you can click on that Payee to modify that payment record to set up another payment to the same payee and account number (by changing to a new future date and entering the new correct payment amount).

Using Recurring Payment Frequencies - Only true recurring payments (such a car loan or rent payment, for a fixed amount that you want to happen repeatedly on a scheduled basis), should be set up with some other payment frequency such as "Monthly". Do not set the frequency to anything other than "On-Demand" unless you intend to have the payments made automatically on a scheduled basis (such as weekly, biweekly, monthly, etc.). If you use Monthly or some other recurring frequency, the number of payments must either be left blank (they will continue indefinitely) or be set to 2 or greater. If the number of payments field is given a value, the payment will expire when it reaches “0” and will need to be deleted and a new payment set-up.

Please refer to the HomeAccess on-line Help screen under "Frequency of Transfers or Payments" for more information in this regard.

Payee Name or Account Number Fields May Appear Too Small on the Schedule New Payments screens - In the current release of the new HomeAccess software, the Vendor Name and Account Number length are fixed length fields and cannot be expanded, though the next software release of bill payment is already slated to include these as expanded fields. The current version maximum field lengths are as follows:

Payee Name - 30 characters;
Address - 30 characters;
City - 20 characters;
Account No. - 17 characters.

Workaround. If necessary, you can abbreviate the vendor's name as long as it is still understandable by us to properly identify the payee. When inputting the account number, you can eliminate all spaces or dashes. If you still have problems in this regard, please call us at (877) 441-BANK.

Example: Customers who want to pay their Pacific Bell telephone bill have an account number that's apparently too long, but that's easy to rectify. The Pacific Bell account number printed on your statement is your telephone number (including area code) followed by a 3-digit number (which identifies you as the current holder of that phone number), then followed by another 3-digit number, an alpha character and some more numbers. Talking with Pacific Bell, just your phone number and the first 3-digit group of numbers that follows is all you need to identify your account number on Bill Payer. The rest is special purpose coding the phone company uses to communicate with you, but is not needed for Bill Payment to work.

Will My Bill Payment Be Made Electronically or By Check? - Virtually all "nationally-recognized" name vendors are paid electronically, plus most major local vendors. The list of EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) vendors is tens-of-thousands long, is added to daily, and impractical to provide to our customers.

The customer cannot choose which way it will go. Behind the scenes, Bill Pay will automatically route the payment to the EFT method if at all possible, based on the name and address of the payee, and the way that customer's account number with that payee was input - alpha characters in account numbers cause problems in this regard.

Pay Bills Early - Regardless of the method that the payment is actually sent - ACH or Check - we recommend that you make or schedule a payment at least 7 business days before the payment is actually due. That way, our Timely Delivery Guarantee will apply.

Bill Payment FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions -

We have gotten several questions about the Bill Payment service. Here are some responses to FAQs (Frequently Asks Questions).

What date should I schedule my payment to pay bills with the Bill Payment Service?

As it says in the HomeAccess help screens, as well as elsewhere on our web site and in our correspondence to customers, we ask our customers to pay bills early.

Pay Bills Early - Regardless of the method that the payment is actually sent - ACH or Check - we recommend that you make or schedule a payment at least 7 business days before the payment is actually due. That way, our Timely Delivery Guarantee will apply.

Per the HomeAccess Help Screens, it says:
Note: It is recommended that you set up a bill payment 5-7 days in advance of the bill due date.

How long it takes a Bill Payment to get to the payee? That depends on whether it goes electronically or by check.

Electronic payments should normally arrive at the payee's bank/payment settlement vendor about two business days following the day the money is withdrawn from the customer's account. For example, payments scheduled for Friday and sent electronically should arrive at the payee's bank on the following Tuesday, unless Monday is a holiday - then it should arrive on Wednesday. That may not be the same day that the payee's bank/settlement vendor forwards or posts those payments to the customer's account with the payee. That could take another business day or two, depending on the payee's payment processing setup.

If the payee has a problem in applying the payment (due to an incorrect account number for example), it may take a few more days for the payment to be returned by the payee.

As for check payments, the check should be placed in the US Mail about two business days following the day the money is withdrawn from the customer's account. Then it's a matter of how long the mail will take. To expedite matters and cut down on mail time, our service provider, Princeton eCom cuts and mails checks from two different locations in the US, one for the Western US and another for the Eastern US - depending on the ZIP Code of the payee.

We tested the system, sending payments to ourselves, it only took four business days from the day the funds were withdrawn for the check to arrive at our home. Again, the time it takes for the vendor to apply a payment depends on their payment processing arrangements.